Kaiako and stakeholders’ perceptions about Māori partial-immersion environments' contribution to Māori-medium education

Abstract

The contributions partial-immersion Māori programmes offer to the wider educational landscape of Aotearoa is essential to Māori achieving as Māori. In this article, partial-immersion settings are defined as Level 2 immersion (51%–80% te reo Māori instruction) and Level 3 immersion (31%–50% te reo Māori instruction). While lower levels of immersion can be less effective for language acquisition than full-immersion Māori environments (May et al., 2004), this study finds that partial-immersion programmes are perceived to produce beneficial outcomes in terms of ahurea tuakiri and culturally empowering practice.