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

call the children for a meal as in haere mai a kite kai. Having conversations with
children in te reo Māori demonstrates that teachers are developing fluency in te reo
Māori. They will also presumably have achieved a parallel understanding of
tikanga and Māori culture. Being at ease in speaking te reo Māori will enable
interactions of Tiriti-based curriculum to proceed with confidence and skill.
A sizeable majority (74.2% in a report published in 2007) of mainstream
teachers designate themselves European/Pākehā (Education Counts, 2007),
although it is unclear how many of those teachers are in fact monolingual as well as
monocultural. What is known is that Pākehā make up only 1.6% of the total
population who speak te reo Māori (Ministry of Social Development, 2009), and
that learning a second language proves difficult in adulthood (Lightbown & Spada,
2007; Scheffler, 2008). As Stuart (1995) observed, teachers who lacked fluency in
te reo Māori were unable to expand children‟s incidental learning.
Professional development was perceived by teachers in this study as an
obvious way to develop the content of Tiriti-based curriculum (see chapter 6).
However, with regard to professional development a question to contemplate is:
Who is providing the professional development? Will Māori educators align with
the local area in which the centres and teachers are situated? Significant tribal
differences exist both in te reo Māori me ōna tikanga and ancestral narratives.
Whose knowledge, therefore, becomes privileged with few Māori teachers
available to provide Tiriti-based skills, or if Pākehā and/or other non-Māori lead
the professional development?
These questions exist for teacher education providers as they design
programmes to equip early childhood students to implement Tiriti-based
curriculum. Gibson and Jeffs (2000), and Herzog and Margaret, (2000) discuss
whether these programmes should be delivered by Māori or Pākehā lecturers or by
both in a partnership model. According to Ritchie (2002b):
Partnership between Māori and Pākehā lecturers can ensure that Māori
content is taught appropriately, positioned alongside Western content
within courses, and that Pākehā lecturers take responsibility for assisting
Pākehā students to recognise their historicity of racism and positioning as
members of the dominant and colonialist culture. (p. 268)
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