Teacher Education in indigenous contexts: Critical considerations of teacher educator understandings and decision-making related to treaty issues and social justice (2015)

View/ Open
Type of Content
Conference Contributions - OtherCollections
Abstract
Despite the existence of a treaty (Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi, 1840) in Aotearoa New Zealand that promised the indigenous Māori that their language and culture would be protected, these rights to autonomy and self-determination have not been fully realised. The persistent gap in the education system’s responsiveness to Māori educational aspirations and well-being poses a significant social justice challenge to educators, in particular teacher educators. In order to successfully respond to the educational needs of Māori as tangata whenua (the ‘people of the land’ or indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) teacher educators must develop the necessary sociocultural knoweldge and culturally-responsive pedagogies to enact the fullness of their professional responsibilities as treaty partners with Māori. By focusing on the indigenous context of teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand, we seek to illuminate a particular aspect of this complexity as a means to extend and problematise the discourse around international teacher educator knowledge and practice with respect to issues of diversity, culturally responsive practice, and social justice. In undertaking this inquiry, we draw from a larger qualitative investigation examining the perspectives of a small group of teacher educators regarding their understandings of the treaty in relation to their educational practice. Our analysis is informed by critical theory (Giroux, 2007; Kincheloe, 2008) and the notion of ‘teachers as gatekeepers” (Thornton, 1991, p 238).
Citation
Stark R, Fickel LH (2015). Teacher Education in indigenous contexts: Critical considerations of teacher educator understandings and decision-making related to treaty issues and social justice. Budapest, Hungary: World Education Research Association 2015 Focal Meeting (WERA). 08/09/2015-10/09/2015.This citation is automatically generated and may be unreliable. Use as a guide only.
ANZSRC Fields of Research
13 - Education::1303 - Specialist Studies in Education::130313 - Teacher Education and Professional Development of Educators13 - Education::1303 - Specialist Studies in Education::130310 - Māori Education (excl. Early Childhood and Primary Education)
39 - Education::3904 - Specialist studies in education::390401 - Comparative and cross-cultural education
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
The importance of community engagement in learning to teach
Fickel LH; Abbiss J; Brown L; Astall CM (2016) -
Culturally responsive practice for indigenous contexts: Provenance to potential
Fickel LH; MacFarlane S; Macfarlane AH (2016) -
Humanizing secondary school contexts: learnings from Aotearoa New Zealand and Peru Latin America
Fickel LH; MacFarlane S; Macfarlane AH; Nieto Angel, Maria Carolina (2016)