Angus Macfarlane

Creating Culturally-safe Schools for Maori Students

In order to better understand the present trends in New Zealands schooling contexts, there is a clarion call for educators to develop sensitivity and sensibility towards the cultural backgrounds and experiences of Maori students. This paper reports on the work of four scholars who share research that has been undertaken in educational settings with high numbers of Maori students, and discusses the importance of creating culturally-safe schools - places that allow and enable students to be who and what they are. The theoretical frameworks drawn on are based on both a life partnership analogy as well as on a socio-cultural perspective on human development and learning. The Maori worldview presented in this paper is connected to the Treaty of Waitangi, The Educultural Wheel and the Hikairo Rationale. Data were collected from two ethnographic case studies and analysed through these frameworks. Practical suggestions are then made for using restorative practices and creating reciprocal relationships in classrooms within an environment of care. The paper reports on an evidence-based approach to creating culturally-safe schools for Maori students.

Indigenous epistemology in a national curriculum framework

In this article, a group of four indigenous Māori educators and one non-Māori educator comment on a proposed amendment to the New Zealand National Curriculum Framework to replace the current separate sets of skills, values and attitudes with five generic performance-based key competencies. The paper discusses important parallels between western/European sociocultural theorizing on human development and learning (on which the key competencies seemed to be based), and the values, beliefs and preferred practices that are embodied within an indigenous Māori cultural worldview (Te Ao Māori). A Māori worldview is characterized by an abiding concern for the quality of human relationships that need to be established and maintained if learning contexts are to be effective for Māori students, and for these relationships to balance individual learning and achievement against responsibilities for the well-being and achievement of the group. Within such a worldview, education is understood as holistic, collective, experiential and dependent upon a free exchanging of teaching and learning roles. The article describes five specific cultural constructs within this worldview that highlight Māori traditional understandings of human development and learning and teaching, and aligns and compares these constructs with the five key competencies proposed. The article argues that the worldviews of Māori people in New Zealand provide an extensive and coherent framework for theorizing about human development and education, and are able to contribute strongly and positively to the development of a national school curriculum for the benefit all students. Implications for other contexts can also be drawn.

Creating Peaceful and Effective Schools through a Culture of Care.

Many schools in New Zealand, the USA, and elsewhere, are searching for ways to respond positively to the educational achievement disparities that exist between majority culture students and students from minority ethnic and cultural communities. Most of the approaches and strategies that have been implemented to date have either failed, or had minimal positive influence. This paper presents the results of over five years of research, conducted collaboratively by the authors, that has been focused on developing the theory and practice of a ‘culture of care’ in schools. Using a cultural lens to interpret the findings, these replicated studies offer the promise of positively influencing the culture of schooling in the USA, New Zealand and beyond. Creating a culture of care requires schools and teachers to be cognisant of how the school and classroom values, beliefs and practices make it safe for all students to engage, to contribute, to belong and to feel confident in their own cultural identities.

Social and Emotional Learning and Indigenous Ideologies in Aotearoa New Zealand: A Biaxial Blend

This chapter describes the fundamentals of social and emotional learning (SEL) and its benefits within educational contexts. An argument is presented for the visibility and centrality of SEL imperatives in education policies, the curricula and teaching pedagogies given that they collectively assume an integral and interconnected role in the promotion of student well-being and achievement. The chapter then explores the notion that there is a complementary dimension of SEL—one that sees SEL imperatives through an Indigenous lens. It is argued that this lens enables teachers to attain a clearer vision of their students’ cultural identities and ultimately become more attuned to the way their cultural interactions are able to be played out within learning contexts. The concept of manaakitanga—one that comes from within a Māori worldview and has resonance with CASEL’s SEL core competencies—is then introduced. The literal meaning of manaakitanga is ‘to care’, and in order to illustrate the connection between SEL core competencies and Indigenous phenomenology, a case study of an exemplary teacher of Māori students is narrated.

Weaving the Dimensions of Culture and Learning

In recent years several studies have attempted to ascertain the particular teaching and learning strategies that motivate Maori learners and enhance their achievement. These studies inform our thinking about what is most likely to be effective—and why. A suite of research studies on culturally effective practices in New Zealand classrooms has found that Maori students achieve and retain at higher levels, are more motivated and develop more positive attitudes when they learn through collaborative and supportive processes.

Culturally Responsive Practice for Indigenous Contexts: Provenance to Potential

Across international contexts many young people from Indigenous cultural groups continue to experience a Western, conventional form of schooling as alienating, dispiriting, and inequitable. Culturally responsive practice by teachers and school leaders has been posited as a promising pedagogical framework for creating positive learning contexts to mitigate these challenges. In this chapter, the authors draw together sociocultural theory and Indigenous epistemological frameworks, as well as their own scholarly and personal experiences, in order to critically examine the conceptual and praxis landscape of culturally responsive teacher education within Indigenous contexts. It is argued that educators who choose to firmly encounter these initiatives will be motivated to revise old conclusions and reenvision an authentic, culturally inclusive future.

Evaluation of an innovative programme for training teachers of children with learning and behavioural difficulties in New Zealand

Abstract This article reports the views of recent graduates of a competency based, blended learning teacher education programme for specialist resource teachers of children with learning and behaviour difficulties in New Zealand. Identifying and developing the competencies needed by teachers in the field of special needs education is important in ensuring that these specialists are well prepared to meet the needs of students and schools. Participants completed an online questionnaire survey responding to two questions, the extent to which the 51 competencies addressed in the programme were important to their professional work, and the extent to which the programme had enabled them to develop these competencies. Results indicated that programme competencies were perceived by participants to be of high importance to their work in the field of learning and behaviour difficulties, and that they considered themselves to have been well enabled to develop these competencies. Based on these findings, implications for teacher educators are discussed, limitations of the research study are identified and recommendations for future research made.

Inclusion, Disability and Culture

Policy development in education, according to Durie (2004) and Sullivan (2009), is ultimately shaped by the philosophical positionings of those who comment upon and control competing interests and discourses. Larkin (2006) highlights the need for education policies to actively target ethnicity so as to avoid “hegemonic cultural domination” (p. 23), and effect impact for those minority populations that regularly have the greatest need. Given that Māori philosophy and discourse are regularly absent in special education policy development processes, then the theoretical perspectives that underpin policies of inclusion will most likely be bereft of Māori thinking and aspirations.

Developing ‘good buggers’: global implications of the influence of culture on New Zealand club rugby coaches’ beliefs and practice

Abstract Despite recognition of how experience shapes sport coaches’ beliefs and practice empirical investigation into how this occurs is limited. This article redresses this gap in the literature by presenting the findings of a study that inquired into the influence of culture on three New Zealand rugby coaches’ beliefs and practice to identify the powerful influence of interaction between a ‘local’ traditional culture of club rugby in New Zealand shaped by the resilient ‘amateur ideal’, intensified by the perceived threat of professional rugby and the global culture of the sport industry to club rugby.

The Transformative Role of Iwi Knowledge and Genealogy in Māori Student Success

Iwi (tribal) knowledge systems can hold powerful narratives about the past, present, and future – prioritizing distinct languages, worldviews, teachings, and technologies developed and sustained by generations of iwi members. Narratives that emphasize the innovative deeds, qualities, and achievements of ancestors can be used in education to reinforce the notion that Māori students descend from a long lineage of scholars, scientists, philosophers, and the like – negating the powerful effect of stereotype threat (Steele 1997). The recognition and reactivation of iwi knowledge in one iwi region of Aotearoa, New Zealand was an act of reclamation, remediation, and renaissance, whereby notions of mana tangata (student success – expressed as status accrued through one’s leadership talents and respect from others) were reconceptualized by drawing on the richness of iwi genealogy, narratives, and worldview. The Ka Awatea (A new dawn) Project was an iwi case study that examined the qualities of “success” through a quintessentially iwi lens by grounding the research undertakings in iwi protocols and history and linking findings to historical iwi icons. By emphasizing the key qualities of ancestors, we can better understand what enabled them to make outstanding contributions to the society of their era, and their feats can continue to guide the pathways to success of Māori students in contemporary times. To effect educational transformation and reform, local high schools, in conjunction with iwi in the region, then made a conscious and unapologetic call to carve out time and space to affirm this iwi knowledge – M. Webber (*) University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand e-mail: m.webber@auckland.ac.nz A. Macfarlane University of Canterbury (UC), Christchurch, New Zealand e-mail: angus.macfarlane@canterbury.ac.nz # Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 E.A. McKinley, L.T. Smith (eds.), Handbook of Indigenous Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1839-8_63-1 1 legitimizing its dignity, identity, and integrity. Speaking to Māori student success from a distinctly iwi perspective has revitalized cultural pride among Te Arawa students connecting learning to their mana tangata – their proud histories, tenacious present, and promising futures.