As we are all aware, Maori teachers are still few and far between. Although they are on the increase, we are still a long way behind the eight ball. So what are the important aspects of being a Maori teacher in today’s society?

Teacher training is an exhaustive, long and very involved process. From learning intra- and inter-personal skills to allow you to understand yourself, through to learning and understanding the cognitive, natural and nurtured development of children. Theoretically, teacher trainees are given the tools necessary to ensure they are successful when dealing with children in a classroom. They are taught how to plan ahead and always have their lessons well-planned and be able to change those plans if something unexpected pops up. They are taught behavioural management techniques so they can cope with those students less likely to behave. Teacher trainees are a select group of people who are dedicating themselves to ensuring the youth of today succeed in education.

Statistics show that Maori in secondary school often do not succeed as well as others. Many reasons have been given for this failure: lack of intelligence; poor, drug-addicted parents; alcoholism and many other social disorders. My opinion is that is more a lack of cultural understanding and teachers not being aware of the different barriers to learning that many students have. Here is where the modern, up-to-date teacher trainee comes into the mix. With new cultural competencies being incorporated into the teacher training, many of the alienating, deficit teaching practices will be a thing of the past. Maori students can look forward to a better, improved, modern, culturally-sensitive teacher.

There are a number of challenges for Maori teachers in today’s society. As a former teacher trainee I quickly discovered that what I learned at College was very useful for a starter. However there are other tricks to the trade that can only be learned by practical experience. Maori teacher trainees are entering into a new era of understanding that was lacking when I went through the College of Education. We were taught that all children learn the same no matter what ethnicity or ability. Thank goodness this attitude has changed in modern teacher training. Maori teacher trainees need to learn what they can from their training to help our young children pass through compulsory schooling and into tertiary education.

Te Whanau o Ako Pai
Ko Wharangi te maunga
Ko Waipahihi te awa
Ko Karorirori te marae
Ko Tane-nui-a-rangi te tupuna
Ko Akopai te whare

Here are a couple of handy
contacts to have if you’re
studying at Karori Campus:
Pine Southon
School Administration Manager
Phone: (04) 463 5633
Peihana Ruhe
Marae Taurima, Te Kura Māori
Phone: (04) 463 9553
28A Campbell Street,
Karori Campus

Ngai Tauira exists to support all Maori students who enrol in any course of study here at Victoria University. We provide an ongoing service which involves academic, cultural and whanau support, liaison, dissemination of information, pastoral advice and general help to all our students.

Our primary objective is to ensure all Maori students are able to enjoy a safe and comfortable time at Victoria University. We also strive to promote Te Reo me ona tikanga wherever and whenever possible.

The Ngai Tauira office is situated in Room 1 on Level 2 of the Student Union Building. Our office is open from 10.00am-4.00pm Monday to Friday, so if you are passing by, stop in and say “Kia ora”.
Te Komiti Whakahaere o Ngai Tauira looks forward to meeting you all.
Nau mai, haere mai. Mauri ora

Victor Manawatu
Tumuaki o Ngai Tauira
Phone: 04 463 6978
Email: ngaitauira@vuw.ac.nz
Website: http://www.ngaitauira.org.nz/

Ki a koutou katoa, ngā tauira, ngā kaiako, ngā kaimahi katoa i Te Whare Wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Ki a tātou nei tini mate kua hoki atu ki te kāinga tūturu, haere, haere, haere atu rā. Āpiti hono tātai hono, te hunga mate ki te hunga mate. Āpiti hono tātai hono tātou te hunga ora ki a tātou. Tātou mā ngā kanohi ora, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Ko wai tēnei tāngata e mihi atu ki a koutou?

Ko Tapuae o Uenuku te Maunga
Ko Waiautoa te awa
Ko Te Tai o Marokura te moana
Ko Kaikōura te whenua
Ko Takahanga te marae
Ko Marukaitatea te whare Tīpuna
Ko Ngāti Kurii te hapū
Ko Ngāi Tahu te iwi
Ko Victor Manawatu tōku ingoa.

I tēnei wā ko au te tumuaki o Ngāi Tauira, te rōpū tauira Māori i tēnei Whare Wānanga. Nau mai haere mai ki tēnei māheni o Te Ao Mārama hei tautoko i te kaupapa o Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. Ahakoa, ki a mātou nei whakaaro ka tū te wiki o te reo i ngā wiki katoa o te tau, ko tēnei te wiki kua tohungia e te Kāwanatanga hei tautoko ake i te reo o o mātou nei tīpuna. Nō reira, kei te mihi ki a koutou katoa.

Ko wai a Ngāi Tauira? Arā, ko koutou ngā tauira Māori a Ngāi Tauira. Ko te komiti whakahaere o Ngāi Tauira ko ngā tauira e mahia ana te mahi mō koutou ngā tauira Māori i Te Whare Wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui. Anei mātou, ngā māngai mō koutou ki te wāhi me te poari mātauranga. Kei kōnei hoki mātou ki te awhi, ki te tautoko i ngā tauira Māori katoa. E mōhio ana mātou i ngā mea whakahirahira ki a koutou, ngā tauira Māori, nā te mea, he tauira hoki mātou. Nō reira ki a tātou mā, ngā tauira Māori, nau mai, haere mai ki te kōrero ki a mātou, te kōmiti whakahaere, e pā ana ki o koutou nei take. Ka whakarongo mātou ki a koutou nei hiahia, a koutou nei whakaaro. Kei a koutou te tikanga, kei a koutou te kaupapa.

Ko te mahi anō hoki o te kōmiti whakahaere ko te whai tonu i ngā take whakarerekēhia, whaka-Māorihia hoki, e te whare wānanga me te Kāwanatanga. He nui ake ngā take mō ngā tauira Māori i tēnei tau. Mai i te whakaaro o ngā whare wānanga ki te poro iho i ngā nama whakaurunga tauira hou, ki te mahi o te Kāwanatanga ki te whakakore i te pūtea mō ngā rōpū tauira, pēnei i a Ngāi Tauira. Koinei ētahi kaupapa e tū ake ai a Ngāi Tauira ki te whakahua i ngā whakaaro o te tauira Māori ki te whare wānanga, ki ngā minita, ki ngā iwi, ki ngā whānau whānui katoa. Ko te tūmanako, mā ngā tauira, ngā kaiako, ngā kaimahi katoa e tautoko i a mātou. I a mātou nei whakaaro ki te hāpai i te mana o ngā Māori katoa e whai ana i te mātauranga ara tuatoru.

Hei pānui anō, i tēnei tau ko ngā rōpū tauira i te rohe o Te Whanganui-a-Tara, a Ngāi Tauira rātou ko Weltec, ko MAWSA, ko Whitireia hoki e whakahaere ana i Te Huinga Tauira. Ko tēnei hui ‘Te Hui a Tau’ o Te Mana Ākonga, te rōpū tauira Māori o Aotearoa. Ko ngā rā o Te Huinga Tauira, ko te 26th – 29th o Here Turi Kōkā. Ki te pīrangi koutou ki te haere ki Te Huinga Tauira, kia tere a koutou nā wero mai.

Nō reira e koutou mā, nau mai haere mai ki ngā whakaritenga, kua whakaritea mā koutou i tēnei wiki o te reo. Haere mai ki te ako i te reo, whakarongo ki ngā kaikōrero e kōrerorero ana i a rātou kaupapa, kāinga i ngā kai pai o Te Herenga Waka Marae. Anei te wiki mō tātou katoa ki te whakanui i te reo tūturu ake o Aotearoa.

Mauri ora

Victor Manawatu
Tumuaki o Ngāi Tauira

• To have relevant and efficient tertiary education provision that meets the needs of students and the labour market;
• To simplify the tertiary education funding system;
• To reduce central bureaucracy;
• To strengthen quality and require accountability;
• To support and encourage students; and
• To improve the interface between schools and tertiary institutions.

To accommodate these priorities, a new Tertiary Education Strategy is currently being worked on by the Ministry of Education. The government realises that participation in tertiary education has increased rapidly over the last decade and the cost of tertiary education has grown significantly. Despite this, in the recent budget there was no extra funding directed toward tertiary education. The government is also aware of the increasing number of Māori and Pacific peoples in higher levels of tertiary education and therefore in an effort to supporting educational achievement, there must needs be co-operative interaction between government, institutions and communities. Moreover, the contemporary socio-economic environment of New Zealand is increasingly influenced by global and technological changes which mean that tertiary qualifications are becoming a prerequisite for participation in the knowledge society.

The tertiary education of Māori has national repercussions and universities have a responsibility, as the critic and conscience of society, to redress the current level of disparities between Māori and non-Māori to enhance social cohesion and improve the quality of society in New Zealand. This is significant in an environment characterized by the changing demographics of an ageing Pākehā population which contrasts with the young population profile of Maori.

The Impact of Racism – Colonial / Post Colonial Perspective

The determination of Māori to retain autonomy over their education results in no small measure from the impact of racism – institutional, cultural, personally mediated, internalized – on our educational achievement. This can be viewed within the context of colonial and post colonial perspectives. From a colonial perspective Māori education was restricted to a limited non-academic curriculum. This was with a view toward civilising the race and quieting the country. Controlling Māori access to knowledge was justified by the ideology of the inferior intellectual ability of natives. Western education would liberate Māori from the burden of their ethnic characteristics. State education provided a mechanism by which Maori would be effectively assimilated into Pākehā society. Thus education was instrumental in the expansion of Pākehā hegemony and Māori self internalization of their natural suitability to manual vocations. Māori underachievement was not officially recognised until 1960 when the Hunn Report was released. The Hunn Report afforded official ascendancy of cultural deficit explanations. The assumption was that the homes and communities in which Māori children socialized precluded the acquisition of cognitive skills and cultural characteristics necessary for scholastic success. Hence the development of remedial programmes designed to compensate for Māori economic, cultural and emotional deprivation.

The re-emergence of culture and the significance placed on multicultural / bilingual education in the 1970’s resulted in the deficit being transmogrified into difference. Michael Young’s (1971) thesis, Knowledge and Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education, provided a critique of the “socially constructed nature of knowledge” and argued that disparities in outcomes were “a product of the education system at all levels”. Young’s analysis was applied to Māori education and the structural impediments of the Pākehā dominated system, which included the imbalance of Māori-Pākehā power relations and a Pākehā curriculum which endorses the superiority and validity of western knowledge. This imbalance of power has created the Politics of Difference which is formative in the negative representation of Māori and their culture primarily because Pākehā control the definition of difference. There are two contradictory views of difference. The first view which is defined by the dominant group is ‘what counts as difference’ and the second view of ‘what differences count’. In the first view Maori will always be viewed negatively because Māori will be compared with the Pākehā norm. The second view acknowledges the validity of Maori conceptions of difference. This is exemplified by Kaupapa Māori endeavours which focus on the realization of rangatiratanga and redressing structural inequalities by challenging and contesting negative definitions of Maori differences.

The racist underpinnings of state education in the post-colonial context has exacerbated educational inequalities and encouraged acceptance and entrenchment of inequalities as being an appropriate, natural and unavoidable outcome of education. The issue of negative schooling experiences remains a reality for the majority of Maori students. Maori educational failure is indicative of how stereotypical Māori identities are defined, constructed and shaped within the asymmetric power relationships of Aotearoa society. (Bishop and Russell, 1995:29). The process of defining Māori identity within particular power relationships leads to internalized identities that are divided, inauthentic and thus gives rise to a shame response. Educational success is thus dependent on offsetting the shame response to one of esteem.

Current issues for Maori in Tertiary Education

Māori participation in tertiary study has increased rapidly over the last twenty years. The number of Māori school leavers entering into University study has increased in line with national demographics. This has meant a review of the tertiary education environment. Although there have been a number of changes implemented to better meet the needs of Māori students, there is still a wide gap between the completion rates of Māori and non- Māori within the Universities. Statistics show that Māori are less likely than non- Māori to remain in study and complete a degree. These statistics highlight the need for support services for Māori to try and change the statistics to a more favourable outcome for Māori.

The majority of Māori tertiary students are second chance learners with two-thirds of Māori students over the age of 25 years. One-third of those adult students are over the age of 40. For a number of Māori they are the first in their family to participate in higher education. It is this reason that foundation courses are so important to ensuring a successful transition of second chance learners into tertiary study. A large number of Māori enter into tertiary study at the certificate level, then staircase onto diploma level before moving into degree study. These courses will be affected by the government’s decision not to invest further in tertiary education.

At a time of recession, history shows that more people enter into tertiary education until such time as the job market becomes favourable again. The decision of the government not to increase the funding for education makes the ability for those people to participate much more difficult.

A major area of concern that is going to impact negatively on the ability for Māori to participate in higher learning is restricted entry to all courses of study. This will mean second chance learners will have less opportunity to study at University. The focus for capped entry will be on school leavers first, the rest second. This goes against the education act which gives open entry to any person over the age of twenty.

The Labour Government created a lot of difficulties for Māori in tertiary study through the axing of a number of Māori grants and scholarships such as Manaaki Tauira. National will also be fazing out a number of scholarship under the proviso of having to help pay for a number of unfunded student initiatives. Anne Tolley stated, “We’ve had to make the hard decision that our country cannot continue the growing cost of tertiary education by simply expanding the number of places. We need to reduce the government’s administrative costs and the compliance costs faced by providers”.

A part of the solution in reducing the government’s administration costs is by restructuring the governance of Polytechnics and then Universities. One of the proposed changes is to remove all Maori representation from positions within Councils. This seems to go against the Minister’s next statement: “We are committed to improving the efficiency of the tertiary education system to maintain its effectiveness yet ensure the access for priority groups is not compromised”. The Minister in her speech continually stated that the priority groups the government were looking at were Māori, Pacific Islanders and students with disabilities. Removing all Māori representation from the decision making forums inhibits Māori from having a voice within the governance structure and compromises the ability to meet the needs and aspirations of our people.

Although participation is increasing, completion rates are still poor. Prioritising spending around successful retention initiatives should see an increase in completion rates. Programmes such as Manaaki Pihipihinga in the Faculty of Commerce, and the Awhina programme in Faculty of Science at the University of Victoria, are examples of successful programmes. There have been some successful programmes in other Universities, however they are reliant on the equity funding that has been incorporated into the investment plan. This creates uncertainty in the continuation of these programmes from one year to the next. If institutions are serious about insuring the retention of students then retention programmes need to have proper support to ensure they operate successfully.

I te tuatahi me mihi ki te matua nui i te rangi, nānā nei ngā mea katoa. Ki ngā mate o ia marae, o ia marae haere, haere, haere. Āpiti hono, tātai hono. Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate. Āpiti hono tātai hono te hunga ora ki te hunga ora. Tātou ma ngā kanohi ora, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Kia ora koutou katoa. Ko Victor Manawatu tōku ingoa. I tēnei wā ko au te tumuaki o Ngāi Tauira, te rōpu ākonga Māori o te Whare Wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui.

I tipu ake te rōpū o Ngāi Tauira mai i te whakaaro ō ngā tauira Māori mō tētahi rōpū ki te tū, ki te panaia a mātou nei whakaaro, i a mātou nei tumanako, ā, i a mātou nei wawata hoki i te Whare Wānanga. Ko Ngāi Tauira te rōpū e mahi tonu ana tēnei kaupapa.

Ko te kaupapa tino nui o Ngāi Tauira, hei tautoko, hei manaaki, hei āwhina hoki ngā tauria Māori katoa. Ka tū tonu mātou ki te kōrerorero i ngā hiahia o ngā tauira ki te rōpu whakahaere.

Ko tō tātou nei kōrero moemoeā, ‘Hei muka tuitui i te korowai whakamarumaru i te hunga e whanake ana’.

He nui ake te mahi o tā tātou nei rōpū i tēnei tau. Ko te whakaaro nui o mātou ki te whakanui i ngā mea pai i te maramataka Māori me ngā mea pai i te maramataka o te whare wananga, mai i te timata o te wāhanga tuatahi ki te mutunga o te wāhanga tuatoru.

I te timata o te tau ka mahi mātou ko Te Herenga Waka, Ko VUWSA i te hāngī ānini te māhunga. He rā pai tēnei mō ngā tauira hou ki te tūtaki i ētahi whānau i te whare wānanga.
Ka tū hoki mātou ki te whakanuia i te hui whakapūau. Te rā pōtae mo ngā ākonga i whakamutu i a rātou nei tohu mātauranga. I hoatu mātou i tētahi taonga mai i te rōpū o Ngāi Tauira ki ngā ākonga i haere mai ki raro i te korowai o Toihuarewa.

Ka noho a Ngāi Tauira i waenganui o te Rōpū Te Mana Akonga. Ko Te Mana Akonga te rōpū tauira Māori ō Aotearoa. Ko te tumuaki o Te Mana Ākonga te māngai mō ngā tauira Māori katoa i ngā whare wānanga me ngā kura tini hoki. Ia tau, ia tau ka haere a Ngāi Tauira me ētahi atu tauira, mai i te whare wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika, ki Te Huinga Tauira. Ko Te Awhioraki, nō Ōtautahi, ngā kaiwhakahaere o Te Huinga Tauira i tēnei tau. Nui ake ngā whakataetae i te huinga, ā, ko te Kapahaka, Manu kōrero, Kareoki, me ngā Hākinakina.

Ināianei ka whakamana a mātou i te wiki o te reo Māori. Ahakoa ko mātou nei whakaaro, ko ia ra, ia wiki, ia marama, ia tau, ngā wā ki te whakamana i a tātou nei reo. Nō reira ngā mihi nunui kia koutou katoa i a koutou whakaaro pai i whakanuia te reo ō mātou nei tīpuna. I te mutunga o ia wāhanga ka whakahaere mātou i ngā pō whakangāhau mō ngā tauira kia whakatā.

Ahakoa ka mahi tātou i ngā mahi pai, i ngā mahi whakangahau, ko tā mātou i kōnei he raupī, he whenawhena i ngā tauira i tēnei Whare Wānanga mana nui nei.
Mauri ora whānau.