Bicultural Commitment

Last week, I spent Thursday and Friday at professional development courses related to understanding, implementing, and documenting authentic bicultural practice in early childhood (and primary/secondary education). I have done many courses like this over the years I've been here, and they are always enlightening and inspiring. I thought I would share some of the more interesting aspects of NZ's bicultural education system with you.

As an overview, for those of you who don't know, Māori people immigrated to NZ a long time before Europeans (here called Pākehā) came here. There are some different theories about where they came from and whether there were other people here when they got here, but the major point for me is, they were here and living in thriving communities before Pākehā came, and so are considered NZ's native people. As has been true in many places that Europeans "discovered," colonization was horrifically destructive of Māori culture and well-being, leading to many intergenerational, nation-wide issues over the years. Fortunately, in some ways things did take a different trajectory here than they have many other places. I like to think that Europeans have learned some things over centuries of colonization and tried to make it a bit better this time, but that may be overly optimistic on my part, as some truly terrible things happened here.

More recently, however, things have truly made a change for the better, especially in the education sector, where all curricula include bicultural practice and acknowledge the unique place Māori hold as native New Zealanders. Just in case I was ever short of reasons to be proud to be a teacher, which I wasn't, NZ has provided even more. I'll just share a few of them.

1) The goal of bicultural practice is cultural equality. NZ has two official languages (English and Māori) but they are not equal. Māori culture is intended to be as widespread and celebrated as Pākehā culture, but it is evident that it is not. Not yet. But the education sector is committed to changing this by bringing up the next generations of children in a context of mutual respect, understanding, and appreciation, so that all New Zealanders can be proud of both aspects of their bicultural heritage.
(Side note from my personal experience: I've been teaching my children lots of te reo Māori (language), and they're going home and teaching it to their parents. One of my (Pākehā) children informed me the other day, "I'm a Kiwi so that means Māori is MY language." If that's not progress, what is?)

2) In that it is based in equality, this bicultural curriculum in no way decreases or disregards the value of Pākehā culture. In fact, it encourages teachers to help Pākehā children have a strong, positive sense of their own culture, as we understand that feeling confident in who you are helps you to be able to truly appreciate and celebrate who others are, even if they're different from you. I realize that I didn't grow up here, but from my perspective and experience as a teacher here, there doesn't seem to be anyone in the education sector who is trying to put the blame on any group for the struggles of any other group. We just want all Māori and Pākehā children alike to feel good about their culture and succeed educationally and socially. Unfortunately, in order to do this, we have to acknowledge and respond to the fact that many Māori children are born into some disadvantages in terms of reaching these goals, so it is our job to figure out how to support them so that they have the chance to succeed like everyone else.
(Side note from my personal experience: I have found, outside the teaching field, that some people are very unhappy at the suggestion that Māori people might need "extra" help because of the underminers in their history. I feel privileged to work in a field where this is not (in my experience) a barrier to helping children move forward.)

3) Bicultural practice and respect is not an optional buy-in for NZ teachers. All NZ teachers have to prove that they meet 12 Practicing Teacher Criteria in order to be licensed as teachers. We must continually document this and have it evaluated every three years and if we don't meet some criteria, we can't be licensed, and some of these criteria are about bicultural practice.
~~~ Practicing Teacher Criteria #10 requires us to prove that we are implementing bicultural practice in authentic and meaningful ways. This includes using the language, teaching and respecting the culture, telling the legends and stories, building relationships with the local tribal elders, etc.
~~~ Even more amazingly, Practicing Teacher Criteria #3 requires that teachers prove and document their commitment to bicultural practice. Basically, this criteria says that it's not enough to just do it, you really have to believe it. You have to see and embrace the intrinsic value of building up and celebrating Māori culture and bringing it to life in the world views and self concepts of our children. We talked a lot about this in my most recent course, and when someone asked what to do if a teacher didn't care about this and just went through the motions without commitment, the instructor said that that person was not eligible for a teaching license. Of course, she explained that every effort should be made by that person's team to inspire them to see the value of bicultural practice, but that if, in the end, the person couldn't commit to it, then they shouldn't be teaching in NZ. She went on to say that open-mindedness and respect towards cultures different than ones own is one of the major things that universities look for in evaluating applicants to teacher education programmes, and that the Education Council examines when deciding who to approve for provisional (initial) licensure. She said that they are trying to make sure that people who are unwilling to appreciate and embrace true, respectful, authentic biculturalism are not entering the education sector, because they too effectively undermine the beautiful work that we are trying to do in moving society forward towards equality. I think that this is extremely hard to implement in the mixed-up reality that we live in, but what a wonderful aspiration! NZ is committed to remedying the educational achievement gaps between Māori and Pākehā children, and understands that teachers who believe in and appreciate Māori for who they are will be the ones who make this happen, so those are the teachers they want. Also, wonderfully inspiring and concretely useful bicultural professional development courses are available all the time, so teachers have a multitude of resources at their fingertips, and never need to feel ill equipped to teach in this bicultural system.

It is my opinion that this combination of high expectations and strong support structures for teachers is a great start towards building and sustaining an education system in which all New Zealanders can thrive. Also, I just love teaching in a bicultural context, with an inspiring mix of languages and cultures that we all can appreciate.