All Things Māori Have a Place in Our Curriculum: Indigenising and Decolonising Secondary School Geography in Aotearoa New Zealand
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This doctoral research investigated how Aotearoa New Zealand secondary school geography teachers decolonised and indigenised their practice during a period of immense educational change. The ongoing changes reviewed and overhauled the national curriculum and assessment system. For geography, the changes included teachers enacting aspects of decolonisation, such as critiquing power and integrating mātauranga Māori (Māori Indigenous knowledge), which may challenge teachers’ understanding of geography. This doctoral research investigated the ways teachers decolonised geography and integrated mātauranga Māori into their curricula and teaching. A critical decolonising methodology was applied. The research took a three-study explanatory approach. Each study had different aims, methods and outputs. Study 1 investigated how teachers understood decolonising and indigenising geography. Qualitative data were collected through an online survey of 47 geography teachers and analysed using content analysis and reflexive thematic analysis. Study 1’s findings are presented as a model of teachers’ three orientations towards decolonising geography: classroom practice, engagement with tangata whenua, and reflexivity. Study 2 explored six teachers’ efforts to decolonise geography. The study used a portraiture approach, gathering data through interviews, classroom observations, demographic questionnaires and teaching documents. Data were analysed using portraiture and poetic analysis techniques. Study 2’s results are presented as five narrative portraits. Study 3 investigated the decolonisation and indigenisation work of six geography teachers during their first term implementing the educational changes. Data were collected using focus groups and interviews and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Study 3’s findings are presented as a six-level poutama (stepped pattern, progression of learning and intellectual development). The research found that teachers overemphasised decolonising geographic content at the expense of pedagogy, relating to Indigenous peoples and ongoing reflexivity and learning. Key issues include teachers needing to explore their own assumptions about knowledge and shift from simply adding Indigenous words to their teaching to indigenising curricula and pedagogies. The research paints a picture of teachers travelling towards decolonised geography through commitment to Te Tiriti-based partnerships. The thesis concludes with resources to support teachers to better understand the value of mātauranga Māori for geography and reflect on the stages of their decolonisation journeys.
Author: Finn, Karen Fiona Sinclair
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7135318979