title: Aro mai aro atu: Raising Māori-medium students' academic oral language proficiency

authors: Shandley, Rosina Mary

subjects: Māori-medium

abstract: From the early 1860s, colonial governments worked systematically to eradicate the language and culture of the indigenous people of Aotearoa / New Zealand, and, by the late 1960s, the death of the Māori language was being predicted by leading linguists. Māori leaders responded in the 1980s with language regeneration initiatives that included the birth of Māori-medium education. Today, this uniquely indigenous education system is a significant site of language learning for new generations of Māori children. In Māori-medium education, children are nurtured, educated, and loved as Māori, and they are more likely to attain educational qualifications than their Māori peers who attend English-medium schools. 

The success of Māori-medium education is achieved in the face of a raft of ongoing challenges that teachers and students confront on a daily basis. Years of language marginalisation, including the disruption to intergenerational transfer, mean Māori-medium students are required to learn the curriculum through their second and less-developed language. They have limited opportunities to hear or use the Māori language outside of the school, and this places huge pressure on teachers who are often their most significant language models. The challenge is compounded by the limited education that has been made available to teachers in relation to second-language pedagogies specifically designed for Māori-medium classrooms. The resulting situation is that Māori-medium teachers are often left struggling to find ways that they can develop students’ Māori language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement so that one is not sacrificed for the other. 

This study designed and trialled pedagogies to support Māori-medium students to develop their academic oral language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement. It was a mixed methods study grounded in a kaupapa Māori approach, and involved three teachers and 24 students across three separate Māori-medium schools. An Anga Putanga Ako (Curriculum Outcomes Matrix) was developed to support the students to understand what they needed to learn to progress through the writing curriculum. Teachers then learnt to share explicit learning outcomes from the Anga Putanga Ako with students before lessons and to allow them time to discuss their achievement of those outcomes in pairs at the conclusion of those lessons. Linguistic scaffolds were developed to support students’ learning conversations, including the self and peer assessment of the learning outcomes, and decisions about their curriculum achievement levels and next learning steps.

The quantitative and qualitative results of the study revealed that the confluence of the self and peer assessment practices, supported by the Anga Putanga Ako and linguistic scaffolds, improved the students’ academic oral language and accelerated their reading and writing achievement significantly beyond what is usually expected in a Māori-medium classroom in 14 weeks. The study also found that, through implementing the self and peer assessment pedagogies, teachers were able to identify ways they could develop their students’ academic language and curriculum achievement simultaneously and how these approaches could be applied across the curriculum.

It was clear from the research results that pedagogies that support second-language development and curriculum learning, such as the self and peer assessment pedagogies demonstrated in this study, need to be explicitly taught with consistency across initial and in-service teacher education programmes. This development is necessary to help ensure Māori-medium students are supported with the thinking and linguistic skills needed to contribute to the creation of new knowledge, to support or challenge the current social order as they see fit, and to continue to transfer the Māori language to new generations of mokopuna.

text: Aro mai aro atu: Raising Māori-medium students' academic oral language proficiency From the early 1860s, colonial governments worked systematically to eradicate the language and culture of the indigenous people of Aotearoa / New Zealand, and, by the late 1960s, the death of the Māori language was being predicted by leading linguists. Māori leaders responded in the 1980s with language regeneration initiatives that included the birth of Māori-medium education. Today, this uniquely indigenous education system is a significant site of language learning for new generations of Māori children. In Māori-medium education, children are nurtured, educated, and loved as Māori, and they are more likely to attain educational qualifications than their Māori peers who attend English-medium schools. 

The success of Māori-medium education is achieved in the face of a raft of ongoing challenges that teachers and students confront on a daily basis. Years of language marginalisation, including the disruption to intergenerational transfer, mean Māori-medium students are required to learn the curriculum through their second and less-developed language. They have limited opportunities to hear or use the Māori language outside of the school, and this places huge pressure on teachers who are often their most significant language models. The challenge is compounded by the limited education that has been made available to teachers in relation to second-language pedagogies specifically designed for Māori-medium classrooms. The resulting situation is that Māori-medium teachers are often left struggling to find ways that they can develop students’ Māori language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement so that one is not sacrificed for the other. 

This study designed and trialled pedagogies to support Māori-medium students to develop their academic oral language proficiency at the same time as their curriculum achievement. It was a mixed methods study grounded in a kaupapa Māori approach, and involved three teachers and 24 students across three separate Māori-medium schools. An Anga Putanga Ako (Curriculum Outcomes Matrix) was developed to support the students to understand what they needed to learn to progress through the writing curriculum. Teachers then learnt to share explicit learning outcomes from the Anga Putanga Ako with students before lessons and to allow them time to discuss their achievement of those outcomes in pairs at the conclusion of those lessons. Linguistic scaffolds were developed to support students’ learning conversations, including the self and peer assessment of the learning outcomes, and decisions about their curriculum achievement levels and next learning steps.

The quantitative and qualitative results of the study revealed that the confluence of the self and peer assessment practices, supported by the Anga Putanga Ako and linguistic scaffolds, improved the students’ academic oral language and accelerated their reading and writing achievement significantly beyond what is usually expected in a Māori-medium classroom in 14 weeks. The study also found that, through implementing the self and peer assessment pedagogies, teachers were able to identify ways they could develop their students’ academic language and curriculum achievement simultaneously and how these approaches could be applied across the curriculum.

It was clear from the research results that pedagogies that support second-language development and curriculum learning, such as the self and peer assessment pedagogies demonstrated in this study, need to be explicitly taught with consistency across initial and in-service teacher education programmes. This development is necessary to help ensure Māori-medium students are supported with the thinking and linguistic skills needed to contribute to the creation of new knowledge, to support or challenge the current social order as they see fit, and to continue to transfer the Māori language to new generations of mokopuna.

year: 2022

title: He maimoa i ngā whakatupuranga anamata: Ko te mātauranga taketake o ngā tūpuna me te whakarea tamariki

authors: Greensill, Hineitimoana

subjects: Poipoi tamariki

abstract: Kua āraua ki roto i te reo me ngā pūnaha mātauranga o ngā iwi taketake, ko ngā uara, ko ngā whakapono me ngā rapunga whakaaro e toko ake nei i tērā iwi. Kia whakahoropakitia tēnei ki roto o Aotearoa me Hawai‘i, i te whakaekenga o ō tātou kāinga tupu e ngā taua a te Pākehā me ngā tāmi o ngā tikanga whakawhenumi a te Kāwanantanga o muri, i tauwhatia ai te tuku o te reo Māori me te ‘ōlelo (reo) o Hawai‘i i waenga i ngā whakatupuranga, waihoki ko ngā māramatanga pūmau o roto i ngā reo i tauwhatia ai (Walker, 2004; Blaisdell & Mokuau, 1991). Ahakoa ēnei tauwhatinga, ka pupuri tonu tātou ki ngā karere i mau rā i te reo i roto i ngā ngā pātaka mātauranga a te Māori me nā kānaka (ngā tāngata) o Hawai‘i. Ko te mātauranga taketake, ngā kōrero o nehe me ngā ariā e āraua nei ki ngā tuhituhinga-ā-waha huhua, tae atu ki ngā whakataukī, ngā ‘ōlelo no‘eau, me ngā kīanga rongonui i tāngia hoki ki te pepa (Pukui, 1983). Ko te ia o ēnei momo kōrero tuku-iho taketake nei kei te kōrerotia i roto i ngā whakataukī me ngā ‘ōlelo no‘eau, he mea whakaara anō tēnei mātauranga ki ngā kaupapa whakaora reo ki Aotearoa me Hawai‘i. He momo mātauranga ēnei hei whakaara i a tātou kia mārama rawa ki ngā kano tirohanga o ō tātou tūpuna ki tō rātou ao, waihoki ko ngā hononga maha e paihere nei i a tātou ki ō tātou whanaunga.

Hei whāinga matua e āta arohaehae ana tēnei pepa i ngā momo tuhituhinga-ā-waha nei, arā ko te ‘ōlelo no‘eau me te whakataukī, kia tīroua ake ngā karere e hāngai ana ki ngā tamariki a te Māori rātou ko ngā kānaka o Hawai‘i me ngā pānga ki ngā mahi whakatupu tamariki o mua. Ka toro tēnei tuhinga ki te whakataukī me te ‘ōlelo no‘eau ki te whakapuaki i te mātauranga i mahue mai i ngā tūpuna hei rei arataki mā tātou ngā iwi taketake me ō tātou wheako tonu o nāianei.

text: He maimoa i ngā whakatupuranga anamata: Ko te mātauranga taketake o ngā tūpuna me te whakarea tamariki Kua āraua ki roto i te reo me ngā pūnaha mātauranga o ngā iwi taketake, ko ngā uara, ko ngā whakapono me ngā rapunga whakaaro e toko ake nei i tērā iwi. Kia whakahoropakitia tēnei ki roto o Aotearoa me Hawai‘i, i te whakaekenga o ō tātou kāinga tupu e ngā taua a te Pākehā me ngā tāmi o ngā tikanga whakawhenumi a te Kāwanantanga o muri, i tauwhatia ai te tuku o te reo Māori me te ‘ōlelo (reo) o Hawai‘i i waenga i ngā whakatupuranga, waihoki ko ngā māramatanga pūmau o roto i ngā reo i tauwhatia ai (Walker, 2004; Blaisdell & Mokuau, 1991). Ahakoa ēnei tauwhatinga, ka pupuri tonu tātou ki ngā karere i mau rā i te reo i roto i ngā ngā pātaka mātauranga a te Māori me nā kānaka (ngā tāngata) o Hawai‘i. Ko te mātauranga taketake, ngā kōrero o nehe me ngā ariā e āraua nei ki ngā tuhituhinga-ā-waha huhua, tae atu ki ngā whakataukī, ngā ‘ōlelo no‘eau, me ngā kīanga rongonui i tāngia hoki ki te pepa (Pukui, 1983). Ko te ia o ēnei momo kōrero tuku-iho taketake nei kei te kōrerotia i roto i ngā whakataukī me ngā ‘ōlelo no‘eau, he mea whakaara anō tēnei mātauranga ki ngā kaupapa whakaora reo ki Aotearoa me Hawai‘i. He momo mātauranga ēnei hei whakaara i a tātou kia mārama rawa ki ngā kano tirohanga o ō tātou tūpuna ki tō rātou ao, waihoki ko ngā hononga maha e paihere nei i a tātou ki ō tātou whanaunga.

Hei whāinga matua e āta arohaehae ana tēnei pepa i ngā momo tuhituhinga-ā-waha nei, arā ko te ‘ōlelo no‘eau me te whakataukī, kia tīroua ake ngā karere e hāngai ana ki ngā tamariki a te Māori rātou ko ngā kānaka o Hawai‘i me ngā pānga ki ngā mahi whakatupu tamariki o mua. Ka toro tēnei tuhinga ki te whakataukī me te ‘ōlelo no‘eau ki te whakapuaki i te mātauranga i mahue mai i ngā tūpuna hei rei arataki mā tātou ngā iwi taketake me ō tātou wheako tonu o nāianei.

year: 2017

title: Multi-inlet migration modeling for navigation channel management in Tabusintac Bay, Eastern Canada

authors: Leys, Vincent

subjects: Coastal management

abstract: In New Brunswick, Atlantic Canada, Tabusintac Bay’s multiple tidal inlets meander through narrow barrier islands and are prone to large storm-induced shifts, making navigation hazardous. A multi-evidence assessment comprised of air-photo analysis, field observations and modeling was undertaken to understand the system and recommend sustainable dredging strategies and/or engineering alternatives. The modeling relied on a combination of simple analytical methods for tidal inlet stability, and complex morphological modeling to project the evolution of the nearshore bathymetry. The study recommended reassigning dredging efforts to a new inlet projected to grow and have better stability. Observations two years after the initial modeling effort indicate that the morphological evolution is consistent with the simulation results, and allowed lowered maintenance dredging requirements. This study illustrates how such a multi-evidence assessment of complex coastal dynamics can concretely guide efforts to reduce maintenance dredging and improve safety at sea.

text: Multi-inlet migration modeling for navigation channel management in Tabusintac Bay, Eastern Canada In New Brunswick, Atlantic Canada, Tabusintac Bay’s multiple tidal inlets meander through narrow barrier islands and are prone to large storm-induced shifts, making navigation hazardous. A multi-evidence assessment comprised of air-photo analysis, field observations and modeling was undertaken to understand the system and recommend sustainable dredging strategies and/or engineering alternatives. The modeling relied on a combination of simple analytical methods for tidal inlet stability, and complex morphological modeling to project the evolution of the nearshore bathymetry. The study recommended reassigning dredging efforts to a new inlet projected to grow and have better stability. Observations two years after the initial modeling effort indicate that the morphological evolution is consistent with the simulation results, and allowed lowered maintenance dredging requirements. This study illustrates how such a multi-evidence assessment of complex coastal dynamics can concretely guide efforts to reduce maintenance dredging and improve safety at sea.

year: 2016