Te Pakihi o Matauranga Māori : The Business of Māori Education

Abstract

“A great job for every graduate” This is a big promise and this promise is nigh on impossible given the growing number and diversity of students entering the New Zealand education system. In business to make a promise you can’t deliver can result in an epic fail. However we could have the capacity to do this for Maori students through building a robust foundation and pathway based on principles such as Potikitanga (Tapsell and Woods, 2008) Rangatiratanga, Kaitiakitanga and Nohokotaitanga.

Where once Maori were the minority in the business class room this now applies to all New Zealanders on a large and rapidly growing scale. We live in a world of globalization, privatisation and corporatisation where rapid paced change is the norm, we need to be more nimble, resilient and proactive. In order to keep up with this pace an understanding of international business is necessary.

In business, the best way to know what your customer values is to ask them so in education ask the students what they value, ask industry what they value and integrate these derivers into teaching. Bring Maori business, students and educators together to korero on a regular basis from a Maori social and economic perspective.

The education system burdened with bureaucracy and institutional politics moves too slowly to take up entrepreneurial opportunities. The education sector can learn a great deal from small medium enterprise, if you don’t move quickly when opportunity knocks you will miss the waka.