He taonga te reo: Honouring te reo me ona tikanga, the Māori language and culture, within early childhood education in Aotearoa

Abstract

This paper considers data from recent research which illustrates the ways in which tamariki (children), whānau (families) and educators are integrating the use of the Māori language within their everyday educational interactions, as mandated by the bilingual New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996). Languages reflect cultures, expressing our deeper meanings and representations. Inscribed within verbal and non-verbal languages are our ways of being, knowing and doing (Martin, 2008). Jeanette Rhedding-Jones has inquired in her Norwegian multicultural context as to “What kinds of constructions are the monocultural professionals creating for cross-cultural meetings and mergings?” (2001, p. 5). What follows is an exploration of strategies by which Māori ways of being, knowing and doing are being enacted through the medium of te reo in early childhood centres.