Exploring the creation of a new initial teacher education (ITE) programme underpinned by inclusion

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to investigate constraints and opportunities underlying the development of a new initial teacher education (ITE) programme with the goal of reconceptualising what inclusive education might mean in the Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) education system. The opportunity to develop this new ITE programme emerged from a request of the Ministry of Education [MoE. 2013. Request for Application for Provision of Exemplary Post Graduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Programmes. Welington: Author] to ITE providers to develop a Masters’ level programme directed at intervening in the persistent disparity in educational outcomes for students identified as ‘priority learners’. How teaching practitioners are ‘working the space’ in the creation and implementation of a new ITE programme committed to improving the learning outcomes of all students in Aotearoa NZ is of interest to this paper. We draw on critical discourse analysis (CDA) to investigate the ways inclusion is constructed and practised in past and current educational approaches in Aotearoa NZ. We argue that a broader analysis of the shifting nature and complex social, cultural, historical, political and institutional contexts in which students are situated is required in reforms and initiatives that aim to raise the learning outcomes of all students in the education system.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• critical discourse analysis (CDA)
• initial teacher education (ITE)
• qualitative studies
• Aotearoa New Zealand

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Leechin Heng just completed her doctorate studies in the field of inclusive education. Her passion towards inclusion and equity fostered her to explore ways education, and schooling, can and needs to situate students' learning outcomes at the centre of teaching and learning.

Kathleen Quinlivan is an internationally recognised researcher in the field of school-based sexuality education within formal and non-formal educational sites within secondary schools.

Rosemary du Plessis has long term interest in gender, family, work and embodiment. Her involvement in research relating to public participation in debates about new technologies is a component of a long-term interest in citizenship, inclusion and the development of public policy.

ORCID

Leechin Heng http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5850-7942

Notes

1. More will be discussed in the next page.

2. The role of the Ngāi Tahu Rūnanga Education Advisory Group was to ‘provide cultural expertise, constructive advice and guidance in the design of new programmes and courses in relation to pedagogical frameworks, content, and resources’ and ‘to act as a critical friend and guide’ (L. Brown, personal communication).

3. The Treaty of Waitangi was first signed on 6 February 1840, by representatives of the British Crown and 540 Māori chiefs. It is understood to be Aotearoa NZ’s founding document, establishing a partnership between the local iwi and the Crown.

4. Even though pakeha in Maori means individuals of non-Maori or non-Polynesian heritage, in Aotearoa NZ society the term has come to be assumed to refer to New Zealanders who are of European-descent.

5. In Māori, iwi – tribe.

6. The poutama is a visual often featured in tukutuku (lattice work) panels.

7. Māori approach, Māori topic, Māori customary practice, Māori institution, Māori agenda, Māori principles, Māori ideology - a philosophical doctrine, incorporating the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values of Māori society (Maori Dictionary 2018).

8. In Māori, whānau – extended family; hapū – clans or descent groups.

9. In Samoan – extended family. Similar to what Māori refers to as whānau.

10. For more details about the poutama, see Fickel et al. (2018).