{"id":66616,"date":"2015-09-04T17:52:27","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T15:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/?p=66616"},"modified":"2025-10-21T22:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:01:13","slug":"teaching-maori-in-new-zealand-progress-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/2015\/09\/teaching-maori-in-new-zealand-progress-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Maori in New Zealand : progress & issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Richard Hill on October 13, 2011<\/span>
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\nDr Richard Hill, University of Waikato,
\nHamilton, New Zealand.<\/em>
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\nNew Zealand, or Aotearoa, as named by the M\u0101ori people over 1000 years ago, is a multicultural country of 4.4 million people (Statistics New Zealand, 2011).<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori, the indigenous people and largest minority group, consist of 15 % of the population.<\/p>\n

Like the indigenous people of many countries of the world, M\u0101ori have suffered from the effects of colonisation, particularly in regard to their language. In 1930, 97 % of M\u0101ori spoke their language fluently. By 1970, this number had dropped to 27 %, as a consequence of decades of indoctrination, negative educational policies and changing population movement.
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Wanganui High School Maori Language Class, New Zealand – Photo : Robert Thomson (cc)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Introducing Maori in the education system<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buoyed by a growing US civil rights movement of the 1970s and an increasing awareness of the advantages of bilingual education, M\u0101ori began to experiment with bilingual education in the late 1970s. In 1982, the first kohanga reo (early childhood language nest) was opened, which then led to a proliferation of M\u0101ori-medium providers around New Zealand, including Kura Kaupapa M\u0101ori (high immersion elementary schools) and wharekura (secondary schools). In 2011, according to the New Zealand Ministry of Education, 14 % of M\u0101ori students (i.e. 24,805 students), are involved in some form of M\u0101ori-medium education.<\/p>\n

Maori in school, English outside<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the huge accomplishments of the past 30 years at bringing the M\u0101ori language back to new generations of M\u0101ori children, the regeneration of the M\u0101ori language has only partially succeeded. Schools are producing fluent M\u0101ori speakers but outside school M\u0101ori language use is not widespread.<\/p>\n

This issue of intergenerational language transmission is the key area that requires attention if the M\u0101ori language is to survive in the future. Attending to this will mean that a generation of M\u0101ori parents who did not learn M\u0101ori as children, will need to first learn it and then work to nurture it in their homes and beyond.<\/p>\n

Deciding on the place of English<\/strong><\/p>\n

The place of the English language in high immersion M\u0101ori-medium programmes is another issue that schools have continued to struggle with. Its inclusion in the curriculum is even more important since it was recently made a compulsory subject for M\u0101ori-medium schools to implement.<\/p>\n

In the early years, schools believed that maintaining a 100 % M\u0101ori language immersion was necessary to revitalise the language, and that English instruction could be left to secondary schools, or beyond, to fulfil.<\/p>\n

However, in the last 10-15 years, attitudes have changed towards a belief that high skill levels are required in both of the students\u2019 languages. How and when to implement English programmes are the issues currently being negotiated. Compared with bilingual programmes in international contexts, the quantity of English language instruction in kura kaupapa and other high immersion programmes is very low, with many schools providing between 120 and 720 hours English instruction between grades 4 and 8.<\/p>\n

Schools also tend to employ independent English teachers to instruct the subject rather than utilise the classroom teachers, in the belief that in doing so they are maintaining a \u2018pure\u2019 M\u0101ori immersion environment elsewhere in the school. While these arrangements offer advantages, employing a separate English language teacher is expensive, and because the English teachers teach solely literacy-related content, the students are not exposed to English language registers from other curriculum areas. The arrangement also means that students are not encouraged to transfer their language skills from one language to the other because their teachers do not usually speak M\u0101ori. <\/p>\n

At a time when many researchers are promoting instructional techniques that promote language skills transfer, M\u0101ori-medium schools have yet to experiment with these methods. It will only occur if perceptions change about the relationship between the students\u2019 two languages. At that point, students will stand a better chance of becoming highly bilingual and biliterate.
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\nReferences<\/strong>
\nStatistics New Zealand. (2011). Estimated Resident Population. from http:\/\/www.stats.govt.nz\/tools_and_services\/tools\/population_clock.aspx