Globally, literacy can be conceived of in different ways. Two perspectives that have influenced adult literacy policy internationally are the economic functionalist and the sociocultural. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Maori educators have repeatedly advanced a matauranga Maori perspective of literacy. This perspective has parallels with the embodied,…

Internationally, particularly in Western societies, the concept of multiculturalism tends to be associated with 'progressive' and liberal social visions promoting cultural diversity and minority rights. However, multiculturalism may not necessarily be a 'cure' for social division, but a 'veil' that covers political fractures and imbalances within…

There is much to celebrate about the liberal-progressive approach championed by New Zealand, which continues to be a prized feature of New Zealand education. Many liberal-progressive practices developed in New Zealand and contextualised for New Zealand students that sought to expand and enrich education were borrowed from Native Schools, Maori…

Several studies reveal that the extinction of diverse Indigenous languages is significantly increasing, and several maintenance and revitalization programs for endangered languages have been introduced to save the nonstop death of the languages. This paper reviews the existing academic literature to evaluate the language maintenance and…

These three works are first framed with a poem collated by Mere Taito. The cover art, "Ka Po Ho'iho'i - Black as the Spectrum in Unity" (2020), builds upon a conversation ignited by Dr Sarah Jane Moore's "Lunar Mother," and her invitation to collaborate. The dialogue began via zoom connecting Dr. Moore with three other Pacific…

This article revisits a moment in the recent history of education in Aotearoa New Zealand when te reo Maori as a language of the university came under intense scrutiny. The original incident took place in 1991 in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand, when two students of Waikato Law School wrote answers in te reo Maori to an examination question…

This paper considers the provision of education opportunities for learners in the compulsory sector to develop their ability to communicate in te reo Maori. While policy suggests these opportunities exist, in practice, the situation is complex and the provision of these opportunities tends to be uneven. This is, in part, due to the challenges…

Social and political change is occurring in Aotearoa New Zealand and tikanga, matauranga, te reo Maori (the Maori language) and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) are increasingly being recognised in diverse political and legal contexts. This article explores whether the political science discipline in Aotearoa New Zealand is keeping pace…

A scan of academic databases shows research publications covering every topic from impending death in the "Journal of Near-death Studies" to keeping potatoes safe in the "Journal of Potato Storage." The most popular languages for publications are in English, followed by French, German, Spanish and Chinese. While Chinese is the…

Common approaches to language teaching in many New Zealand schools typically show a lack of attention to students' own language-learning strategies. This article argues that the success or otherwise of language immersion programmes, in particular within Maori-medium educational settings, depend as much on the skills and strategies of the student…

This article takes a relational approach to Pacific leadership by presenting three layers of discussion. First, we provide findings from our research team members about the relationships between the Pacific community and school leaders' understandings of leadership. We include accounts of how leaders negotiate in context between forms of…

Within the New Zealand curriculum, hauora has been co-opted as an underlying and interdependent concept at the heart of the learning area of health and physical education. Hauora is identified as a Maori philosophy of well-being, advocating a Maori world view of hauora. Contemporary understandings of hauora as a Maori philosophy of health are…

In this article I examine lecturers' beliefs about the use of Tetum for academic, scientific and vocational communication at university in Timor-Leste and discuss the discursive and performative language planning roles that they play in the intellectualisation of the language. Drawing on analysis of recorded discussions among university lecturers…

"The House that Jack Built" by multi-award winning author-illustrator, Gavin Bishop, is one of New Zealand's most sophisticated picture books for children. Recently republished by Gecko Press in Te Reo Maori as well as English, it depicts the colonisation of New Zealand from 1798 to around 1845, and the beginning of the New Zealand Wars…

This article makes the case for conducting ethnographic research of a multi-scalar nature that links language policy processes and ideologies of language with everyday practices, on the ground, in local schools and classrooms. As with other researchers engaged in the ethnography of language policy (e.g. McCarty, 2011; Johnson, 2013), my concern is…