Catherine Forster, history teacher at Naenae College, talks about how important it is to teach Māori history. Catherine explains how teaching Māori history begins with teaching about local areas, making local connections, and hearing local stories. This is particularly important for Māori students. She describes the way Naenae College took time to develop relationships with local iwi, and how getting students out into their local world is critical to building their understanding of local stories.
Ricky Prebble of Wellington East Girls’ College talks about Māori history and what this means in today’s world. He considers the way teaching New Zealand history is different to teaching Māori history. Ricky believes place-based teaching is important in the teaching of Māori history as it is a way to connect and build relationships between the different groups involved in telling, listening and recording the stories.
Professor Wally Penetito, Ngāti Hauā, describes place-based education as having three strands:
a place-based curriculum that lets students examine knowledge and events from where their feet stand
a place-based pedagogy that takes into account the tikanga of where you are teaching
the idea of challenging your own “taken-for-granted” world.
