NCEA Level 1 Social Studies 91040 — Conduct a Social Inquiry

Standard 91040 is worth 4 credits at NCEA Level 1 and is internally assessed across the school year (no external exam). It sits in the pre-2024 Level 1 Social Studies matrix as the foundational inquiry standard, alongside 91039/91041 (externals on cultural change) and 91042/91043 (other internals on social justice action). Most Year 11 Social Studies teachers front-load 91040 in Term 1 because the inquiry skills it builds — sourcing, multiple perspectives, ethical research — are reused across the rest of the Level 1 programme.

Based on the 2023 cohort, the pass rate (Achieved + Merit + Excellence) was 81.8% across 1,656 candidates. Merit + Excellence combined was 48.4%. Pass rates for 91040 have been remarkably stable over the published history (2017–2023), sitting in the high 70s to low 80s nationally (roughly 77–84% range) — Social Studies is a relatively self-selecting cohort and the inquiry topic is student-chosen, which lifts the floor. The more useful benchmark for moderation is the Excellence rate, which has historically sat around 25–30% — anything significantly below that for your class is worth investigating.

The strongest 91040 inquiries are tightly focused on a real, contested social issue where students can genuinely gather primary data and find contrasting perspectives — local body decisions (e.g. a council vote on housing or transport), school-community issues (uniform policy, smartphone bans, plastic waste), Te Tiriti and te ao Māori issues (e.g. te reo signage, iwi consultation on a development), or contemporary national debates (Pay Equity, climate adaptation, immigration). Avoid abstract global issues where students can only paraphrase secondary sources — the standard rewards primary research and genuine contrasting views, both of which are easier on a local-scale issue.

Plan for roughly 5–6 weeks of timetabled lessons. The standard is internally assessed so you control the pacing — most departments run 1 week of ethical research framework and inquiry-question scaffolding, 2 weeks of guided primary and secondary data gathering, 1–2 weeks of perspectives and social action analysis, then 1 week of written write-up and submission. Avoid compressing it into less than 4 weeks: Year 11 students need at least one feedback cycle on a draft before submission to lift the Achieved cohort towards Merit, and the ethical framework requires real consent gathering for any interviews or surveys that cannot be rushed.

Students presenting only sympathetic perspectives on their chosen issue — for example, an inquiry into a school plastic ban that only quotes students and teachers who support the ban, with no genuine engagement with anyone who opposes it. The fix is explicit scaffolding: every inquiry must include at least one perspective the student themselves disagrees with, and the analysis paragraph must follow a three-step pattern — name the perspective, give a specific source or quote, then explain why that group genuinely holds that view (not why they are wrong). Build a single shared exemplar in week 1 and refer back to it every lesson.

91040 is being progressively replaced by two new-matrix Level 1 Social Studies standards: 92048 (demonstrate understanding of findings of a social inquiry, 5 credits internal) and 92051 (describe a social action undertaken to support or challenge a system, 5 credits internal). The new standards split the inquiry process and the social action component into separate assessments, and shift the emphasis from conducting an inquiry to understanding and applying inquiry findings. Many schools are still running 91040 during the transition because it allows a single integrated inquiry assessment that is well-understood by departments — check your school's chosen pathway with your HoD before locking in a unit plan.

91040 is a strong vehicle for embedding te ao Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi authentically because the choice of inquiry focus, sources, perspectives and social actions is student- and teacher-led. The strongest 91040 units explicitly include Māori perspectives on the chosen issue as one of the required perspectives — not as a bolt-on but as a genuinely investigated viewpoint — and engage with mana whenua or local iwi where the inquiry touches whenua, taonga, or community decisions. The ethical research framework also maps directly to tikanga concepts like manaakitanga and whakapapa of information, which gives a natural scaffold for students to reflect on how they gather and use community knowledge.

NZQA publishes annotated student exemplars for 91040 at nzqa.govt.nz under 'View standard 91040 → Internal Assessment Resources & Exemplars'. The Achieved, Merit and Excellence exemplars side by side are particularly useful for calibrating the boundary between Merit and Excellence, which examiners report is the hardest call in 91040 because students often have strong information gathering but weak perspective explanation. Also check the New Zealand Association of Social Studies Educators (NZASSE) and the Te Poutāhū Curriculum Centre for community-shared exemplars and moderated samples, especially for inquiries embedding te ao Māori perspectives.