Māori and education
This article shows that generating ngā ara whakamihi (praise pathways) through a context of praise enabled Māori students to feel safe and supported, both culturally and educationally, and that they were able to assimilate and then integrate the meaning of teacher praise.
Classroom teachers report on their success with the Māori version of the highly proclaimed Pause Prompt Praise reading tutoring programme. In a surprise result, student tutors improved their reading skills while helping their peer learners improve.
The first comprehensive study in New Zealand which shows that children taught mathematics in a second language (in this case Māori) achieved better than comparable children at a neighbouring school who were taught in English.
An account of the important work by Joshua Fishman on reversing language shift which highlights the precarious state of the Māori and Aboriginal languages.
From deciding what to call a bilingual unit to the increased workload for non-native speaking Māori teachers, the issues and tensions that schools are likely to meet when they establish bilingual Māori–English classrooms are varied.
Children can be encouraged to maintain and develop their proficiency in Māori in a classroom where it is not the language of instruction. This research has implications for the promotion of Māori in New Zealand classrooms as well as the promotion of minority languages elsewhere.
