1999 Professorial Address: Nau te rourou, naku te rourou… Māori education: setting an agenda.

Current educational policies and practices in Aotearoa/New Zealand were developed and continue to be developed within a framework of power imbalances, which effects Maori the greatest. An alternative model that seeks to address indigenous Māori aspirations and Treaty of Waitangi guarantees for self determination is presented here. This model suggests how a tertiary teacher education institution might create learning contexts wherein power-sharing images, principles and practices will facilitate successful participation by Māori students in mainstream classrooms. This model constitutes the classroom as a place where young people's sense-making processes (cultures) are incorporated and enhanced, where the existing knowledges of young people are seen as "acceptable" and "official" and where the teacher interacts with students in such a way that new knowledge is co-created. Such a classroom will generate totally different interaction and participation patterns and educational outcomes from a classroom where knowledge is seen as something that the teacher makes sense of and then passes on to students

Pretty difficult: Implementing kaupapa Māori theory in English-medium secondary schools

Developed in New Zealand some twenty years ago, kaupapa Māori has had a successful impact in education, notably in Māori-medium settings such as kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa Māori and wharekura. However, in mainstream educational settings, where the vast majority of Māori children continue to be educated, achievement disparities between Māori and their non-Māori peers persist. This article focuses on Te Kotahitanga, a large-scale kaupapa Māori school reform project that seeks to address educational disparities by improving the educational achievement of Māori students in mainstream schooling. Experiences with implementing Te Kotahitanga would suggest that reforming mainstream educational practices along kaupapa Māori lines is not easy. This article examines three main impediments encountered in attempts to implement the Te Kotahitanga project in mainstream schools: confusion about the culture of the Māori child; uneven implementation of the project; and problems with measuring student progress. For the project’s aims to be realised, professional development needs to be ongoing, iterative and responsive

Kaupapa Maori research: An indigenous approach to creating knowledge

This paper seeks to identify how issues of epistemological racism are addressed in practice within an indigenous Kaupapa (philosophy) Maori approach to research, and how such considerations may impact on the Western trained and positioned researcher. One fundamental understanding to a Kaupapa Maori approach to research is that it is the discursive practice that is Kaupapa Maori that positions researchers in such a way as to operationalise selfdetermination (agentic positioning and behaviour) for research participants. This is because the cultural aspirations, understandings and practices of Maori people implement and organise the research process. Further, the research issues of power; initiation, benefits, representation, legitimation, and accountability are addressed and understood in practice by practitioners of Kaupapa Maori research through the development of a participatory mode of consciousness

Introduction to special section on Māori culture and education.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the need for coordinated language policy, the Treaty of Waitangi, and monoculturalism

Addressing diversity: Race, ethnicity, and culture in the classroom

The widely accepted educational goals for Maori, established at the first Hui Taumata Matauranga held in 2001, are that Maori ought to be able to live as Maori, actively participate as citizens of the world, and enjoy both good health and high standards of living (Durie, 2001). Together with the government goals of equipping learners with twenty-first century skills and reducing systemic underachievement in education, these goals inform the new 2008-2012 Maoni Education Strategy, Ka Hikitia Managing for Success (Ministry of Education, 2007), which has as its main strategic outcome: Maori students enjoying education success as Maori. Within this frame, there are four student outcomes for Maori: learning to learn, making a distinctive cultural contribution, contributing to Te Ao Maori, and contributing to Aotearoa/New Zealand and the world

The Te Kotahitanga Observation Tool: Development, use, reliability and validity.

Te Kotahitanga is a New Zealand school reform project aimed at improving the pedagogical contexts in mainstream classrooms in which the indigenous Māori students have traditionally been marginalised. It does this by assisting teachers to implement an Effective Teaching Profile. Part of this process uses an observation tool to monitor the degree to which participating teachers are incorporating the interactions and relationships described in the Effective Teaching Profile into their day-to-day teaching. Given the central importance of these tasks, the Te Kotahitanga team undertook to test the observation tool for measurement reliability and validity. In order to undertake this study, the team conducted synchronous observations amongst trainers (the Professional Development Coordinator and Regional Coordinators) to ascertain their level of consistency when using the tool. The team then conducted synchronous observations between trainers and 38 in-school facilitators in the 12 schools involved in Phase 3 of the project. In total 41 teachers were observed and over 200 Māori students were involved in these observations. This study suggests that the tool can produce consistent and reliable results when observers have been effectively trained

Delphi Method and Nominal Group Techniques in Family Planning and Reproductive Health Research

Both the Delphi method and nominal group technique offer structured, transparent and replicable ways of synthesising individual judgements and have been used extensively for priority setting and guideline development in health-related research including reproductive health. Within evidence-based practice they provide a means of collating expert opinion where little evidence exists.They are distinct from many other methods because they incorporate both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Both methods are inherently flexible; this article also discusses other strengths and weaknesses of these methods

Noongar Dandjoo: A Work Integrated Learning Case Study

As media employers increasingly shift the burden for the provision of skills training from themselves to universities, academics must develop innovative ways to ensure their graduates are truly job ready, beyond merely simulating industry practice and offering conventional work experience opportunities. Under the umbrella term Work Integrated Learning (WIL), universities have adopted a range of educational approaches that combine theory with practice to enhance learning experiences for students. But not all WIL initiatives are the same and nor do they always achieve their objectives. However, three series of the award-winning student TV production Noongar Dandjoo, produced by Curtin University, offer a new model for teaching substantive journalism, program production as well as cultural aware- ness and cultural sensitivity under an offshoot of WIL called service-learning. As this article seeks to demonstrate, Noongar Dandjoo is making a lasting and positive impression on students who are applying their experiences working with indigenous people beyond university

Effect of plyometric training on swimming block start performance in adolescents

This study aimed to identify the effect of plyometric training (PT), when added to habitual training (HT) regimes, on swim start performance. After the completion of a baseline competitive swim start, 22 adolescent swimmers were randomly assigned to either a PT (n = 11, age: 13.1 ± 1.4 yr, mass: 50.6 ± 12.3 kg, stature: 162.9 ± 11.9 cm) or an HT group (n = 11, age: 12.6 ± 1.9 yr, mass: 43.3 ± 11.6 kg, stature: 157.6 ± 11.9 cm). Over an 8-week preseason period, the HT group continued with their normal training program, whereas the PT group added 2 additional 1-hour plyometric-specific sessions, incorporating prescribed exercises relating to the swimming block start (SBS). After completion of the training intervention, post-training swim start performance was reassessed. For both baseline and post-trials, swim performance was recorded using videography (50Hz Canon MVX460) in the sagital plane of motion. Through the use of Silicon Coach Pro analysis package, data revealed significantly greater change between baseline and post-trials for PT when compared with the HT group for swim performance time to 5.5 m (−0.59 s vs. −0.21 s; p < 0.01) and velocity of take-off to contact (0.19 ms−1 vs. −0.07 ms−1; p < 0.01). Considering the practical importance of a successful swim start to overall performance outcome, the current study has found that inclusion of suitable and safely implemented PT to adolescent performers, in addition to HT routines, can have a positive impact on swim start performance