Week 25: Consider your audiences

This is the first of 8 weekly blog posts reflecting on my inquiry, "How do I encourage my students to use te reo Māori when they interact socially?” This inquiry is relevant to the interests of local, national, and international audiences. 

The most obvious audience for my inquiry is the students themselves. I am hoping my students will take the learning home and increase the amount of te reo  Māori spoken in their household. In this way, whanau will also be part of the inquiry and many will be able to support me with their knowledge.  My school has been collecting student and whanau voice on a regular basis and one of the most pertinent comments for my inquiry from whanau has been that our school provides many opportunities for te reo, however it is not heard around the school as much as expected. Leadership and my colleagues at school will therefore also be interested in the outcomes of this inquiry.

Reaching out into the wider community, my school is part of a community of learning. The vision statement of this COL is “to create a community of learning where all students are understood, acknowledged and supported as unique, culturally confident, Ngāpuhi centered learners”. (Te Arahua Community of Learning, 2019). Language is acknowledged as an important part of achieving this vision. 

On a national level, the Ministry of Education campaign, Mōu Te Reo, is promoting the benefits of learning te reo Māori as a way of deepening the knowledge and understanding of Māori culture (Ministry of Education, 2019). They are aiming for all children and young people to be learning in and through te reo Māori by 2025.

On an international platform, 2019 is the Year of International Indigenous Languages, so  my audience could include educators and indigenous language speakers from around the world. There are 7000 different languages spoken throughout the world and 2680 of these languages are currently in danger. The United Nations declared the Year of International Indigenous languages to raise awareness of the valuable contributions languages make to our world’s rich cultural diversity (UNESCO, 2018).

With regard to future-oriented learning and teaching, the views of equity, diversity and inclusivity have changed greatly from the days of colonisation. According to the research project, Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective, the key idea in 21st century learning is that we need to take more account of our learners - who they are, where they are, and their connections with people and places (Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). 

The common perspective of my audiences is that indigenous languages should be preserved and valued. My inquiry acknowledges this and my aim is that te reo Māori is used in my classroom, in the school playground and in my students’ homes as a natural way of communication.