supporting tiriti-based curriculum delivery in mainstream early ...

Chris J:
I thought there was a lot less te reo this afternoon
Brodie:
Yeah, yeah. In our afternoon there was less. The children are younger
(Tr: 27/5/04).
Alison followed through with this and noted in her journal:
I have been trying to use a bit more te reo after Chris noted it was
lacking in the afternoon sessions. That‟s a good goal for Brodie and I to
work on (Jl: A. 1/6/04).
Although the practice of speaking less te reo Māori with younger children
was apparent, this they informed me, that had not been intentional. Moreover, once
this was recognised, the two teachers in Case Study Two began to deliberately
articulate te reo Māori more frequently with the younger children. However, in
Case Study Three, in recognition of the children‟s developing language skills and
because babies were beginning to verbalise, there was a planned practice of first
stating a word or phrase in te reo Māori and then repeating it in English:
More Māori words. We try to use as much as we can – Māori words
followed by the English words, so the children can understand it (Tr: N.
8/12/08).
However, in response to my question about whether or not there was
anything different about their practice when working with babies, Chris H replied:
I think when working with babies that language development [was] quite
remarkable. So they always like to copy what we say. So it‟s very helpful
to start to teach them Māori at an early age, because they can pick up
language very easily. Yeah (Tr: C H, 13/2/09).
Despite erroneous views about the impact of speaking two languages held
by some early childhood educators (Heta-Lensen, 2010), the teachers in this study
were aware of the importance of speaking te reo Māori to younger children. Apart
from initial practices in Case Study Two, teachers were actively instigating
bilingual practices, regardless of children‟s ages. In other words they were not
subscribing to the view that speaking languages other than English is detrimental to
children‟s learning.
5.5.3 Socio-economic - Deciles of Surrounding Schools
Some indication of the socio-economic status of a centre can be gleaned
from the decile rating assigned to surrounding schools. One reason for considering
deciles was to see if there was any difference between high and low rankings in
how Tiriti-based curriculum was enacted. Case Study One (Deciles 2, 3, and 4)
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