Goal One

This is still a goal that I am continuing to work on and I realise that I need to do additional work outside of this course. I plan to start attending weekly te reo sessions (held at the Highbury Whanau centre) from mid-July and am currently investigating courses I can do extramurally to extend my knowledge of te reo. This is going to be difficult given the existing workload of the course, but it’s so important that I improve my confidence and pronunciation that I need to make time for it. I’m hoping to encourage some of my family members and classmates to also do some additional study so I have people I can practice with.

Doing the word of the day has been helpful, and has definitely increased my vocabulary and improved my pronunciation (although there is a very long way to go), but it wasn’t as easy to start using the words in my everyday interactions as I had hoped.

I’ve found it interesting observing how Māori language is integrated in different schools. I was able to attend a meeting of a sub-group at the school (three teachers, a board member and several parents attended) who are working to integrate more Māori language and culture into the school. There are plans to make Māori culture and language more visible throughout the school, and a Matariki celebration (similar to one held last year) is being held one evening next term. There was also discussion about how best to include more Māori language and culture in individual classrooms and the support that teachers would need, which I found interesting. One of the teachers who has been driving this project is now on maternity leave so my AT is stepping up to take her place, which is why I attended this meeting. I was able to contrast this meeting with a Whanau Hui I attended at my son’s school several weeks earlier. His school has Māori Immersion Classes and it is interesting how different schools focus on different areas.

There is a regular Kapa Haka group held weekly during class time which I would have liked to attend, but wasn’t able to as my AT is now involved in this and I was needed in the classroom during this time. Kapa Haka is optional for children to attend, but approximately half of our class of 54 students attended each week.

My feeling is that the level of Māori language and culture incorporated in the classroom can be dependent on the teacher and their knowledge. My AT has made an effort to learn te reo and uses it naturally in the classroom, we started the day with a karakia and said one before morning break and lunchtime.

The student teachers were given the opportunity to meet with the teacher who is going on maternity leave and she gave us good advice about how to include Māori language and culture in the classroom. She talked about integrating it into your classroom and planning across all subjects, rather than ‘doing’ Māori on Tuesday from 9:30 – 10:00. A particular tip that resonated with me is having lots of resources on the wall as a reminder for the teacher and using songs to help learn the language. She also talked about looking around the school and in the playground and observing what shows that a particular school is in New Zealand rather than anywhere else in the world.

During my time on practicum I had discussions about how much te reo and tikanga Māori is included at different schools, both with teachers at my school and with people involved in education elsewhere. I feel there is a variation, and that bi-culturalism looks different at different schools. Like individuals, schools are on their own journeys, and while I hope that all schools are demonstrating “commitment to tangata whenuatanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand” (Education Council New Zealand | Matatū Aotearoa, 2017), some schools are well along the road and may be working in partnership with local Iwi and communities and have a fully embedded Māori culture and identity in their school, while others may be at the beginning of their journey.

I think that it needs to be a focus for a school, and that can change depending on who is employed and the value that is placed on bi-culturalism. I would like to end up working in a school that values Maōri culture and language and has a conscious process for including it naturally in the school and classroom, along with support for teachers who are learning.