Patchwriting

Task: How did the status of te reo and tikanga Māori in education change from the Education Act 1877 to the current New Zealand curriculum (2007)?

Background: This is an Education assignment in which the students are expected to make a connection between the Treaty of Waitangi - Te Tiriti o Waitangi - and the influence of social history on curriculum development in Aotearoa New Zealand

Patch writing

Believe it or not, this excerpt is difficult to read. A quote has the role of supporting or extending an assertion or idea that the student is presenting, but this student has used quotes to build her sentences. Writing like this is called patchwriting or serial citing. 

The reader cannot see what point this student is trying to make. While each quote may appear relevant and on topic, very little of this paragraph is the student's own work. Using extensive quotations in this way does not demonstrate the student's understanding of the issues or her academic writing skills. She would not get a very good grade for this excerpt.

Incorporating your voice
Assessment is an opportunity to show what you know and to apply research and course content to support your own point of view. The final sentence of the excerpt is more successful as the student's voice begins to emerge. She needs to be using her own voice much more throughout the excerpt. She should be doing this by paraphrasing and resynthesising the ideas of the six authors that she has cited.In the final sentence, the student has summarised the main ideas she has identified in her reading and drawn them together into a concluding statement that reflects her informed opinion. She has also made reference to two of the eight principles in the New Zealand Curriculum but has done so in a more subtle (and appropriate) way that still acknowledges the source of these ideas through appropriate citation.

King, M. (2003). The Penguin history of New Zealand. Penguin

From p. 234

Maori children could, if they or their parents so wished, attend local board schools, but they were already catered for by the 1867 Native Schools Act, which enabled primary schools to be established at the request of Maori communities under the supervision of the Native Department. At the specific request of Maori parents, the medium of instruction in these schools was to be English. Most of those parents who expressed a view on this issue in the 1860s thought that Maori was best learnt at home and English in the schools, to give pupils access to a wider world of knowledge. This policy was sometimes taken to extremes in the years that followed, with many children reporting that they had been punished for speaking Maori within the school boundaries.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum for English-medium teaching and learning in years 1-13. Learning Media

From p. 9

Treaty of Waitangi

The curriculum acknowledges the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand. All students have the opportunity to acquire knowledge of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga.

Cultural Diversity

The curriculum reflects New Zealand's cultural diversity and values the histories and traditions of all its people.

Orange, C. (2011). The Treaty of Waitangi. Bridget Williams

From p. 244

Quote 1: In the 1980s, Māori also pressed hard for recognition of Treaty rights in education. Driven by concern at the loss of te reo — and substantially at their own expense — several Māori leaders — among them Sir James Henare — initiated the preschool kōhanga reo (language nests) in the early 1980s.

Quote 2: A new Education Act 1989 acknowledged the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and brought significant institutional change. The Act required state-funded educational institutions, in consultation with their local communities (including Māori within areas served by each school), to draw up charters with mandatory goals. Under these, schools were to address 'equity issues', including the position of Māori people within the education system. A separate mandatory goal was the implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi through the provision of Māori language to all those students whose parents requested it, and the delivery of bicultural curricula to all students.

Sorrenson, M. P. K. (1981). Maori and Pakeha. In W. H. Oliver & B. R. Williams (Eds.). The Oxford history of New Zealand (pp. 168-193). Clarendon.

From p. 169

But it was not merely a matter of civilising Maoris, turning them into brown-skinned Englishmen. For it was assumed that the races could be 'amalgamated', a term which for some at least meant the mixture, by intermarriage, of the two races and ultimately the absorption of the Maoris into a predominantly European population. From the beginning of contact with Cook's expeditions there had been sexual interaction, and this continued unabated whenever there were visits from exploreres, whalers and sealers, and traders. Where Europeans became more permanently settled on shore, sexual liaisons developed into marriage, mostly by Maori custom but on a few occasions by Christian ceremonies performed by missionaries.

From p. 170

And even where intermarriage occurred it did not necessarily promote assimilation. It had been assumed that Maori wives of Pakehas would learn to keep house and bring up their children like Pakeha women; that the children would be fully Europeanized. This no doubt happened with some, but a considerable number of the Pakeha husbands and their children lived in a Maori rather than a European style, like the Pakeha–Maoris before them. Education was also expected to encourage assimilation. Indeed, it was assumed that children would be more easily assimilated than their parents, especially if they were segregated in boarding–schools. The missions had established Maori schools before 1840 and continued to be responsible for them afterwards, with the aid of government subsidies.

Walker, R. (1991). Liberating Maori from educational subjection (Monograph No. 6). The International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education, University of Auckland.

From p. 8

Initially, no School Certificate courses were provided in the Maori District High Schools. It was not until 1945 that School Certificate courses were provided at the request of Maori parents.

In the meantime, the policy of Maori language suppression had taken its toll. In 1900 over 90% of Maori children entered school with Maori as their first language. By 1960 it had fallen to below 25% (Biggs 1968:74). The subversion of Maori culture, combined with the effects of the two-tier system of education, was alienating Maori from the social mainstream.