Tekau-Rima. Interventions to Indigenize the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnic System in Aotearoa: An Answer

• In Event: Education Research in Search of Indigenous Truths: Language, Leadership, and Identity

Abstract

The Institutes of Technology and Polytechnic (ITPs) sector in Aotearoa consistently underserves Māori. An unacceptable achievement gap exists between Māori learners and non-Māori learners which contains the potential of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to be transforming for Indigenous communities. To address this gap this paper proposes ‘Tekau-Rima’, a Kaupapa Māori praxis-based methodological approach that utilises multiple interventions that aim to double the total number of Indigenous faculty at two ITPs in Aotearoa over five years. ‘Tekau-Rima’ is not a silver-bullet answer to the underdevelopment of education services for indigenous people, however, it is offered as a solution to making education more effective at transforming the lives of the Indigenous people of Aotearoa.

Author

• Jamie Ihimaera Smiler, Wellington Institute of Technology and Whitireia Polytechnic
  Presenting Author