Pangarau : Maori medium mathematics curriculum: empowerment or a new hegemonic accord?

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.