The co-opting of hauora into curricula

Abstract

Introduction Tensions and contradictions are inevitable when epistemological concepts are imported from one language and cultural context into another with an expectation of developing a common meaning. These tensions have been overlooked when discussing hauora within health and physical education curricula, leading to a lack of appreciation of the unlimited ways in which hauora can be understood. Potential problems that have an impact on the language, philosophy and content knowledge in health and physical education curricula need to be examined from an in-depth epistemological viewpoint if tensions are to be avoided. Etymological relevance and potential are underestimated and compromised in the translation and evolution of current understandings of hauora. This article briefly sets to address this concern. Background The development of The New Zealand Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Education, 1993), and its literal translation, Te Anga Marautanga o Aotearoa (Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga, 1993), provided an opportunity to develop curricula in the English and the languages. Within The New Zealand Curriculum Framework, subjects and disciplines were organised into seven learning areas. Health education, physical education and aspects of home economics were integrated and renamed Health and Physical Wellbeing, Hauora (Ministry of Education, 1993); in the document this learning area was called Hauora, Health and Physical Wellbeing. Subsequently these learning areas were developed into two national curricula: one for English-medium education and the other for Maorimedium1 schools in New Zealand. These curriculum policy documents were respectively called Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum (HPENZC; Ministry of Education, 1999) and Hauora i Roto i te Marautanga o Aotearoa: He Tauira (Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga, 2000). HPENZC was mandated as an official curriculum policy document for New Zealand schools. The curriculum document Hauora i Roto i te Marautanga o Aotearoa: He Tauira remained in draft form and was never mandated as official curriculum policy (Goulton, 2004). The opportunity for a second round of Maori-medium curriculum development was celebrated with the launch of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa2 (Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga, 2008). Te Marautanga o Aotearoa subsumed eight distinct stand-alone Maori-medium essential learning areas into one curriculum. Within Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, the official curriculum statement of policy for teaching and learning in Maori-medium education, Hauora was identified as the equivalent learning area to Health and Physical Education (Ministry of Education, 1999, 2007). Hauora as the title of the essential learning area Health and Physical Wellbeing The integration of language, knowledge and culture into New Zealand curricula has involved an attempt to recognise the importance of valuing New Zealand's bicultural heritage (Department of Education, 1984; Ministry of Education, 1993; Smith, 1997; Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga, 1993). Titles within The New Zealand Curriculum Framework and Te Anga Marautanga o Aotearoa were in English and Maori. The integration of and English words, as in the titles of the essential learning areas Health and Physical Wellbeing, Hauora and Hauora, Health and Physical Wellbeing, was celebrated as an opportunity for biculturalism within curricula. The translation of The New Zealand Curriculum Framework was contracted to Te Taura Whiri i te Reo (The Language Commission) by the Ministry of Education, and thereafter to an independent contractor. Contracting out curricula policy was viewed as being enabling for Maori, as in the past the Maori voice had been absent from curriculum policy development (McMurchy-Pilkington, 2008). The contractor faced the challenge of capturing in the language what was conveyed in The New Zealand Curriculum Framework. …