Te Reo Māori in Schools

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The draft curriculum guidelines launched on Race Relations Day 2007 are part of the Ministry of Education’s three-pronged strategy for the teaching and learning of Māori language in English-medium schools.

1. Curriculum

The draft curriculum guidelines have been in development for nearly three years. They were trialled in five regions in 2005 and have been regularly revised after feedback from teachers, principals, teacher training providers, teacher union representatives and relevant government agencies.

The draft curriculum guidelines will also be launched online today, at www.tki.org.nz/e/community/language/maori. Print versions of the draft will be sent to all schools, for use and consultation soon.

A senior advisor for the Ministry of Education, Alice Patrick says she is particularly keen to get feedback from teachers, students and whānau.

“While there was some consultation during the development stages of the curriculum, we are keen to get more feedback through our online survey (also at www.tki.org.nz/e/community/language/maori) over the next few months. A hard copy survey form is also included with the draft document. The feedback will ensure that the curriculum guidelines are as useful as possible when it is printed in their final form in 2008.”

2. Professional Development

In 2006, secondary school reo Māori teachers in the greater Wellington region took part in a professional development pilot that focused on how to teach Māori as a second language. The evaluation of this pilot will inform PD opportunities for secondary Māori language teachers in the future. A summary of the evaluation will be available online later this year.

In 2005, primary school teachers in Christchurch, Wellington, New Plymouth and Gisborne were offered reo Māori PD, using the new draft curriculum. The PD pilots have been evaluated and will inform future reo Māori PD opportunities for primary teachers. A summary of the evaluation report will be available online soon.

3. Materials

i) Online planning, teaching and assessment materials for all levels of the curriculum are being developed. Teachers will be able to download and manipulate the material so that it is tailored specifically to their own students and communities. The material will be progressively rolled out in term two, 2007.

ii) A multi-media reo Māori package Ka Mau te Wehi is being developed for Year 7-8 students and teachers. The package will consist of a DVD, student worksheets, a waiata CD, and 20 units of work (each containing three scenarios and lesson plans). The DVD will include segments on tikanga Māori. The multi media package will be available for teachers and students to use in term two, 2007.

“We have specifically targeted resources for Year 7-8 students as this could influence their decision to take Māori as a subject at secondary school”, says Alice Patrick.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is this document Te Reo Māori in the NZ Curriculum?
Te Reo Māori in the NZ Curriculum guides the teaching and learning of te reo Māori in English-medium primary and secondary schools, ie schools where the main language of instruction is English. For the first time ever, we have a document that sets out achievement objectives for eight different curriculum levels.

Don’t we already have a curriculum for te reo Māori?
Not for English-medium schools. There have never been any curriculum guidelines for the teaching and learning of te reo Māori in English-medium schools.

We have guidelines for other languages like French and Samoan and the curriculum guidelines for Sign Language were launched only last week. Why has it taken so long to have curriculum guidelines for te reo Māori?
Over the past decade, a lot of work has gone into the development of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, the curriculum framework for Māori-medium schools in New Zealand. As a result, we have curriculum guidelines for subjects like Pāngarau (Maths) and Putaiao (Science) which are specifically designed for children in Māori-medium schools.

The reo Māori curriculum guidelines for English-medium schools, which are being launched today, have been in development for three years and are now out for consultation. The final version will be out in 2008.

Do people really want to learn te reo Māori? Wouldn’t it be better to learn a more useful language like Japanese?
Te reo Māori is an official language of New Zealand. It is also the indigenous language of our country and, as many Kiwis have discovered whilst travelling overseas, te reo Māori is part of what makes us unique. The environment has never been more positive towards the learning of te reo Māori.

Curriculum this, review that. I am confused about the whole curriculum thing.
Yes, there has been a lot of change. In short, there are two curriculum frameworks ─ one for English-medium schools and one for Māori-medium schools. Both frameworks are currently undergoing review. Te Reo Māori in the NZ Curriculum guides the teaching and learning of te reo Māori in English-medium schools. It is out for consultation and the final document will be released in 2008.

If te reo Māori is so important, why is it lumped in with the Languages learning area?
During the recent review of the English-medium curriculum framework last year, the Ministry received a lot of feedback about the place of te reo Māori in the New Zealand curriculum framework. The Ministry is now reconsidering where it, and the Treaty of Waitangi, will sit in the framework.

If I want to comment on these guidelines, what should I do?
Log on to www.tki.org.nz/e/community/language/maori to get a copy of Te Reo Māori in the NZ Curriculum. It will also link you to the online survey. There are also hard copy of the survey forms inside the curriculum guidelines document.

How many children will these curriculum guidelines affect?
As at July 2006, there are about 2600 schools in New Zealand which cater for 761,000 students. More than 90% of the schools are English-medium schools. Potentially they could all use these guidelines for the teaching and learning of te reo Māori.

In terms of second language, as at July 2006:
- 95,500 children are studying a second language at New Zealand secondary schools.
- Almost a quarter of that number are studying Māori (23,000).
- French is the most popular second language, followed by te reo Māori, and then Japanese.

ENDS

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