The Art of Walking Upright in our Classrooms: Learning to Teach "as Pākehā" by Revealing Freire in Cultural Policy

Abstract

This thesis works to reveal Freirean theory underlying cultural pedagogy, as it has developed in Aotearoa New Zealand and considers how this re-exposed theory can support the cultural practice of Pākehā teachers’ working with Māori students in the English-medium system. The thesis is comprised of three interrelated parts; a critical discourse analysis, a participant-observer case study of a professional learning circle and a critical reimagining of practice. Part 1, the critical discourse analysis, presents Freire’s theorising of four key ideas; conscientisation, generative themes, dialogic practice and praxis, and surveys discursive shifts and critique. It then considers how these ideas have travelled into educational policy, particularly the Tātaiako document, professional learning and practice. Finally, the discourse analysis outlines how Freire’s ideas might work to strengthen teachers’ cultural practice. Part 2, the case study, presented as narrative chronicles, retheorises the professional learning circle (PLC) as a Freirean culture circle and positions teachers’ observations of practice as coded situations. Working as critical friends, teachers in the PLC decoded their cultural practice. Teachers were able to think more effectively about their cultural practice as they applied theory that reflected the tensions they experienced in practice. Part 3 of the thesis uses chronicle and feminist judgment writing as models for a critical reimagining of cultural practice. Critical reimagination is positioned as a powerful tool for changing teachers’ thinking and explores how a critical shift in perspective can effect change in practice. Part 3 identifies humour as an important interface in cultural practice. It explores how humorous classroom interactions are characterised by Freirean understandings of love, hope and imagination. Part 3 uses chronicle to critically reimagine humour as an open, warm relationality and as an invitation to engage, rather than as a challenge.