From 2022, New Zealand schools are teaching a new compulsory history curriculum that aims to teach diverse New Zealand histories, while foregrounding the centrality of Maori histories and the impacts of colonisation. The new curriculum will upend a long history of 'forgetting' the nation's contentious and conflictual past, and in particular the…

In this paper, we provide a reflection upon the influence of the Swanwick-Tillman (ST) model (1986) from the perspectives of music research in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this paper we take stock of where music education in New Zealand currently sits in relation to the Swanwick Tillman theory of musical development. We examine the strengths and the…

From the 19th to the 20th century, a separate system of education existed for Maori learners in New Zealand in which health, hygiene, and manual work were emphasised. This system was based on beliefs that Maori students were less capable, therefore they needed a reduced curriculum to that provided for non-Maori in state schools. Known as the…

The Education and Training Act 2020 requires schools to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. However, the newly elected National coalition-led government has sent contradictory messages about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which may be confusing educators. For example, recent actions by the government, such as repealing laws, are harming their relationship…

In te ao Maori, our connection to our maunga and physical landmarks speaks to who we are as a people. Our maunga are also a source of inspiration and direction. This article draws on the symbolism of maunga and describes a Maori process of the way maunga can also act as a metaphorical journey to strengthening identity and transformative change. It…

As an artist and writer who often works across disciplines and cultures, my education into effective and respectful engagement has been built on my experience working with First Nations friends, collaborators, and Elders. The aim of this paper is to explore teachings from a number of these leading thinkers, writers, and Elders on the topic of…

Te reo Maori (the Maori language) continues to be learned by Maori and Pakeha from Aotearoa New Zealand. The concept of language anxiety has been the topic of study by numerous authors due to its ability to interfere with second language production from cognition to output. For a group of Pakeha (New Zealand European) learners of te reo Maori,…

In this article, I traverse Maori positionality informing Maori worldviews, alongside geohistorical navigational trajectories of knowledge. Drawing on ancestral travel which utilized sophisticated readings of stars, currents, winds, clouds, contexts and colours of the biodiversity to navigate, the concept of wayfinding as methodology and method is…

The Ministry of Education, Teaching Council and other groups aligned with the teaching profession are increasingly acknowledging the impact of racism, yet there is a dearth of research that moves beyond unconscious bias to examine how race is socially constructed in schools. In this paper, we present four autoethnographic accounts from Tracey to…

This paper uses an arts-based learning encounter at a marae-based wananga as a starting point for exploring the potential of aesthetic inquiry to support dynamic and always evolving relationality between people and place. The work of two researchers, Maori writer and scholar Cassandra Barnett and Irish inter-cultural researcher Sharon Todd, is…

With the introduction of the Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum in 2022 (Ministry of Education, 2022), educators are encouraged to engage students in understanding the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand society, shaped by Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This curriculum refresh emphasises Maori history as foundational and ongoing,…

As in many countries, for decades in Aotearoa (New Zealand), we have heard the story of the Pacific and Maori achievement gap in mathematics. This has become a widely accepted part of beliefs constructed across multiple communities about students and schools and who can do and learn mathematics successfully. A common response by policy makers and…

Families engage in a range of cultural practices in their everyday lives that shape children's early literacies. Given the growing number of children who are living outside the country of their birth or their parents' birth, more research is needed to highlight the under-recognised literacies of young children shaped by their family cultural…

This thought-provoking book emerges from the author's personal journey through Aotearoa New Zealand's evolving education policy landscape. Delving into the complexities of a policy intended to enhance Maori student success, the author draws from personal, ancestral, and contemporary experiences to unravel and reframe conventional understandings of…

This article examines a particular incident in the Waikato wars, 1863-4 and its relevance to the newly mandated New Zealand History curriculum. The new curriculum will for the first time make the teaching of local history compulsory in years 1-10. I examine the wide variety of submissions about the content of this curriculum. As the Royal…