“Whiriwhiria,kia ora ai te tamaiti”: an exploration of mātauranga Māori to support day-to-day learning in five primary schools in regional New Zealand

Introduction

Mātauranga Māori (traditional Māori (Indigenous people of New Zealand) knowledge) is described by Hikuroa (2017) as past, present and future of traditional Māori knowledge. Mātauranga Māori describes the body of knowledge passed down from Māori ancestors, but also knowledge developed by contemporary generations. It incorporates the understanding and comprehension of tikanga (customary and cultural practices) and encompasses both physical and non-physical elements, such as wairua (the spiritual aspect). Previous research highlights that mātauranga Māori and Te Ao Māori (Māori worldview) are essential for education and learning in the school environment for Māori to live and succeed as Māori, meaning their Māori identity is strong (Durie, 2003; Evans, 2020; Highfield & Webber, 2021; Macfarlane, 2015). This is further supported by community group model building with rangatahi (adolescents) and community stakeholders who identified mātauranga Māori in schools as a priority for improved wellbeing, and proposed improvements such as mātauranga Māori-inspired learning and doing throughout schools and integrating tikanga Māori processes (McKelvie-Sebileau et al., 2022). This establishes that Māori learners are culturally different to their non-Māori peers (Mahuika & Bishop, 2008).

Māori attainment of post-secondary education qualifications has increased to reach nearly 21% in 2018, but this sits significantly below the population attainment rate of 34.6% (Stats NZ—Tatauranga Aotearoa, 2020). In 2020, 72% of Māori had a secondary school qualification compared to 85% of the total population, and 18% of Māori had a Bachelor’s degree, compared to 35% of the total population.

A high proportion of Māori learners (about 90%) are enrolled in mainstream education in New Zealand, which consists of an English-medium curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2022b). This curriculum is concise in nature and has a strong focus on achievement outcomes. It omits mātauranga Māori from teaching, contributing to culturally insensitive programmes and inappropriate definitions of success for Māori learners (Macfarlane et al., 2014). The Ministry of Education has, however, implemented a number of initiatives over recent years to address Māori educational success and achievement in mainstream education including the Ka Hikitia Accelerating Success 2013 to 2017 (Ka Hikitia) programme (Ministry of Education, 2022) and the Te Hurihanganui: A Blueprint for Transformative System Shift (Te Hurihanganui; Ministry of Education, 2020). Indicators of success in mainstream education for Māori, however, remain largely unexplored (Duckworth et al., 2021; Macfarlane et al., 2014). Furthermore, the earlier Ka Hikitia (Ministry of Education, 2022c) strategy may have been poorly understood in some schools and, as a result, the implementation and uptake were low. Some teachers appeared to have difficulty understanding it and while they had good intentions, they needed to be committed to seeing and learning about Te Ao Māori (Evans, 2020). Similarly, in the Te Kotahitanga project (Bishop et al., 2009), which assisted teachers in schools with professional development to support Māori learners, a quarter of teachers did not implement the culturally responsive framework (Macfarlane et al., 2012). In the later and more recent strategy, Te Hurihanganui, the Ministry of Education worked with mātanga (experts) to improve achievement and wellbeing for students and their whānau (family) by addressing inequity and racism. They established six principles to support this; Te Ao Māori, tino rangatiratanga (absolute authority), whanaungatanga (connections and relationships), te ira tangata (inner potential of a person), mana ōrite (equity) and te hāngaitanga (the relevance of). This strategy has been implemented since late 2020.

Furthermore, two series of case studies have been presented by the Ministry of Education (2022c), including one from Ka Hikitia and the other, the Rangiātea (Educational Leaders, 2022) case studies with a focus on increasing success and achievement for Māori students. The Rangiātea case studies (Educational Leaders, 2022) provided an operational look at the success and achievement of Māori at five secondary schools. There were similarities to other work, including the importance of making connections, relationships with whānau (Duckworth et al., 2021; Macfarlane et al., 2014) and some schools had invested in rūmaki (Māori language immersion) classes. The Ka Hikitia studies were conducted in primary and intermediate schools and contrasted somewhat with the Rangiātea case studies. Their focus was less operational and concentrated more around mātauranga Māori including identity, tikanga, mātauranga ā-iwi, staff support and whānau engagement. They highlighted six principles that were important to Māori educational success: Treaty of Waitangi, Māori potential approach, identity, language and culture, ako (learning) and productive partnerships. These findings align closely with other published literature (Doherty, 2009; Duckworth et al., 2021; Hotere-Barnes et al., 2014; Macfarlane et al., 2014).

These initiatives while positive continue to lack explicit guidelines on what and how to teach mātauranga Māori from a Te Ao Māori perspective and there is no framework in which to follow. The He Awa Whiria (braided rivers) framework developed by Macfarlane (2012), which describes the idea of integrating Indigenous knowledge and western science in education could potentially be adapted to provide schools with the tools they need, to incorporate mātauranga Māori into their daily teaching (Macfarlane, 2015). Despite the lack of guidance, schools have begun to make some changes in their school community based on previous research and initiatives (Edie, 2022), however, there is no in-depth exploration of how schools are incorporating the above identified principles in their every day school learning environment to support success and achievement for their Māori learners (Macfarlane et al., 2012).

The purpose behind this study was to document and to promote a strengths based approach to enabling Māori learners, and as such this study is an exploration of how a purposively selected group of mainstream primary schools in the Hawke’s Bay region, east coast, North Island, New Zealand, of the Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi (east coast tribe that covers Hawke’s Bay, North Island, New Zealand) are incorporating mātauranga Māori into their everyday school life to support learning and to encourage success and achievement. This is a small study of schools selected because of their known support of mātauranga Māori in the curriculum. It is not a scoping of Hawke’s Bay schools generally or of any Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi position on mātauranga Māori in schools.

Hawke’s Bay is a region that has proportionally more children than in other regions, along with a higher than national average of those who identity as Māori (27%), compared to the national average of 16.6%, and Māori have the highest percentage of people living in the most deprived areas of the region (Yong et al., 2017). Furthermore, in Hawke’s Bay, Māori staying in secondary education until their 17th birthday has been decreasing for at least the last 3 years; in 2019, 73.8% were still in school, however, in 2021, this had declined to 66.3% in comparison to 82.4% for European New Zealand children (Ministry of Education, 2022b).

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews with school principals were undertaken. Purposive sampling was used to select schools rich in information (Palinkas et al., 2015) and based on the research team’s knowledge of schools in the community incorporating mātauranga Māori into their school environment. The selected schools were all mainstream primary schools. School principals were contacted directly through phone or email and were invited to participate in the interview. All participants were provided an information sheet and were required to complete a consent form. Principal interviews were conducted by the first author, an experienced qualitative researcher, and author 3, a less experienced researcher, attended three of the interviews as part of mentoring. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. This study was granted ethics approval from the Eastern Institute of Technology (Ref: EA05220422).

This research was Māori-centric and considered consistent with Kaupapa Māori (Māori consistent approach) principles (Smith, 2015). Authors 1, 3 and 6 identify as Māori. Author 1, an experienced academic and qualitative researcher, had little prior expertise in the area of mātauranga Māori and education and was being mentored by author 6, a Māori and Indigenous Research Professor. Authors 2, 3 and 5 were involved in the study design.

It could not be guaranteed that all principals would be Māori considering this study was conducted in mainstream English schools, however, the research is considered by Māori, for Māori and with Māori. Māori principals were offered the option to conduct their interviews in te reo (Māori language) or English; they all chose to be interviewed in English. Consistent with both qualitative research and Kaupapa Māori research, the premise was to understand the perspectives of school principals with few prompts and they were encouraged to direct the conversation to where they felt relevant for them in their school environment. Interview questions (Appendix 1) were broad but tailored to education, learning and mātauranga Māori, encouraging open conversation.

Results

Interviews took place with five primary school principals in the Hawke’s Bay region between May and September 2022. Schools had a high Māori population of 55% to 100%. Four schools were decile 1 and one school was a decile 2; decile 1 schools have a high proportion of students from low socio-economic communities (Ministry of Education, 2022d). The themes were focused on creating a curriculum built around Te Ao Māori. The themes identified were as follows: mainstream curriculum not fit for purpose for Māori learners, blending of mātauranga Māori and western knowledge, mātauranga Māori as learning and educational experiences; mātauranga ā-iwi and achievement fit for tamariki (children). Pseudonyms have been used to identify the quotes of principals.

Mātauranga Māori as learning and educational experiences

Most principals felt mātauranga Māori should be an essential component in education for tamariki and that their learning should be deliberate around important values from Te Ao Māori and what that looks like throughout their schooling:

Bring back our mātauranga Māori . . . so manaakitanga [compassionate and caring], what does that mean? What does that look like for a 5-year-old? How are we showing that the kids are progressing through what we expect them to be able to do? (Kauri, principal)

Schools often used mātauranga Māori in their everyday teaching and learning for their children:

So we’re doing it through pūrākau [creation story] and the cool thing today was a class was talking about a bear that was in a cave and how are we going to get the bear out of the cave without getting harmed ourselves or the bear harming itself and one of the kids, he said we can do a karakia [ritual incantation or prayer] and help him to come out, or do a karakia to Tāne Mahuta [deity of the forest], he might able be able to help him come out, so that’s how our kids are talking now . . . the kids know because we have learnt the pūrākau. (Totara, principal)

It appeared that schools frequently adapted teaching practices to incorporate mātauranga Māori:

It was gamified learning [referring to the robotics programme] around Te Ao Māori and the local stories about pā [living site for Māori communities] sites, marae [traditional meeting place], and capturing Rongokako [a character in the game] depending on which hapū [sub-tribal group] you belong to. (Nikau, principal)

One school principal spoke about the mātauranga behind te reo and emphasised the importance of this in teaching and learning:

Let’s not forget that our language was never ever a written language, it was always handed down so that’s something that we have got to be always mindful of is when we’re teaching, don’t bring in the reading too fast, don’t bring in the writing too fast, just feed our taringa [ears] our ā-waha nei [by mouth] and getting them to hear the sounds and understand what you’re saying through your presentation of yourself your body language as well as your reo ā-waha [spoken language] and that comes with kapa haka [dance group], it comes with hīmene [hymn], karakia, every morning we have a pōwhiri [welcome] to bring everybody into the whare [house] and that is the start of their day and so its schools really realising, what am I doing, what do I want to do and where do I start and how do I get there and not to try and turn our language into a written and reading language first . . . English medium schools and even English medium schools that have bilingual or immersion classes forget the importance of whakarongo me te kōrero [listen and then speak]. (Kowhai, principal)

Principals felt teachers were not seen as bearers of all knowledge and many schools have adopted a tuakana-teina (older or younger sibling or cousin) relationship style of learning and teaching: “Teachers aren’t seen as the bearer of all knowledge because teachers acknowledge they have as much to learn from the children . . . the children teach their classmates and they teach the teachers as well” (Nikau, principal) and “[yoga is] student led in te reo Māori, you won’t hear a word of English anywhere and that’s a start on our Te Ao Māori journey as a school” (Totara, principal).

The notion of rangatiratanga (authority) appeared to be held in high regard and through education and learning, principals encouraged their children to be a rangatira (chief):

Our focus is aiming for a state of liberation or rangatiratanga . . . our kaupapa [subjects] is around enabling every child to be themselves and to grow into themselves, not to control them to be something that they’re not. (Rimu, principal)

We want to grow kids who are rangatira, who are empowered enough to be narrators of their own learning . . . one of our kaupapa and our tohu [sign] is rangatiratanga which is empowerment and then empowering our tamariki to be narrators of their own learning. (Kowhai, principal)

Mātauranga ā-iwi

Many tribal groups have variations of knowledge that has been passed down through generations, for example, pūrākau and waiata (song) are often different depending on the area of the iwi (tribal group). Principals spoke about the importance of teaching mātauranga ā-iwi to tamariki:

The one thing that we want to create, Kahungunutanga [elements pertaining to Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi] and making sure that what we’re doing aligns with Ngāti Kahungunu . . . we took the kids down to [the local marae] and we heard stories that I could never have dreamed of knowing, but a power comes from that knowledge and our kids knowing our journey of what was here before they arrived, hundreds of years ago is just as important as what they’re learning now. (Nikau, principal)

They felt that to be able to intrinsically support their students, they needed to have local knowledge: “if I am supporting [name] who has Ngāti Kahungunu whakapapa, what am I doing to support his mātauranga or his Kahungunu mātauranga to support him to grow” (Rimu, principal)

Whānau knowledge was equally as important, as, often, whānau were the mātauranga holders of their tīpuna and histories:

Cause our whānau have all these skills, there’s this [m]um . . . her and her boy learning about flax weaving, harakeke [flax], whānau coming in and making fried bread cause whānau have those skills . . . we are teaching the curriculum through hands on, using the skills that our whānau have, cause if those things aren’t passed on then they’re lost, those taonga. (Totara, principal)

We’re looking into bringing in the knowledge of our elders and our community back in and having intrinsic links to our local marae . . . a lot of the resource sits with our whānau, that’s why our whānau are so important . . . in terms of the teaching, it’s about having the knowledge from within our community to share with our children . . . we want to know, who are the successful Māori we can connect with who have clocked the mainstream education and use them to come and share knowledge with our kids. (Nikau, principal)

Many principals felt that knowledge comes in many forms and educational experiences outside the classroom from around their local area were important: “the kids are going to Ātea A Rangi [celestial star compass], those kinds of educational experiences that are right on our doorstep need to be incorporated into everything that we are thinking about” (Kauri, principal).

Achievement fit for tamariki

Principals all made mention of prioritising a curriculum and subsequent measures of achievement that were bound in Te Ao Māori and mātauranga Māori that catered to their tamariki and whānau: “we make up an individual learning plan for them that’s targeted to where they are but that will show progression” (Kowhai, principal) and

It’s not all focused on academic achievement, for us, kids will be good at what they’re good at, so a kid that is phenomenal at physical education and health may not be amazing at mathematics, instead of looking at the deficit, looking at the positive of what they’re actually good at, you know because they could be an All Black, they could be a Hawkes Bay Magpie [local name for players on the provincial rugby team]. (Nikau, principal)

Furthermore, all schools felt that mainstream ideas of success and achievement do not cater to tamariki Māori:

For a long time, education has always had a cultural bias against Māori even though we were partner or are partners in the Tiriti [The Treaty of Waitangi], every space that you walk into in schools these days is only catered to one group to succeed. (Kowhai, principal)

Not buying into the Pākehā measures of success and the Pākehā and western ideas about what constitutes achievement, there are other things that are more important . . . .National Standards have done nothing to improve the educational outcomes for Māori kids, in fact it has probably made it worse. (Kauri, principal)

Discussion

Māori language, culture and knowledge have been replaced through colonisation, leading to an education system that fails to meet the needs of Māori students (Hindle et al., 2015; Macfarlane, 2015). This study is a first look into how a select number of schools in a regional area of New Zealand are incorporating mātauranga Māori into their school environment to support learning and encourage success in their Māori learners. We found that principals recognise that the curriculum does not serve their students well and that they respond by purposely creating teaching and learning opportunities based around mātauranga Māori. These schools’ showed how they use pūrākau, incorporate mātauranga into their everyday teaching, encourage learning outside the classroom and place a strong emphasis on the learning of traditional knowledge from within the local community. These schools have placed mātauranga Māori at the forefront of their school environment, an example of which is that in recognising te reo was once only a spoken language, there is acceptance that written language may come later than oral language. These schools have developed their curriculum within the bounds of the wider mainstream curriculum, but are using innovative ways to support their Māori school population and wider community.

The current mainstream curriculum conflicts with what schools in our study are trying to achieve. Te Ao Māori is holistic in nature and Māori values are not just principles, they are ways of being and relating to others (Cheung, 2008). In comparison, mainstream education in New Zealand is based on western knowledge, which is reductionist in thinking and for the most part, lacks a holistic outlook. The inability of mainstream curricula to cater for Māori learners has been reported by others (Macfarlane et al., 2014) and the past decade has seen little improvement. However, education for Māori may not have to be either mainstream or from a Te Ao Māori perspective as it has been in the past. Researchers have suggested that Māori are more likely to be successful when they are confident in both worlds (Macfarlane et al., 2014). There is support for bringing both worlds together and that while it may be challenging, they can actually complement one another (Bohannon, 2007; Cheung, 2008). The He Awa Whiria model acknowledges both Indigenous and western science approaches are interconnected and proposes that knowledge from mātauranga Māori can inform western practices and vice versa, suggesting the two are more effective interwoven than either one is alone (Macfarlane, 2015). Principals in this study acknowledged that their learners benefit from both mātauranga Pākehā and mātauranga Māori for education, learning and success.

The process of learning is often measured by learning outcomes, suggesting that learning occurs in a linear fashion (Hindle et al., 2015), however for many children learning does not occur this way and recently, exploration has been made showing ways for teachers to contextualise assessment within mātauranga Māori (Kerr & Averill, 2021). Internationally, although not in New Zealand primary schools, there appears to be a strong focus on assessing student achievement through means of standardised testing (Hindle et al., 2015) which Brayboy and Castagno (2009) say is an outcome of colonisation and that it fails to represent Indigenous epistemologies. Amrein and Berliner (2002) describes this as schools placing more emphasis on students’ test results rather than on the students’ learning. This is often evidenced by a “one size fits all” approach to measuring success with a strong focus on achieving a certain standard in comparison to others. In contrast, the principals in this study were actively finding educational pathways through creating a learning philosophy built around Te Ao Māori and mātauranga Māori, in which their students can achieve success outside of what is traditional for reading, writing and maths. In assessment activities consistent with Kerr and Averill (2021), the teaching and assessment of school students by these principals addresses the issues of learning needs, inclusivity, effectiveness of assessment and the culturally responsive pedagogy raised in Mahuika and Bishop in 2008.

Using literacy in a broad sense, encompassing reading, writing, listening and speaking as an example, Edwards (2010) discussed the nature of traditional literacy for Māori beginning with oral language and Indigenous values as opposed to reading and writing. These findings support those of this study that te reo Māori was a spoken language first and this should be acknowledged as a way that Māori can learn. Literacy needs to be considered from an Indigenous perspective, however, there has been no in-depth exploration of what literacy looks like for Māori and mātauranga Māori has largely not been considered. Most literacy initiatives around the world do not consider Indigenous knowledge (Edwards, 2010). A recent initiative, the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA), has been implemented in some New Zealand schools with evidence of success for Māori students (Gillon et al., 2023). BSLA utilises western understanding of knowledge of developing literacy through a cognitive lens while also valuing and braiding this knowledge with what works for Māori; mātauranga and tikanga through engaging with whānau, local by-Māori, for-Māori culturally responsive pedagogical research and te reo Māori. This shows promise for consideration of mātauranga Māori, as well as for the notion of using the western curriculum to enhance learning and education of Māori.

In a project forecasting a culturally responsive future education system, the whānau-led projects of Hotere-Barnes et al. (2014) found that both whānau aspirations, authority and autonomy, and the learning and maintenance of te reo Māori should be embedded in learning for educational wellbeing. They enhance not only te reo Māori, but mātauranga Māori as well. These authors discuss a fictitious scenario of what a mainstream English school could look like in 2040 based on their research findings and schools using the interface between western knowledge and mātauranga Māori. They reported values consistent with Māori culture and mātauranga for whānau Māori, such as the tuakana-teina model that prioritised community and student-led learning and whakawhanaungatanga (to make relationships). The authors suggested that schools need to focus on connecting to place, promote whanaungatanga, take a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning, and to explore realistic gauges of success. The schools in this study display many of the characteristics described in the scenario by Hotere-Barnes et al. (2014) such as a commitment to Te Ao Māori and mātauranga Māori in the school environment alongside being community and student-focused.

The small sample size and purposive sampling method are limitations of this study and acknowledgement is given that these views may not be those all of principals in Hawke’s Bay. Nevertheless, this study provides a look inside how some schools are incorporating mātauranga Māori into their school environment to support the learning of their students. This work could pave the way for introduction of policies, such as mandatory localisation of curriculum and the upcoming introduction of Te Takanga o te Wā (Māori History Guidelines Year 1–8) and Aotearoa New Zealand histories (Ministry of Education, 2022a). Further emphasis should be placed on upskilling teachers in mātauranga Māori so they can confidently and accurately teach their tamariki.

Conclusion

It is encouraging and enlightening after a heavy deficit focus of education for Māori, to gain insight into the innovative ways some schools are incorporating mātauranga Māori, in particular, mātauranga ā-iwi, into their day-to-day school environment to support learning and success for Māori learners. The mainstream curriculum alone remains a source of contention for schools whose fundamental philosophies do not align with traditional western thinking. In addition, some schools were open to the idea of incorporating both Māori and western models to create a successful He Awa Whiria-like approach to education for their tamariki educational pathway for their Māori learners.