In this article we discuss teachers' perceptions and experiences of a collaborative case study to adapt a literacy approach originally designed for an Aotearoa New Zealand English-medium context. The approach was adapted to meet the needs of learners in a school offering differing levels of bilingual education. Our collaboration included a…

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…

This paper presents understandings from indigenous Maori "kaumatua" (elders both male and female) and "whanau" (parents and extended family members) from Aotearoa New Zealand. These people live in a close-knit "hapu" (subtribe) community close to an ancestral meeting space known as their "marae." Their marae…

Through tracing in detail the story of schooling for three individuals, this article provides a rich description of the way that education impacted on the lives of many Maori between the early 1900s and the year 2000. Although there is extensive research on the historical colonising effects of schooling on Maori and te reo Maori (the Maori…

This article draws on data from a research study (Torepe, 2011) that investigated the lived experiences of six Maori teachers who recently graduated from the Hoaka Pounamu (Graduate Diploma in Immersion and Bilingual Teaching) course at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. The primary objective was to gain a deeper understanding of the lived…

This article describes an intervention strategy, initiated under the New Zealand Government's tribal partnership scheme, which promotes a culture-based/place-based approach to education in mainstream schools and early childhood centres in one tribal region. Through place-based education children are immersed in local heritage, including language…

Te reo Maori, the Indigenous language of Aotearoa (New Zealand), remains 'endangered' despite concentrated ongoing efforts to reverse declining numbers of speakers. Most of these efforts have focused on te reo Maori immersion education settings as these were considered the most effective means to ensure the survival of the language (May &…