Abstract:
Te Huarahi Māori is a specialisation of the standard Primary three-year full-time initial teacher education degree offered by University of Auckland in its Faculty of Education and Social Work domiciled at the Epsom Campus in Mount Eden, Auckland. Te Huarahi Māori is run from within one School – Te Puna Wānanga (TPW), the School of Māori Education, and the entire programme is reproduced at the university’s Tai Tokerau Campus in central Whangarei, the largest town north of Auckland and the main urban centre of Northland, a stunningly beautiful but economically depressed part of the country with a high Māori population, and some historical claim to fame in the cultural history of the nation-state known today as New Zealand. Both co-authors have whakapapa origins amongst the iwi (kinship groupings) of Taitokerau Northland; and both work as lecturers on the Huarahi Māori (henceforward HM) degree, in their roles as academic staff members of TPW. The aim of this paper is internal review, critique and commentary of the HM programme over its first 15 years, from a perspective of critical Kaupapa Māori scholarship. This research article draws on two forms of data: • documentation about the programme (facts and figures such as graduate numbers); and • personal accounts based on teaching and leading HM, produced through a dialogical peer interview process. These data are used to synopsise and discuss the successes of HM over that time, and draw attention to specific areas where further development is clearly warranted.