Kaupapa Māori,Philosophy and Schools

Abstract

Goals for adding philosophy to the school curriculum centre on the perceived need to improve the general quality of critical thinking found in society. School philosophy also provides a means for asking questions of value and purpose about curriculum content across and between subjects, and, furthermore, it affirms the capability of children to think philosophically. Two main routes suggested are the introduction of philosophy as a subject, and processes of facilitating philosophical discussions as a way of establishing classroom ‘communities of inquiry’. This article analyses the place of philosophy in the school curriculum, drawing on three relevant examples of school curriculum reform: social studies, philosophy of science and Kura Kaupapa Māori.     

Exploring the Role of Identity in Māori Heritage Language Learner Motivations

Substantially less is known about the motivations of indigenous heritage language learners than the motivations of learners of colonial languages. This study explores the motivations of Māori indigenous New Zealanders and the identity-related motivations they have for learning their heritage language. Interviews with 19 Māori language learners revealed that identity was a central motivation for both initiating the task of language learning and sustaining the behaviour. Rather than applying intrinsic/extrinsic dichotomies to understand Māori motivations, a relational framework was articulated. Māori, who are described as relationally oriented, were commonly motivated to learn the language as a means of building relationships with others in their cultural ingroup. There were also expectations that Māori were able to perform cultural roles using the language. This study confirmed that the pressures on indigenous learners to maintain a language for cultural continuation are quite separate from the motivations of learners of colonial languages.     

“If We Lose Their Language We Lose Our History”: Knowledge and Disposition in Māori Language Acquisition Policy

Localising knowledge and dispositions helps to predict the likely success of top-down language policies. In so far as language acquisition is a pillar of language revitalisation policy, then community perspectives on learning a minority language deserve attention. This article presents the knowledge, dispositions, and ideas of around 1,300 indigenous and non-indigenous university students in New Zealand about learning te reo Māori as public policy. The article analyses the students’ level of agreement to a series of propositions about language acquisition policy, and the epistemic and dispositional stances they took in their free-text commentary to describe the rationale for learning te reo Māori, how and where acquisition occurs, who should learn the language and to what extent, what policy should deliver, and what policy changes are needed. The article concludes that the knowledge and dispositions of the students are at odds with government policy and traditional tenets of language revitalisation theory.     

Equity in New Zealand university graduate outcomes: Māori and Pacific graduates

Higher education confers significant private and social benefits. Māori and Pacific peoples are under-represented within New Zealand universities and have poorer labour market outcomes (e.g., lower wages, under-represented in skilled professions). A New Zealand tertiary education priority is to boost Māori and Pacific success in an effort to improve outcomes for these graduates, their communities and society in general. Using information collected in the Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand, we compared Māori and Pacific university graduate outcomes with outcomes of other New Zealand graduates. Data were collected when the participants were in their final year of study (n?=?8719) and two years post-graduation (n?=?6104). Employment outcomes were comparable between Māori, Pacific and other New Zealand graduates at two years post-graduation; however, Māori and Pacific graduates had significantly higher student debt burden and financial strain over time. They were significantly more likely to help others (e.g., family) across a range of situations (e.g., lending money), and reported higher levels of volunteerism compared to their counterparts. Boosting higher education success for Māori and Pacific students has the potential to reduce ethnic inequalities in New Zealand labour market outcomes and may result in significant private benefits for these graduates and social benefits as a result of their contribution to society.     

Māori university graduates: indigenous participation in higher education

Māori, the indigenous population of New Zealand, are gaining university qualifications in greater numbers. This article describes the history of Māori university graduates, their current situation and the implications for indigenous futures. Section one provides a brief overview of historical policies and practices that, similar to those used on other indigenous populations, resulted in the widespread exclusion of Māori from university education until the 1970s and 1980s. Section two describes findings for Māori university graduates (n?=?626) from the Graduate Longitudinal Study New Zealand (GLSNZ). Results show that nearly half (48.4%) were the first member of their immediate family to attend university. Humanities/education (50.8%) was the most common domain of study followed by commerce (17.7%), science/engineering (15.4%), health sciences (10.9%), law (2.8%) and PhD study (2.4%). More Māori graduates were females (71%). One-third of graduates were parents, and being a parent was associated with a lower likelihood of studying science and engineering compared to those participants without children. The most common areas/fields that participants wished to work in post-graduation were education and training (28.3%), health care and medical (17.4%) and government (11.8%). Despite increases in higher education participation and completion, parity remains an issue. Similar to previous indigenous research findings, Māori are under-represented as graduates (7.1% of the total sample) and in particular as postgraduates (5.8%) considering that Māori constitute 14.9% of the New Zealand population. Contemporary indigenous graduates are critical for indigenous development. Over the next 10 years, the GLSNZ will follow graduates and provide insights into Māori graduate outcomes.     

Supervising research in Māori cultural contexts: a decolonizing,relational response

We have collaborated for 25 years as indigenous Māori and non-Māori researchers undertaking research with Māori families, their schools and communities. We have endeavored to meet our responsibilities to the Māori people (indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand) and communities with whom we have researched, as well as meet the requirements and responsibilities of our academic institutions. In this paper, we reflect on the implications of these responsibilities for our work as supervisors of master’s and doctoral students (Māori and non-Māori) who seek to draw on decolonizing methodologies as they undertake research in Māori cultural contexts. We draw on the experiences and interactions we have had with four different postgraduate students whose research on improving educational outcomes for Māori students has required them to engage and participate in Māori cultural contexts.     

Māori science education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract    This article reports on the first two phases of a multiphase science education development project in predominantly Māori kura (school communities) in the central region of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. The development project in its entirety employs an action research methodology and by so doing endeavors to support the improvement of science education delivery in accordance with school community aspirations. The full project (a) establishes the current situation in Year 1–8 science education in the communities; (b) identifies developmental aspirations for stakeholders within the communities and identifies potential contributors and constraints to these aspirations; (c) implements mechanisms for achieving identified aspirations; and finally; (d) evaluates the effectiveness of such mechanisms. In its focus on the first two phases, this article incorporates the analytical lenses of Kaupapa Māori Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model. It concludes by outlining some priorities to consider for science education development based on the outcomes of our preliminary discussions.

āwhina: a programme for Māori and Pacific tertiary science graduate and postgraduate success

In New Zealand, Māori (indigenous New Zealanders) and Pacific students tend not to attain the same levels of educational success as Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent). Addressing this problem is a particular challenge in the sciences. The kaupapa (values-base) of Te Rōpū Āwhina (Āwhina) is to produce Māori and Pacific professionals to contribute to Māori and Pacific development and leadership through the creation of an inclusive off- and on-campus whānau (extended family) environment where high expectations, aspirations and achievement, collective success, and reciprocity are normalised. This paper reviews theories and practices of recruitment and retention relevant to Māori and Pacific students at tertiary level, presents the rationale for Āwhina in the Faculties of Science and Architecture and Design at Victoria University of Wellington, and assesses the impact of the whānau. Based on analyses of quantitative measures of student achievement, and biennial surveys of student responses from the first 6 years of Āwhina, it is suggested that the results are consistent with improving Māori and Pacific graduate and postgraduate achievement and retention. Potential implications for efforts to reduce disparities in tertiary education in New Zealand and elsewhere are summarised.     

“Until I Became a Professional,I Was Not,Consciously, Indigenous”: One Intercultural Bilingual Educator’s Trajectory in Indigenous Language Revitalization

Drawing from long-term ethnographic research in the Andes, this paper examines one Quechua-speaking Indigenous bilingual educator’s trajectory as she traversed (and traverses) from rural highland communities of southern Peru through development as teacher, teacher educator, researcher, and advocate for Indigenous identity and language revitalization across urban, periurban, and rural spaces. Neri Mamani grew up in highland Peru and at the time I met her in 2005 was a bilingual intercultural education practitioner enrolled in master’s studies at the Program for Professional Development in Bilingual Intercultural Education for the Andean Region (PROEIB-Andes) at the University of San Simón in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Drawing from my ethnographic research at PROEIB that year, situated also within a broader context of my ethnographic research on bilingual education in the Andes across several decades and Neri’s life trajectory across those same decades, this paper analyzes her narrative as it emerged in a 4-hour interview with me. I argue that Neri and her peers’ recognizing, valorizing, and studying the multiple and mobile linguistic, cultural, and intercultural resources at play in their own and others’ professional practices around bilingual intercultural education enable them to co-construct an Indigenous identity that challenges deep-seated social inequalities in their Andean world.     

‘We are family’: Māori success in foundation programmes

This paper considers the question: What constitutes an optimal learning environment for Māori learners in foundation programmes? Using Kaupapa Māori methodology, nearly 100 adult Māori (Indigenous) students in Aotearoa/New Zealand were interviewed from a range of tertiary providers of foundation programmes. State-funded foundation programmes that scaffold adults into tertiary education are a partial response to Ministry of Education concerns about unsatisfactory high school statistics for some sections of the community. Connecting with Māori voices enabled the researchers to gain a deeper awareness of the reality of study experiences for these adult learners. It is argued that academic participation and success for adult Māori learners is increased when the learning and teaching environment mirrors the connectedness and belonging of a whānau (family) environment.     

Te Kotahitanga: Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand

The major challenges facing education in New Zealand today are the continuing social, economic and political disparities within our nation, primarily between the descendants of the European colonisers and the Indigenous Māori people. These disparities are also reflected in educational outcomes. In this paper, an Indigenous Māori Peoples' solution to the problems of educational disparities is detailed. Te Kotahitanga is a research and professional development project that seeks to improve the educational achievement of Māori students in mainstream secondary schools. Students ‘voices’ were used to inform the development of the project in a variety of ways: firstly to identify various discursive positions related to Māori student learning; secondly, to develop professional development activities, and thirdly, to create an Effective Teaching Profile. The paper concludes by identifying how implementing the Effective Teaching Profile addresses educational disparities.     

Māori in the Kingdom of the Gaze: Subjects or critics?

For Māori, a real opportunity exists to flesh out some terms and concepts that Western thinkers have adopted and that precede disciplines but necessarily inform them. In this article, we are intent on describing one of these precursory phenomena—Foucault’s Gaze—within a framework that accords with a Māori philosophical framework. Our discussion is focused on the potential and limits of colonised thinking, which has huge implications for such disciplines as education, among others. We have placed Foucault’s Gaze alongside a Māori metaphysics and have speculated on the Gaze’s surveillant/expectant strategies with some key Māori primordial phenomena in mind, such as ‘te kore’ (nothingness) and ‘āhua’ (form). We posit the Gaze as an entity and thus aim to render it more relevant to Māori, so that it can be addressed appropriately. We also (but relatedly) preface that discussion by theorising on some of the challenges that confront us as Māori authors in even referring counter-colonially to the Gaze. Whilst we do not seek to destabilise the Gaze by positing it as a metaphysically based entity, we do hint at the possibility that critical indigenous philosophy may even for a short time bring the Gaze into focus for Māori. By introducing an awareness of an alternative (Māori) metaphysics, we may have unsettled the self-certainty of the Gaze.     

Navigating between Māori particularism and economic universalism in adult literacy provision in Aotearoa New Zealand: the case of a Wānanga

This paper examines tensions between adult literacy policy in Aotearoa New Zealand and the philosophies and mission of one post-school institution, a Wānanga, an institution focused on the education of Māori, Aotearoa New Zealand's indigenous people. It uses policy documents, interview data and complexity thinking to explore the tensions created by a Wānanga's task to navigate between Māori particularism and economic universalism.     

Looking back to the future: Māori and Pakeha mother-child birth stories.

Māori adults have earlier first memories than adults in any culture studied to date. To test the role of early memory socialization in this advantage, Māori (n= 15) and New Zealand European (or Pakeha, n= 17) mothers told birth stories and stories of shared past events to their children (3-4 or 7-8 years). Compared to Pakeha mothers, Māori mothers elaborated more in the birth stories, relative to their elaborations in stories about shared past events, and included more references to relational time and internal states in their birth stories. These data provide the first empirical evidence that Māori children experience a richer narrative environment than Pakeha children for significant events in their past.     

Mäori in the Science Curriculum: Developments and possibilities

The aim of this paper is to examine the current state of development of Mäori science curriculum policy, and the roles that various discourses have played in shaping these developments. These discussions provide a background for suggestions about a possible future direction, and the presentation of a new concept for Mäori science education (note that in this paper this phrase refers to science that incorporates Mäori language and/or knowledge, rather than Mäori participation in science education).     

Equity for Māori and Pasifika Students: The Objectives and Characteristics of Equity Committees in a New Zealand University

Approaches to achieving and managing equity for Māori ¹ 1. Indigenous people of Aotearoa/New Zealand. and Pasifika ² 2. Used collectively to refer to the people or students from the islands of the Pacific who have identified as coming from, or having their ethnicity originate from, there; used in Statistics New Zealand Census reports. tertiary students differ among the eight universities in Aotearoa ³ 3. Māori word for New Zealand. /New Zealand. Achieving equity in educational attainment for Māori and Pasifika tertiary students is stated as a key objective in nearly all of the universities’ mission statements or charters, and equity committees have been set up to ensure equitable outcomes. These committees are generally made up of junior academic or administrative staff members. In contrast, managing the university's equity plan is the role of those in senior academic positions within the university. This article investigates the perspectives of six equity leaders at an urban university in one of the country's largest cities on the objectives and characteristics of equity committees and the influence of the dominant paradigm in achieving equity.     

The gown and the korowai: Māori doctoral students and the spatial organisation of academic knowledge

This paper draws on 38 student interviews carried out in the course of the team research project ‘Teaching and Learning in the Supervision of Māori Doctoral Students’. Māori doctoral thesis work takes place in the intersections between the Māori (tribal) world of identifications and obligations, the organisational and epistemological configurations of academia and the bureaucratic requirements of funding or employing bureaucracies. To explore how students accommodate cultural, academic and bureaucratic demands, we develop analytical tools combining three intellectual traditions: Māori educational theory, Bernstein’s sociology of the academy and Lefebvre’s conceptual trilogy of perceived, conceived and lived space. The paper falls into six parts. Section 1 is an overview of the research and is followed in Section 2 by identification of intersecting ‘locations’ in which Māori students’ theses are produced. In Section 3, Henri Lefebvre’s spatial analysis highlights connections between students’ multiple allegiances and affinities. Drawing on Bernstein, Section 4 relates the theses to the organisation of ‘Western’ academic disciplines. Section 5 addresses students’ cultural locations beyond the reach of ‘Western’ disciplines. We conclude with implications for supervision.     

Negotiating Sociolinguistic Borderlands—Native Youth Language Practices in Space,Time, and Place

Drawing on the work of Philip Deloria (2004) and recent explorations of “American Indian languages in unexpected places” (Webster & Peterson, 2011a), this article challenges received expectations of Native American languages and language users as “rural” and physically distant and of “urban” Indigenous language practices as anomalous. With a focus on Native American youth, I develop the notion of sociolinguistic borderlands—spatial, temporal, and ideological spaces of sociolinguistic hybridity and diversity—as a lens into the grounded realities of language in the lives of contemporary Native youth. The article first contextualizes the current situation of Native American languages and language users within dynamic linguistic ecologies, then presents 4 ethnographic vignettes that illustrate the ways in which youth use their knowledge and claims to heritage languages to negotiate, cross, and occupy sociolinguistic borderlands. I conclude by suggesting the ways in which language planners and educators can reorganize received expectations about youth language practices and ideologies, thereby opening new possibilities for Indigenous language reclamation and youth self-empowerment.     

Educational Transfers in Postcolonial Contexts: Preliminary Results From Comparative Research on Workers’ Faculties in Vietnam,Cuba, and Mozambique

Worker’s Faculties, which have been widespread in the Soviet Union up until 1941, combined the two goals of preparing adult workers and peasants for university entrance through the provision of general education, as well as creating a new socialist intelligentsia from among these groups. After World War II, Workers’ Faculties were also established in postcolonial countries. Based on case studies in Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique, we argue that corresponding transfer processes were largely driven by local actors in the respective countries and that these institutions were regarded as suitable instruments in solving problems particular to postcolonial contexts.