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Article published In:
Language learning for language minority students in a globalized world
Edited by Mark Feng Teng and Fan Fang
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 46:2] 2023
► pp. 186–206

Integrating Indigenous epistemologies into mainstream foreign language teaching

Teacher interpretations of government policy

ORCID logo | The University of Auckland

This study explores teacher perspectives on a government policy that seeks to integrate Indigenous knowledge into mainstream foreign language education in New Zealand schools. Based on in-depth interviews, the study found that language teachers generally support this educational change because trans/languaging involving English and te reo Māori (the Māori language) has become an ordinary practice in their teaching and school lives. However, foreign language teachers expressed a need for discipline-specific materials and professional development to help them integrate mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge of Māori) into their teaching. Their concerns can be understood as a lack of support in interpreting “what,” “how,” and “to what extent” the policy will be implemented. The study suggests using a decolonising approach to help teachers affirm the relevance of Indigenous knowledge in their discipline. It recommends that policymakers adopt a pluriversal stance to ensure that diverse knowledge systems can coexist and interact harmoniously rather than compete with one another in the new National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) curriculum.

Keywords: Indigenous epistemology, mātauranga Māori, translanguaging, decolonising approach, educational change
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Indigenous Māori epistemologies
    • 2.2Decolonising approach to language teaching: Theories and practices
    • 2.3Educational change
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Context
    • 3.2Participants
    • 3.3Data collection and data analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Teachers’ general attitudes towards integrating mātauranga Māori
    • 4.2Teachers’ perceived challenges in integrating mātauranga Māori
      • 4.2.1Lack of basic knowledge
      • 4.2.2Lack of discipline/language-specific materials and training
      • 4.2.3Lack of a mechanism to prevent tokenistic integration
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 27 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.22039.wan
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