Implementing Te Whàriki

Abstract

Since 1998 New Zealand early childhood educators have been required to implement programs consistent with Te Whàriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), a bicultural early childhood curriculum that validates and enacts kaupapa Màori (a Màori theoretical paradigm reflected through the medium of the Màori language). This curriculum document affirms and validates the status of Màori, the indigenous people of this country so that Pàkehà (New Zealanders of European descent) early childhood educators now need to reposition themselves alongside Màori whànau (families) and colleagues who remain the repositories of Màori knowledge. This means a decentering of the “mainstream” curriculum to develop models that parallel Màori language and content inclusively alongside western knowledges in all facets of the early childhood curriculum. This chapter utilizes data from a recent study to illustrate some ways in which the bicultural requirements of Te Whàriki, are being understood and experienced by early childhood teachers, teacher educators, and professional development facilitators. In particular, this chapter considers how Te Whàriki challenges non-Màori teachers’ to confront the power relations that have historically positioned them as curriculum ‘experts’ and marginalized indigenous cultural knowledge.

Citation

Ritchie, J. (2005), "Implementing Te Whàriki", Ryan, S. and Grieshaber, S. (Ed.) Practical Transformations and Transformational Practices: Globalization, Postmodernism, and Early Childhood Education (Advances in Early Education and Day Care, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 109-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0270-4021(05)14006-3