Section B of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa, is written in Te Reo Māori and is designed to guide Kōhanga Reo and Māori immersion centres. I've been searching for an English translation for a while as I'm part of a team in my centre who are reviewing how well we are doing in implementing a bi-cultural ethos to all we do. We're taking a critical look at theory and practice and are delving into topics such as
Place-Based Education, Geneva Gay's Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Peter Moss's delightfully radical work on education for survival, Māori learning dispositions as a possible framework, work by Rose Pere, are just some on the reading list...
but I really want to know what our curriculum says we should be doing...
The Ministry of Education refuses to translate Section B. "Never have and never will" was the gist of their reply to my email. Having lived under the mess that the 'Treaty of Waitangi' (sic) has created, I understand how translations can profoundly alter meanings . I'm told it's surprisingly different and part of me wonders if there is a way to gain some insight while maintaining the integrity of the document.
Is my curiosity taking me across a line I have no right to be concerned about?
2 comments:
I'm studying Te Whāriki at the moment too, in particular why almost every centre I've ever been to, thinks an occasional mumbled 'morena' and a tiki on the noticeboard, is somehow implementing a bicultural curriculum! What you need is a fluent te reo speaker with time on their hands and a passion for ECE: good luck! In the meantime you might get something out of these:
Ritchie, J. (2009). He taonga te reo: Honouring te reo me ona tikanga, the Māori language and culture, within early childhood education in Aotearoa.
Ritchie, J. (2001). Implementing a bicultural curriculum: Some considerations. Early Childhood Folio(5).
The Waitangi Tribunal/Te Rōpu Whakamana I Te Tiriti o Waitangi (2010). Te Reo Māori. Waitangi Tribunal Report 262
Williams, N.M., Broadley, M-E., & Te-Aho, K.L. (2012). Ngā taonga whakaako: Bicultural competence in early childhood education
Hey thanks for the references. don't suppose you have them as PDF's do you?
What kicked us into action was realising that Matariki was just an agenda item at the meeting to be quickly dealt with and an almost complete failure to recognise/celebrate Maori language week... we too are tokenistic... but more because we are so flat-out in our desire to pedagogically move forward that we have a long list of half-finished foundational work behind us.
If I find anything more directly related to TW I'll post details. Good luck to you too!
@ko
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