Changing Power Relations in Education: Kaupapa Ma ¥ ori messages for 'mainstream' education in Aotearoa/New Zealand [1]

Drawing on the example of indigenous Ma ¥ ori pedagogical and research principles in Aotearoa/New Zealand, this paper explores how still widely held 'deficit' notions of Ma ¥ ori students can be addressed and replaced by an alternative model that emphasises empowerment, co-construction and the critical importance of cultural recognition. This model constitutes the classroom as a place where young people's sense-making processes (cultures) are incorporated and enhanced, where the existing knowledges of young people--particularly Ma ¥ ori--are seen as 'acceptable' and 'official', and where the teacher interacts with students in such a way that new knowledge is co-created. Such a classroom will generate very different interaction and participation patterns and educational outcomes from a classroom where knowledge is seen as something that the teacher makes sense of and then passes onto students.