Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies
Publisher
Springer
School
School of Education
RAS ID
70397
Funders
RSNZ Marsden Grant
Grant Number
MFP-AUT2103
Abstract
Māori aspirations in education have not been served by past national policies. It is hard to extinguish the influence of monoculturalism, whereby schools were used to colonise Māori by enforcing linguistic and cultural assimilation. The history of debate on Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) and Flexible Learning Spaces (FLS) demonstrates the ongoing dominance of this Eurocentric, monocultural approach. Official New Zealand education policy and practice follows international trends in school design, moving away from traditional single-cell classrooms towards more open and inter-connected spaces, despite no real evidence concerning the relative effects on learning of each classroom type. Meanwhile, school marae have been around for several decades, but largely ignored in national ILE and FLS policy and research literature. Our experiences lead us to suggest that Māori identity must be ‘built in’ not ‘added on’ to monocultural ILE frameworks, and for this reason, spatiality is crucial in Māori teaching and learning spaces. This article explores the notion of ‘Māori learning spaces.’
DOI
10.1007/s40841-024-00328-4
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Stewart, G. T., Benade, L., Smith, V., Wells, A., & Yates, A. (2024). Māori (flexible) learning spaces, old and new. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-024-00328-4