title: Kaupapa Māori Science

authors: Stewart, Georgina Marjorie

subjects: Kaupapa Maori

abstract: This thesis investigates how Māori knowledge and language articulate with current discourses of Pūtaiao education, and possible alternative articulations. A Kaupapa Māori version of critical discourse analysis methodology is developed and applied to discourses relevant to Pūtaiao, or Māori-medium science education. This topic represents an intersection between language, science, education, and culture - fields which are all highly politically charged. Therefore, it is essential that a politically robust Kaupapa Māori position be taken in relation to the research topic. Not only the issues being investigated but the underlying research paradigm must be interrogated using Kaupapa Māori theory at each stage of the project.

The goal is to study the range of possible meanings for the notions of 'Pūtaiao' and 'Māori science' by exploring the relevant dialectical issues, critiquing the assumptions and positions taken on language, knowledge, identity and ethos, in order to inform further Pūtaiao curriculum development. The research project is a narration of the larger story of Pūtaiao education: what is the current situation, how did it come about, what theoretical issues have been influential in this process, and what possibilities are there for further development of Pūtaiao curriculum and pedagogy? 

The thesis research consists of a series of discourse analyses of varying levels of focus and intersection with Pūtaiao:
Wāhanga 1: Translated NCEA L1 science and mathematics examinations, and a traditional Taitokerau oral text;
Wāhanga 2: Māori science curriculum policy;
Wāhanga 3: Multicultural science education research;
Wāhanga 4: Curriculum politics, preventive linguistics, language of science;
Wāhanga 5: Mātauranga, rationality, philosophy of science.

Each analysis takes the form of a narrative history, based on a selected corpus of previously published scholarship (in Wāhanga 1, including numerical data and oral tradition) on the issue under examination, from a Kaupapa Māori perspective. Mainly in the first two chapters, analysis at times also draws on 'personal narrative' accounts of previously unpublished details relating to Pūtaiao.
 
Additionally, an investigation of various qualified notions of 'science' is undertaken, beginning in Wāhanga 2, concluding in Wāhanga 5, in order to explore the nature and boundaries of science as a system of knowledge, and its relationship to other types or systems of knowledge. 

Synopses are included of the following concepts and theoretical issues impacting on the discourses under analysis: 
Wāhanga 1: Ethnicity, 'race', critical theory, Kaupapa Māori theory. 
Wāhanga 2: Science, scientism, science ideology and anti-science.
Wāhanga 4: Identity, linguistic purism, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Informed by this research, in Wāhanga 5 an original model for the relationship between mātauranga and science is proposed, and the notion of Kaupapa Māori science/epistemology is explored. An analogy between the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and multicultural science is used to draw together the cultural debates in language and knowledge, which are surmised to intersect at the level of discourse. 

The final chapter presents a re-articulation of Pūtaiao as the notion of Kaupapa Māori science education, and some recommendations for language and content knowledge in further development of Pūtaiao curriculum policy.

text: Kaupapa Māori Science This thesis investigates how Māori knowledge and language articulate with current discourses of Pūtaiao education, and possible alternative articulations. A Kaupapa Māori version of critical discourse analysis methodology is developed and applied to discourses relevant to Pūtaiao, or Māori-medium science education. This topic represents an intersection between language, science, education, and culture - fields which are all highly politically charged. Therefore, it is essential that a politically robust Kaupapa Māori position be taken in relation to the research topic. Not only the issues being investigated but the underlying research paradigm must be interrogated using Kaupapa Māori theory at each stage of the project.

The goal is to study the range of possible meanings for the notions of 'Pūtaiao' and 'Māori science' by exploring the relevant dialectical issues, critiquing the assumptions and positions taken on language, knowledge, identity and ethos, in order to inform further Pūtaiao curriculum development. The research project is a narration of the larger story of Pūtaiao education: what is the current situation, how did it come about, what theoretical issues have been influential in this process, and what possibilities are there for further development of Pūtaiao curriculum and pedagogy? 

The thesis research consists of a series of discourse analyses of varying levels of focus and intersection with Pūtaiao:
Wāhanga 1: Translated NCEA L1 science and mathematics examinations, and a traditional Taitokerau oral text;
Wāhanga 2: Māori science curriculum policy;
Wāhanga 3: Multicultural science education research;
Wāhanga 4: Curriculum politics, preventive linguistics, language of science;
Wāhanga 5: Mātauranga, rationality, philosophy of science.

Each analysis takes the form of a narrative history, based on a selected corpus of previously published scholarship (in Wāhanga 1, including numerical data and oral tradition) on the issue under examination, from a Kaupapa Māori perspective. Mainly in the first two chapters, analysis at times also draws on 'personal narrative' accounts of previously unpublished details relating to Pūtaiao.
 
Additionally, an investigation of various qualified notions of 'science' is undertaken, beginning in Wāhanga 2, concluding in Wāhanga 5, in order to explore the nature and boundaries of science as a system of knowledge, and its relationship to other types or systems of knowledge. 

Synopses are included of the following concepts and theoretical issues impacting on the discourses under analysis: 
Wāhanga 1: Ethnicity, 'race', critical theory, Kaupapa Māori theory. 
Wāhanga 2: Science, scientism, science ideology and anti-science.
Wāhanga 4: Identity, linguistic purism, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

Informed by this research, in Wāhanga 5 an original model for the relationship between mātauranga and science is proposed, and the notion of Kaupapa Māori science/epistemology is explored. An analogy between the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and multicultural science is used to draw together the cultural debates in language and knowledge, which are surmised to intersect at the level of discourse. 

The final chapter presents a re-articulation of Pūtaiao as the notion of Kaupapa Māori science education, and some recommendations for language and content knowledge in further development of Pūtaiao curriculum policy.

year: 2007

title: Ka ora | Ka mate

authors: Apiata, Hāwea

abstract: Ekphrasis in response to the artwork 'Matariki' by Hariata Ropata-Tangahoe (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Āti Awa). Written for the One Hundred Years exhibition held at RAMP Gallery, in celebration of the establishment of the first iteration of the technical college a century earlier in 1924. Alumni of the art program were invited to contribute works to the show and local writers were asked to respond to the art, with their works being published in the exhibition catalogue.

text: Ka ora | Ka mate Ekphrasis in response to the artwork 'Matariki' by Hariata Ropata-Tangahoe (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa, Te Āti Awa). Written for the One Hundred Years exhibition held at RAMP Gallery, in celebration of the establishment of the first iteration of the technical college a century earlier in 1924. Alumni of the art program were invited to contribute works to the show and local writers were asked to respond to the art, with their works being published in the exhibition catalogue.

year: 2024-02-29

title: Applying machine learning to programming by demonstration

authors: Paynter, Gordon W.

subjects: computer science

abstract: ‘Familiar’ is a tool that helps end-users automate iterative tasks in their applications by showing examples of what they want to do. It observes the user’s actions, predicts what they will do next, and then offers to complete their task. Familiar learns in two ways. First, it creates a model, based on data gathered from training tasks, that selects the best prediction from among several candidates. Experiments show that decision trees outperform heuristic methods, and can be further improved by incrementally updating the classifier at task time. Second, it uses decision stumps inferred from analogous examples in the event trace to predict the parameters of conditional rules. Because data is sparse—for most users balk at giving more than a few training examples—permutation tests are used to calculate the statistical significance of each stump, successfully eliminating bias towards attributes with many different values.

text: Applying machine learning to programming by demonstration ‘Familiar’ is a tool that helps end-users automate iterative tasks in their applications by showing examples of what they want to do. It observes the user’s actions, predicts what they will do next, and then offers to complete their task. Familiar learns in two ways. First, it creates a model, based on data gathered from training tasks, that selects the best prediction from among several candidates. Experiments show that decision trees outperform heuristic methods, and can be further improved by incrementally updating the classifier at task time. Second, it uses decision stumps inferred from analogous examples in the event trace to predict the parameters of conditional rules. Because data is sparse—for most users balk at giving more than a few training examples—permutation tests are used to calculate the statistical significance of each stump, successfully eliminating bias towards attributes with many different values.

year: 2004