Swings + Roundabouts Spring 2021

Tūhono mai ki te Rangaihi Reo Māori Join the Māori Language Movement Let's make the Māori language stronger As teachers and leaders within the teaching profession here in Aotearoa / New Zealand we have a commitment to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and understanding how this is enacted in all of our practice under Our Code / Our Standards, Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. This includes demonstrating a commitment to tangata whenuatanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership in the learning environment and affirming Māori learners as tangata whenua and supporting their educational aspirations. Under the first standard, Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership our profession is required to: ● Understand and recognise the unique status of tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand. ● Understand and acknowledge the histories, heritages, languages and cultures of partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. ● Practise and develop the use of te reo and tikanga Māori. Also within the renewing process of our certification with the Teaching Council, leaders are asked, 'has the teacher progressed in their knowledge and understanding of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori?’ Depending on where you are within your learning journey, this progression will be different for each individual teacher. As a leader (from a positional stance or from the understanding that all teachers are leaders who can inspire colleagues towards change as they engage in shared practice) how do you encourage, support and innovate others to practise and develop their use of te reo and tikanga Māori? Every day tamariki and whānau should hear te reo Māori spoken. As a beginner learner you might set yourself a target to greet everyone in te reo Māori using a variety of greetings or focusing on the correct pronunciation of te reo including Māori place names. As your knowledge grows you may choose to broaden your phrases with more varied and complete sentence structures rather than only basic instructional phrases, that many of us start using first, such as 'Horoia ō ringaringa' (Wash your hands) to 'Me hanga whare onepū tāua?' (Shall we build a sandcastle?). But it shouldn’t be just because it’s a requirement of teaching on why you should learn, but you should also consider other reasons, such as it is not only an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand, it’s also a poetic language that speaks from the whenua/land and te taiao/the environment, and as you learn and gain a deeper understanding of te reo it leads to both a deeper understanding and connection to te ao Māori, to the land we call home, and to the Māori learners we teaching along with their whānau. Globally for many students learning a second or third language is the norm, and research suggests that by learning te reo Māori learners become more reflective as they compare what they know of their first language as they learn their second, increasing their understanding of 'metalanguage', the words and symbols for talking about language. For example, I know from my own learning that as I learn te reo Māori I have learnt more about sentence structure and grammatical rules, broadening my understanding of language in both te reo Māori and English and any other languages I try and tackle. “Students who develop equivalent skills in more than one language tend to be more creative and better at solving complex problems than those who don’t and also to score higher than monolingual students in verbal and non-verbal tests” (Ministry of Education, 2002, p.10, sourced from https://tereomaori.tki.org.nz/ Curriculum-guidelines/The-importance-of-learning-te-reo-Maori/ The-benefits-of-learning-te-reo-Maori/Cognitive). The Arohatia te reo Māori booklet (Te Taura Whiri) offers a few tips on pronunciation: September 2021 { 18 }