Bilingual/bicultural education for Maori cultural preservation in New Zealand

• Autores: Susanne M. Shafer
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 9, Nº. 6, 1988, págs. 487-501
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • As the Maori heritage is being recognised as a central part of New Zealand history as well as a cultural treasure whose value can only serve to strengthen the country's mainstream culture, a policy of cultural preservation, if not also cultural integration, has been formulated. In the course of a survey showing the historic relationship in New Zealand of the Maori and European settlers to the land and to each other, the assimilation, despite discrimination, and concurrent decline of Maori language use are delineated. Today, although Maoris constitute only one‐eighth of New Zealand's population, Maori nationalism is on the rise. Basic values in Maori culture, such as respect for the land and love as demonstrated in sharing with and caring for others, are presented. The article goes on to describe bilingual/bicultural programmes being introduced, namely the ‘language nests’ for pre‐school children and their parents and the immersion programme in the first years of primary school. Social studies guidelines now emphasise Maori culture as an appropriate component of the curriculum, a position reiterated in the Ministry of Education's recent Curriculum Review. Here cultural preservation of Maori culture and language constitutes a goal for all New Zealand's schools, a policy which may well lead to cultural integration of the two original strands of New Zealand's culture, namely Maori and European (pakeha).