Whose story counts? Staking a claim for diverse bicultural narratives in New Zealand secondary schools

ABSTRACT

In 1840, the British Crown and Māori rangatira (chiefs) across Aotearoa New Zealand signed a treaty that promised indigenous Māori sovereignty over their lands. In the 1980s, the government moved towards the view that the treaty signing symbolised two races coming together in ‘partnership’. Partnership is a point of contention in settler-indigenous relations, with claims that state institutions favour the interests of the dominant culture. This paper draws on the experiences of Māori teachers of English in secondary schools, to examine how everyday classroom interactions reproduce an imagined partnership between Māori and Pākehā (descendants of European settlers). Findings reveal that teachers and students enact a bicultural narrative that maintains lop-sided notions of partnership to advance Pākehā group interests. The paper concludes by arguing that breaking the silencing of violent colonial histories would authorise a new narrative of biculturalism; one with the potential to transform the idealism of 1840 into practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Institutional racism
• biculturalism
• hidden curriculum
• indigenous
• silencing
• settler colonialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For example, see: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/indicators/main/education-and-learning-outcomes/school_leavers_with_ncea_level_2_or_above

2. For example, see: http://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/Māori-health-data-and-stats

3. For example, see: http://socialreport.msd.govt.nz/health/suicide.html

4. For example, see: http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/yearbook/society/crime/corrections.aspx

5. Deciles ‘are a measure of the socio-economic position of a school’s student community relative to other schools throughout the country’. Retrieved from https://www.education.govt.nz/school/running-a-school/resourcing/operational-funding/school-decile-ratings/. Lower decile schools are given more financial support from the government; however, this does necessarily result in equitable resourcing among diverse communities.