‘Mainstreaming’ Te Reo Māori: Beyond Indifference and Tokenism in the Classroom.

Abstract

This paper examines why Maori language needs to be taught accurately at the early stages of initial teacher education programmes and continue for the duration of a teacher education student’s degree.

If teacher education faculties are permitting their students to mispronounce Maori names or words, they are in fact doing a disservice, not only to the Maori language, but also to the students destined to teach in English medium schools and the children who attend these schools.

This paper defines some of the challenges and questions in regards to the inadequate fostering of the Maori language in many initial teacher education programmes and what needs to be done to rectify this situation. This paper also covers the state of the Maori language, attitudes towards it and strategies for teachers to use in a mainstream teaching setting.