Abstract:
In this thesis, Indigenous Māori thought and the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas come face to face (kanohi ki te kanohi). Through these two perspectives I consider the significance of the intersubjective relation for ethical political practice in the context of settler–indigene social and educational relationships in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Levinas provides powerful theoretical suggestions for the conditions of practice necessary to an ethical social relationship. As conceived here, an ethical politics challenges the liberal political economy of recognition and inclusion. Levinas's theoretical insights are brought to a case study of a unique inner city mainstream' primary school that is organised around a co-governance relationship based on the Treaty of Waitangi. In this school, two forms of authority and ways of constituting social and educational space are practised. The case study finds positively productive relationships operating at all levels of the school, and suggests that, because they are positioned autonomously and relationally, Māori are actively and creatively determining their own educational priorities and practices with significant success. The thesis positions the case study as profoundly instructive for an ethical politics in a range of sites.