Abstract:
The development of pangarau, the Maori medium mathematics curriculum
policy, was cause for celebration amongst Maori. It emerged after 150 years of
curriculum written in English and from a western framework.
This thesis explores the underpinning agendas, the dialectical tensions, and the
politics surrounding the pangarau policy development. Two questions are
addressed: what were the underpinning aspirations and assumptions of both
the state and Maori representatives involved in the development process, and
were Maori empowered during the development?
Central to these questions is an examination of the material contexts of policy
construction, namely the action of state agents, and the political and economic
conditions of pangarau development. The national curriculum policies of the
1990s were outputs from bureaucratic state structures, which were underpinned
by economic rationalism and a culture of distrust. Included in this thesis is a
consideration of the tensions between bureaucratic structures and the micropolitical
activities of the actors involved.
The contention is that, although Maori were empowered through pangarau
development, the outcomes were not necessarily emancipatory. The state
assisted Maori to develop a discourse in their indigenous language to grapple
with mathematics concepts demonstrating that te reo Maori is a living language
capable of abstract technical expressions. However, in developing the policy
Maori worked largely within the structures (empowerment), rather than making
substantial changes to them (emancipation). While the contracting of Maori to
develop the pangarau policy was a radical shift by the state from the
assimilationist policies of the past, the state retained the ultimate control over
the resources, the decision-making, and the meaning.
