Putting 'Maori' in the Mainstream: Student Teachers' Reflections of a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

This paper reports on student teachers' experiences of an education program that was explicitly designed to be grounded in both Kaupapa Maori and mainstream pedagogy. This program started from the Kaupapa Maori view to be Maori as Maori. This was then supported by mainstream epistemology of New Zealand focused good teaching practice. A Kaupapa Maori approach was taken in this qualitative study that used participant driven spiral discourse. The paper suggests that this combined Kaupapa Maori and mainstream approach allowed these student teachers to find their place in education. Conclusions suggest that a culturally relevant pedagogy modeled as good teaching practice was needed for these student teachers to develop an understanding of not only how learning occurs but also how their teaching relates to learning. (Contains 1 figure and 2 footnotes.)