Nau te rourou, naku te rourou Māori education: Setting an agenda

Abstract

Current educational policies and practices in Aotearoa/New Zealand were developed and continue to be developed within a framework of power imbalances, which effects Maori the greatest. An alternative model that seeks to address indigenous Maori aspirations and Treaty of Waitangi guarantees for self determination is presented here. This model suggests how a tertiary teacher education institution might create learning contexts wherein power-sharing images, principles and practices will facilitate successful participation by Maori students in mainstream classrooms. This model constitutes the classroom as a place where young people's sense-making processes (cultures) are incorporated and enhanced, where the existing knowledges of young people are seen as "acceptable" and "official" and where the teacher interacts with students in such a way that new knowledge is co-created. Such a classroom will generate totally different interaction and participation patterns and educational outcomes from a classroom where knowledge is seen as something that the teacher makes sense of and then passes on to students.