Kura Kaupapa Research Articles

Kaiako perspectives on professional learning and development in structured literacy in Māori-medium settings: A case study

This paper examines how kaiako (teachers) view professional learning and development training (PLD) in structured literacy (SL) in a Māori-medium immersion context. Through interviews with kaiako in a kura kaupapa Māori (Māori-medium educational setting) who teach students in Years 1-6, and images of the literacy environment to capture some of the literacy practices in classrooms, participants share their perspectives on their PLD training. The findings revealed some of the difficulties kaiako face, such as limited resources and working within a standardisded curriculum, whilst attempting to implement changes based on their PLD training. The findings highlight the need for support from all stakeholders (including policy makers and the school leadership team) to successfully implement SL in Māori-medium settings. The need for further resources in Māori-medium settings and the challenge of making changes to a standardised curriculum also emerged from the study. Finally, the findings indicate some of the potential benefits of PLD in SL for Māori-medium educators and ākonga (students), such as an understanding of how the brain learns to read, some of the key elements of reading success, and instructional principles for effective literacy instruction.

Learning from the Experiences of a Kura Kaupapa Māori Graduate

This ATLAANZ 2022 conference presentation was based on the experiences of an interviewee in the author’s research on students’ experiences and perceptions of learning support services at Toi Ohomai Te Pūkenga (Toi Ohomai). The interviewee had graduated from a Kura Kaupapa Māori (KKM) in a small town, where they had studied science in te reo Māori. At Toi Ohomai, they felt unable to disclose to the tutor of their English-medium, science-based course that they were not familiar with the vocabulary being used. The tutor, meanwhile, assumed all their learners knew the English terms. The interviewee described how in class they “felt dumb”. At the same time, they were trying to adjust to life in a city which was very different. I reflected on how KKM graduates could be better supported. I concluded that if Toi Ohomai tutors and staff had a way to identify KKM graduates, they could proactively offer them support and resources. I explored options for identifying ākonga from Māori-medium education in the Toi Ohomai learning management system. I then spoke with the Head of Māori Success at Toi Ohomai, who discussed the idea with colleagues. An alternative approach was agreed upon, based on the core practice of knowing the learner.

Structured literacy: An approach to support ākonga who present with dyslexic tendencies in Māori medium education to learn to read, write and spell in te reo Māori

Structured literacy is an evidence-based approach (Brady, 2011; Fletcher et al., 2007; Forman et al., 2016; IDA, 2018; National Reading Panel NRP, 2000, TKI 2020a) informed by the science of reading acquisition instruction and how the brain acquires and processes information (Reyna, 2004; Seidenberg, 2017). The literature examines how this approach could support bilingual tamariki (children) who may present with dyslexic tendencies in Māori-medium immersion contexts. Through an anonymous questionnaire to kaiako within Kura Kaupapa Māori (Māori-medium immersion schools) who teach or have taught tau 0-10 ākonga (years 1-10 students), participants shared what they know and understand about literacy, dyslexia and how this learning difference might reveal itself through te reo Māori (Maori language) and English. The findings highlighted the potential structured literacy has to benefit all ākonga in both languages and the need for te reo Māori resources and professional development on dyslexia and structured literacy.

The Growth of Independent Education Alternatives in New Zealand

The New Zealand schooling system is well-known for its progressive and innovative approach to education (Couch, 2012; Mutch, 2013; Wells, 2016). Their national curriculum is inclusive and flexible, allowing schools and teachers to select the content they deem necessary to meet the competencies in the designated learning areas (Ministry of Education, 2007). Additionally, the NZ education system provides choice to parents by offering a range of alternative approaches to schooling, such as Steiner Schools, Montessori Schools, Catholic Schools, or Kura Kaupapa Mãori (Mãori language immersion schools). Within such progressive public schooling system, one would not expect that there would be interest in alternative private schools. Yet, this study found the opposite. To examine the growing interest in independent alternative programs in New Zealand, this study uses a qualitative multiple-case study design of four independent educational programs in the North Island of New Zealand.

National estimates from the Youth '19 Rangatahi smart survey: A survey calibration approach.

BackgroundSignificant progress has been made addressing adolescent health needs in New Zealand, but monitoring and gathering high quality estimates of adolescent health and social issues remains challenging and resource intensive. Previous nationally representative secondary school surveys were conducted in New Zealand in 2001, 2007 and 2012, as part of the Youth2000 survey series. This paper focuses on a fourth survey conducted in 2019 (https://www.youth19.ac.nz/). The 2019 survey had a regional sampling strategy rather than a national sampling strategy as in previous years. The survey also included kura kaupapa Māori schools (Māori language immersion schools), as well as mainstream secondary schools. This paper presents the overall study methodology, and a weighting and calibration framework in order to provide estimates that reflect the national student population, and enable comparisons with the previous surveys to monitor trends.MethodsYouth19 was a cross sectional, self-administered health and wellbeing survey of New Zealand high school students. The survey population was secondary school students of New Zealand aged 12 to 18 years (school years 9–13). The study population was drawn from three education regions: Auckland, Tai Tokerau (Northland) and Waikato. These are the most ethnically diverse regions in New Zealand and account for 46% of the adolescent population in New Zealand. The sampling design was two-stage clustered stratified, where schools were the clusters, and strata were defined by kura schools and educational regions. There were four strata, formed as follows: kura schools (Tai Tokerau, Auckland and Waikato regions combined), mainstream-Auckland, mainstream-Tai Tokerau and mainstream-Waikato. From each stratum, 50% of the schools were randomly sampled and then 30% of students from the selected schools were invited to participate. All students in the kura kaupapa schools were invited to participate. In order to make more precise estimates and adjust for differential non-response, as well as to make nationally relevant estimates and allow comparisons with the previous national surveys, we calibrated the sampling weights to reflect the national secondary school student population.ResultsThere were 45 mainstream and 4 kura schools included in the final sample, and 7,374 mainstream and 347 kura students participated in the survey. There were differences between the sampled population and the national secondary school student population, particularly in terms of sex and ethnicity, with a higher proportion of females and Asian students in the study sample than in the national student population. We calculated estimates of the totals and proportions for key variables that describe risk and protective factors or health and wellbeing factors. Rates of risk-taking behaviours were lower in the sampled population than what would be expected nationally, based on the demographic profile of the national student population. For the regional estimates, calibrated weights yield standard errors lower than those obtained with the unadjusted sampling weights. This leads to significantly narrower confidence intervals for all the variables in the analysis. The calibrated estimates of national quantities provide similar results. Additionally, the national estimates for 2019 serve as a tool to compare to previous surveys, where the sampling population was national.ConclusionsOne of the main goals of this paper is to improve the estimates at the regional level using calibrated weights to adjust for oversampling of some groups, or non-response bias. Additionally, we also recommend the use of calibrated estimators as they provide nationally adjusted estimates, which allow inferences about the whole adolescent population of New Zealand. They also yield confidence intervals that are significantly narrower than those obtained using the original sampling weights.

Curriculum for minority Indigenous communities: social justice challenges

ABSTRACT The development of state/federal mandated curricula for schooling is a highly politicised process, and even more so for marginalised Indigenous groups who are simultaneously attempting to revitalise their traditional language and knowledge. An example of this is the ongoing struggles between the New Zealand State and Māori to develop curricula for Māori-medium schooling over the past 25 years. While state funding was provided to support the inaugural Māori-medium curriculum development in the 1990s, it had to mirror the hegemonic English version, a continuation of the past 100 years of assimilationist practice. In the subsequent revision of the Māori-medium curriculum 2007–2008, the State was more accepting of difference and the capacity to develop Māori-medium curriculum had significantly expanded. In 2013, the state agreed to fund the development and implementation of localised school curriculum for one of the more highly politised Māori-medium sectors – kura kaupapa Māori. We draw on Fraser’s (2005. Reframing justice in a globalizing world. New Left Review, 36(Nov–Dec), 69–88) social justice tripartite of distribution, recognition and representation to critique and examine the tensions, and in many cases, unresolved issues in curriculum developments for Māori-medium schooling.

The pedagogical practices of Māori partial immersion bilingual programmes in Aotearoa/New Zealand

ABSTRACT Level 2 Māori medium programmes with 51–80% Māori language instruction make an important contribution to developing Māori language skills and lifting Māori student achievement, yet these programmes are largely hidden from discussions about Māori education attainment. Offering lower levels of Māori immersion than kura kaupapa Māori and being predominantly situated within English medium schools, these programmes give families opportunities to access a unique form of education which unlike high immersion kura kaupapa Māori, maintain significant levels of English language instruction. However, Level 2 programmes suffer from poor support and resourcing, including sourcing teachers highly fluent in the Māori language and knowledgeable in bilingual education approaches. This article, which discusses the pedagogical practices of teachers in 44 New Zealand programmes, found that schools have developed a wide range of bilingual approaches to satisfy their unique situations, and demonstrate high commitment to providing an important education to communities. Despite this, historical assimilationist policies continue to impact schools’ ability to form cohesive programmes that produce highly proficient bilingual students. Schools require more support, particularly to lift teachers’ Māori language fluency and knowledge of bilingual education theory and practice.

Te whai mātauranga: he taonga mō te tangata kotahi pea, mō te iwi katoa rānei? Education: A Private Commodity, or a Public Good?

It is now 30 years since the appearance of New Zealand Treasury (Government management: brief to the incoming government, vol 2, education Issues, New Zealand Government, Wellington, 1987), a key text that marked the start of a new era of education policy in Aotearoa-New Zealand. In his review of this Treasury text, Professor Grace (Br J Educ Stud 37(3):207–221, 1989) commented in some detail on what he termed ‘taha Māori’ in relation to the new policy direction. This article uses policy discourse analysis informed by a Kaupapa Māori research perspective to re-visit these two texts and review their arguments about Māori education. This research aims to contribute to a politically activist form of literature research, taking up a Kaupapa Māori research lens to go back to this Treasury policy text, critiquing its analysis and prescription for Māori education at a point in time just before Kura Kaupapa Māori took off.

Māori Children’s Biliteracy Experiences Moving from a Kōhanga Reo Setting to a Kura Kaupapa Māori, Bilingual, and Mainstream Education Setting: An Exploratory Study

This research explored the biliteracy experiences of three kōhanga reo children as they started school in one of three school settings: a bilingual unit, a mainstream classroom, and kura kaupapa Māori. A Kaupapa Māori approach underpinned this research and guided the case study methodology employed. The children’s literacy experiences were observed on school entry and parents and teachers from each setting were interviewed regarding their aspirations for children and approaches to literacy. Key findings include the importance of effective teaching strategies, relationship building, the classroom environment, the reading programme employed, and approaches to assessment. The study highlights the importance of teachers who have culturally responsive pedagogies and can adapt pedagogies to meet the literacy learning needs of kōhanga reo children as they transition to school. It also highlights the need for further understanding of biliteracy learning in Aotearoa New Zealand schools, and the importance of assessment tools appropriate for bilingual children.

Writing in te reo at university

ABSTRACTThis article considers the use of te reo Māori as a language medium of research and scholarship in the universities of Aotearoa New Zealand, and reports on two small sets of empirical data about doctoral theses written in Māori: one a list of 17 such theses, the other the results of 4 interviews. All the reo Māori doctoral theses I found are written on research topics embedded in te ao Māori (the Māori world). Most focus on a specific language type, topic, or kin group; two are about Māori identity and two are about Kura Kaupapa Māori schooling. Interview results show there are steps that universities can take to support doctoral degrees written in te reo to be examined within their institutional processes, underpinned by a welcoming attitude towards te reo and tikanga. Dispensing with the international examiner, a translator to assist in the oral examination, and an abstract in English are three elements of a process that can be formalised and documented. When those individuals who can supervise and convene the examination of such work are supported by their university, to write a doctoral thesis in te reo is successful for all concerned, though never easy.

Resistance in Māori education: A critique of kura kaupapa Māori

Within the past decade, Maori education has undergone an immense transformation. For the first time since the establishment of the Native Schools in 1867, Te Reo me ana tikanga now pervades the halls of state supported institutions using alternate methods of pedagogy. These places now prepare children for the same positions in the work-force that other children in mainstream will be competing for. With the emergence of Te Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Maori, a paradigm was established that challenged, not only the ideological impediments that were embedded within both the curriculum and its delivery, but also the hegemonic influences which penetrated the habits, customs and beliefs that socialised Maori into an acceptance of the status quo

Maori education and principles of self-determination in the Twenty-first Century

This paper argues that self-determination to the greatest extent possible is a legitimate aspiration for Maori people. It is argued that in education this requires a philosophical and policy response more focused on Maori autonomy than can be provided within the bicultural framework that has lately informed Maori relationships with other actors in the education arena. The paper considers the place of kohanga reo, kura kaupapa Maori and wananga in relation to broader Maori aspirations for self-determination and discusses proposals that these aspirations be furthered through the establishment of a Maori Education Authority. It is also argued that opportunities for self-determination in New Zealand are compromised by the government's unwillingness to alter a tightly controlled centralised education market to provide genuine Maori autonomy over what type of education might be available and to what end.

Bilingual behaviour checklists: Initiating a student, teacher and parent partnership in behaviour management

Three bilingual (Maori and English) behavioural checklists formed part of a project designed to facilitate student, teacher and whanau collaboration in overcoming behavioural difficulties experienced by Maori students, (Hei Awhina Matua). The checklists assessed rankings by 163 students, 21 teachers and 96 whanau members of (1) contexts in which problem behaviours occur, (2) specific problem behaviours and (3) specific most valued behaviours. Data were gathered in three schools: a mainstream intermediate school with a Maori medium syndicate of three classes, a rural Kura Kaupapa Maori (Maori-controlled total immersion school) and a bilingual contributing primary school. While the three schools differed markedly in location, size, and in the proportion of Maori students enrolled, the rankings of settings and behaviours by students, teachers and whanau in each school were highly similar. The paper discusses how these data contributed to the design and development of the Hei Awhina Matua video and training manual, and provided a first step towards a collaborative student teacher and parent partnership in the management of student behaviour.

Decolonizing methodologies to counter ‘minority’ spaces

Māori living in Āotearoa New Zealand are strongly connected to their communities, through woven threads of genealogy [whakapapa], spirituality [wairua], language regeneration [Te Kōhanga Reo, and Kura Kaupapa Māori movements] and a distinctive Treaty of Waitangi [Te Tiriti ō Waitangi] legacy that informs relationships, expectations and guidance from past and future generations. These are part of a holistic orientation towards the force of communities and family [whānau] being able to sustain individuals-within-community. For example, utilizing whakapapa (connected layering) is about engaging in the narrative of what it means to be Māori; a stabilizing cultural identity that many non-Māori [Pākehā] find challenging to understand. Abroad, Māori are still a ‘minority culture’ as they are in NZ, and they often find themselves dispersed from the major forces of the above connectedness and unique epistemological tradition. There are touchstones to place and Indigeneity that become even more significant as they provide a means to resist the bifurcation of the self from the environment, and the individual construct from the collective. They become a crucial part of countering the diasporic anomie of being ‘away from home’. Being a member of the Māori diaspora living in Australia, I use an auto-ethnographic lens to undertake a profound decolonizing methodology in naming stories from the present and privileging stories from the past, in order to deliberately reclaim heritage.

The Origins of Kura Kaupapa Māori

Kura kaupapa Māori provide a unique primary school education system that immerses children in Māori language and culture. Interviews with founding members from the first Auckland kura give a critical sense of the aspirations that guided them in their struggle to set up the kura kaupapa Māori initiative. The desire to provide suitable schooling for their children, educated in a pre-school Māori immersion environment, led to a political and legal battle to provide an education validating traditional Māori knowledge. The narratives inform of the hardship endured in the setting up of kura kaupapa Māori without government assistance, and clarify the political strategies employed to establish kura. The restructuring of New Zealand’s Education Department opened a space for the development of kura kaupapa Māori, leading to legislation in 1989 and formal recognition in 1999 of the Te Aho Matua document, the guiding philosophy for the majority of kura today.

Kaupapa Māori, Philosophy and Schools

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.

The indigenous connection/Maori—aotearoa (NZ) context

BackgroundOn average, six Maori children are admitted to hospital every day for an unintentional injury. The main goal of Tamariki Haumaru ki Aotearoa (Safekids NZ) is to reduce the incidence...

He kura huna - Māori expressions of educational success

Western values have long dominated discourse on what constitutes success and achievement in education. New Zealand’s own education system has been described as one which “... gives first priority to academic and western values of success” (Lee, 2008, p. 81). Emphasis is placed upon the individual, academic excellence, literacy and numeracy, economic outcomes, and competence in what western society deems valid knowledge, and as such, current assessment measures are reflective of this. While such measures are accepted as ‘best practice’ for mainstream institutions, it is argued that where indigenous education is concerned, “...success also lies in more holistic ways of knowing and participating within a rich cultural context” (Bell, 2004, p.30).
 Situated in a Māori world view, this paper considers success through a Māori lens. It is argued that Māori notions of success are not only premised upon academic results, rather cultural factors are considered equally as important to knowledge and understanding of te ao Māori (Māori world view), tikanga Māori (Māori customary practices), whakapapa (genealogy), hītori (histories and tradition) and te reo Māori (the Māori language).
 This paper seeks to highlight Māori expressions of educational success for Kura Kaupapa Māori (KKM) through the implementation of a holistic approach to education, underpinned by the guiding philosophy, Te Aho Matua.
 This paper will draw on my doctoral research. Graduates experiences are an integral part of this paper and research, as they give voice and validity to KKM educational success.

Science in the Māori‐medium Curriculum: Assessment of policy outcomes in Pūtaiao education

This second research paper on science education in Māori‐medium school contexts complements an earlier article published in this journal (Stewart, 2005). Science and science education are related domains in society and in state schooling in which there have always been particularly large discrepancies in participation and achievement by Māori. In 1995 a Kaupapa Māori analysis of this situation challenged New Zealand science education academics to deal with ‘the Māori crisis’ within science education. Recent NCEA results suggest Pūtaiao (Māori‐medium Science) education, for which a national curriculum statement was published in 1996, has so far increased, rather than decreased, the level of inequity for Māori students in science education. What specific issues impact on this lack of success, which contrasts with the overall success of Kura Kaupapa Māori, and how might policy frameworks and operational systems of Pūtaiao need to change, if better achievement in science education for Māori‐medium students is the goal? A pathway towards further research and development in this area is suggested.

Grab that kite! Teaching mathematics in te reo Māori

Abstract This article uses the story of Whakatauihuihu to help describe how the teaching of mathematics in to reo Maori (the Maori language) has developed. It begins by recounting the enthusiasm of the teachers who worked on the development of the mathematics vocabulary in the 1980s, and then moves on to show how the teaching of mathematics in to reo Maori is no longer seen as an innovation that will solve all problems for Maori students. Instead, like a teenager going through the initial phase of self-reflection, teachers are now considering what teaching practices can support students and how these practices can be developed. The article concludes by looking at recent research carried out in Te Kura o to Koutu (Te Koutu School). Long ago, well before our ancestors arrived herein Aotearoa, while they were still living in Hawaiki, there was a woman named Apakura. To her surprise she miscarried, without even knowing that she was pregnant. She gathered up the clot of blood and gristle, wrapping it in her flax kilt. She walked down to the water's edge, and after singing her lament Apakura threw the bundle into the ocean waves. The tide carried the bundle out to sea, where it slowly sank below the surface. As it dropped down to the sea floor, blood seeped through the sodden kilt. The kilt unravelled and bits of gristle were carried away by the current. The bundle and its red plume came to the notice of Rongotakawhiu, a denizen of the deep. He opened the kilt and realised that the disintegrating clot was an undeveloped baby. Chanting spells he collected what he could from the ocean current in order to reassemble the baby. Unfortunately, some blood and gristle had been lost and so he formed the baby, a boy, with no genitals, deciding that all the other parts were more necessary for survival. The baby was named Whakatauihuihu by his adoptive father, and Rongotakawhiu took it upon himself to teach the young child all that he knew, both practical and magical. He also gave Whakatauihuihu a kite, which was to prove his favourite pastime. Introduction: a brief history It has always been possible to describe and discuss traditional ethno-mathematical practices, such as navigating and weaving, using to reo Maori, and since the 19th century the Maori language has also been used to discuss Western mathematical ideas (Barton, Fairhall, & Trinick, 1995). However, during the 20th century active discouragement of its use in all aspects of New Zealand life resulted in to reo Mdori no longer being used in educational settings. The situation changed in the 1980s with the movement for the revival of to reo Maori, focusing on kohanga reo (Maori immersion preschools) and kura kaupapa Maori (Maori immersion primary schools). Teaching mathematics in to reo Maori, like the birth of Whakatauihuihu, was not a simple process. The inspiration for the use of to reo Maori to teach mathematics came from teachers' strong belief that the Maori language could be used in all circumstances. However, it was soon recognised that teachers needed to be proficient in to reo Maori as well as being competent, knowledgable teachers of mathematics. In the 1980s the most pressing need for teachers of mathematics in kura kaupapa Maori--which by this time also included wharekura (secondary programmes), including those in secondary school bilingual units--was for the development of a specialised mathematical vocabulary. Transliterations of expressions and terms from English into Maori were of limited value because they neither expressed the mathematical concept nor had appropriate connotations that came with using a term derived from cultural experiences. However, sometimes the needs of Western mathematics overcame the desire to develop a culturally appropriate mathematical lexicon. For example, in traditional to reo Maori, numerical prefixes are context specific and/or determined by a person's relationship with the objects that are being quantified. …