Ko te paauaua te arai: the struggle for Maaori parents to access kaupapa Maaori in general stream schools, post-picot

Abstract

'Tomorrow's Schools' promised to be sufficiently flexible and responsive to meet the particular needs of Maaori education (Department of Education 1988: iv). For many Maaori parents who prioritise kaupapa Maaori, there has been and continues to be an ongoing struggle to have kaupapa Maaori needs met in general stream schools. Two questions encapsulate the inquiry of this thesis: What is the nature of the struggle Maaori parents face when trying to introduce kaupapa Maaori into general stream schools? and How is this struggle experienced? The struggle for Maaori parents to access kaupapa Maaori is examined in terms of conflicting Maaori and Tauiwi ideologies that characterise the respective identities. For Maaori, these ideologies are rangatiratanga and kaupapa Maaori. For Tauiwi, they are colonisation, eurocentric diffusionism and racism. The juxtaposition of these antithetical ideologies both historically and contemporarily, begins a process that gives voice to the Maaori struggle and reveals factors that are of a contentious and provoking nature to the status quo. At macro/state level, historical imperatives and current New Right ideology in education policy led by the Picot Report (1988) and subsequent 'Tomorrow's Schools' (1988), have joined to produce an environment that has undermined the pursuit of kaupapa Maaori. The reforms were sold to Maori communities on the basis of decentralisation, community consultation, equity, the Treaty of Waitangi and equal education opportunities. They have however, failed to produce an environment at the level of individual schools, that is favorable for Maaori parents to access kaupapa Maaori. Failure to monitor and review the protective legislation that affects Maori education has rendered that legislation ineffective. Decentralisation focused the power to implement kaupapa Maaori programmes in general stream schools at individual school level. The school now plays a critical role in making decisions on establishing, maintaining and supporting kaupapa Maaori programmes. The school also decides the content, context and environment in which those programmes exist. While those decisions are made on behalf of the school, it is individuals who make them. Through cultural reproduction, these individuals assume the dominant Tauiwi ideologies present in our society that are oppositional and detrimental to kaupapa Maaori ideologies. The impact of the interface of colonisation, eurocentric diffusionism and racism, with kaupapa Maaori, is discussed at individual school level in terms of personal and interpersonal interactions. To understand interactions between schools and Maaori parents, two models are generated. The first is ko te paauaua te arai - the wall of tension. This is created when Maaori and Tauiwi ideologies clash at school level. The second model generated is the Goodwill Model. In this model, schools Get It Right by Accident (Winiata, 1996). The critical component of this model is goodwill. It is responsible for the entry of kaupapa Maaori into the school, the key person in this interaction being the principal. Goodwill dictates the interpretations of policies and practises at institutional level that advantage Maaori. At structural level, goodwill again makes material, ideological and historical interpretations that advantage Maaori. However, goodwill is tenuous. At any time it may be lost with disastrous consequences for kaupapa Maaori. Despite huge amounts of time and energy expended by Maaori school communities to access kaupapa Maaori, an examination of the struggle has lead me to believe that successful immersion programmes in general stream schools operate by accident of supportive principals and Boards of Trustees. The predominant environment however, where the struggle to access kaupapa Maaori is unsuccessful, is one that is affected substantially by the presence of opposing ideologies. On the one hand, rangatiratanga and kaupapa Maaori, on the other, eurocentrism, colonisation and racism. In this environment, power is held overwhelmingly in Pakeha hands. The legislation which purported to protect Maaori education has been rendered ineffective through the Education Review Office not reviewing or monitoring Maaori consultation, reo and tikanga rights. Aspects of kaupapa Maaori have found space on the state education agenda and in policy that gives the mistaken impression that kaupapa Maaori is more accessible than it really is. An immense gulf exists between policy makers and policy implementors which means that movement in the former does not guarantee similar movement in the latter. This is borne out by whanau stories from the research project 'Practising Partnership Principles' (Irwin and Broughton, 1994). For Maaori parents struggling to access kaupapa Maaori in general stream schools, 'Tomorrow's Schools' appears not to have lived up to it's promise, except by Accident.