Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

Activity 3: Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

Identify and evaluate two contemporary issues or trends that are influencing or shaping NZ or international education, which you find most relevant to your practice.

Elaborate in your own words how you would address those issues or trends in your context within your learning community or professional context.

Te Puni Rumaki: Strengthening the preparation, capability and retention of Māori-medium teacher trainees (2014)

The main aim of the research project Te Puni Rumaki was to gather information about practices and strategies that successfully prepare and retain Māori-medium initial teacher education students so that they are well equipped to teach in Māori-medium contexts. It also aimed to gather information about how practices and strategies might be further strengthened and improved.

Author(s): Margie Hōhepa, Ngārewa Hāwera, Karaitiana Tamatea & Sharyn Heaton. Report Commissioned by the Ministry of Education.

Date Published: June 2014

As part of a targeted strategy to grow the number of Māori medium teachers, the Ministry of Education launched the TeachNZ Career Changer Māori medium Scholarships in 2005. These are aimed at those who are highly proficient or fluent speakers of te reo Māori and who have a depth of life and work experience in a particular field—not teaching—who want to retrain to become a teacher at primary/Kura Kaupapa or secondary/Wharekura levels.

I applied to Massey University in the year 2007 for the four years Bachelor of Education Māori Medium. I was in a class of 12 and one of six that came from a Kura Kaupapa setting. With the same goal we all had plans to return to our primary kura kaupapa and teach what was given to us by our former teachers. The scholarship proved to be an essential part of why we wanted to enter education and in the māori medium. To become eligible you must partake in a language test provided by te taura whir ii te reo māori. Once completed, your responsibility was a B average. This proved to be successful amongst my friends and I as we were accountale to Teach Nz.

“Māori medium teacher trainees and beginning teachers are the future of the Māori medium workforce.” I  and the relationships that they as teachers have with their Māori students will have the greatest effect on those students’ achievement” (Ministry of Education, 2008). I believe māori alone will impact the education of māori.

Marsden, Maori (1988) The Natural World and Natural Resources: Maori Value Systems and Perspectives, in Resource Management Law Reform, Vol. 29A. Ministry for the Environment, Wellington Mead, H. (1998). The Development of Wananga: Politics and Vision., Sound Recording, the University of Auckland, Auckland Mead, H. (2003). Tikanga Maori: Living by Maori Values. Huia Publishers, Wellington Mikaere, Ani (1995) The Balance Destroyed: The Consequences for Maori Women of the Colonisation of Tikanga Maori, Unpublished Master of Jurisprudence thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton 

Marsden, Maori (1988) The Natural World and Natural Resources: Maori Value Systems and Perspectives, in Resource Management Law Reform, Vol. 29A. Ministry for the Environment, Wellington Mead, H. (1998). The Development of Wananga: Politics and Vision., Sound Recording, the University of Auckland, Auckland Mead, H. (2003). Tikanga Maori: Living by Maori Values. Huia Publishers, Wellington Mikaere, Ani (1995) The Balance Destroyed: The Consequences for Maori Women of the Colonisation of Tikanga Maori, Unpublished Master of Jurisprudence thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton