On Stage Māori-Medium ITE: Listening to Students’ Voices

Authors

  • Jenny Lee-Morgan
  • Maureen Muller

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/nzaroe.v22i0.4144

Keywords:

Māori medium education, Māori language learning, Māori education, Initial teacher education

Abstract

Māori-medium initial teacher education (ITE) is a small but highly important group ‘on stage’ in te ao Māori and New Zealand education. While education plays a major role in Māori language revitalisation, Māori language is also pivotal to Māori education if the aspiration ‘to live as Māori’ (Durie, 2001) is to be fulfilled. Māori-medium teachers are critical to the success of learners and their whānau who select a Māori-medium pathway and who can make a meaningful difference to the educational outcomes of Māori (Hōhepa, Hāwea, Tamatea, & Heaton, 2014). This article draws on the students’ voices in a two-year research project that centered on the development of a teaching and learning initiative within one Māori-medium ITE programme. Building on previous work by Hōhepa et al. (2014), this study adds another layer of students’ voices to understand more clearly language related issues and student experiences in Māori-medium ITE programmes. The article presents some of the complexities associated with Māori language regeneration facing students of Māori-medium ITE, with the understanding that whatever appears on the stage is always part of a greater narrative behind the scenes.

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Author Biographies

Jenny Lee-Morgan

Associate Professor Jenny Lee-Morgan (Waikato) has extensive experience and expertise in Māori Education as a whānau member, practitioner, academic and researcher. Formerly, Head of School, Te Puna Wānanga, The University of Auckland, she is currently the Deputy Director of Te Kotahi Research Institute at The University of Waikato. Her teaching and learning experiences were the impetus for much of her work, including her book Jade Taniwha: Māori-Chinese identity and schooling in Aotearoa and subsequent co-authored book Oho Ake: Rehu Marae, Ngā Puna o Waiōrea written in te reo Māori. Her most recent co-edited book is Decolonisation in Aotearoa: Education, Research and Practice. Jenny’s doctoral thesis entitled ‘Ako: Pūrākau of Māori secondary school teachers’ (Lee, 2008) was seminal in the development of pūrākau as kaupapa Māori approach to narrative inquiry and sparked her investigation in pūrākau and indigenous story work.

Maureen Muller

Dr Maureen Muller (Ngā Puhi) is an academic researcher who completed her doctoral studies at Te Kawa a Māui, Victoria University in 2016. Her PhD thesis examined success factors that normalise the use of Māori language within the whānau. Maureen is a second language learner of te reo Māori which she acquired as a student of Te Ataarangi, one of the early Māori language revitalisation movements. She worked for Te Ataarangi in a number of roles including tutor, lecturer and research analyst. Now working independently, Maureen is extending her research capabilities through her engagement in a number of kaupapa Māori projects with other indigenous researchers.

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Published

2017-12-19