Early 2024, Lawrence Krauss reported [1] that Concordia University in Canada is in the process of decolonising and indigenising its curricula, including Engineering. He noted that this will put Concordia on the Map, but not in a positive way.
The new university plan at Concordia is drawing on “principles embodied in the Two Row WampumBelt …. An ethical framework for how colonial-settler governments are to conduct themselves while living in the land of the Rotinonhsión:ni – more commonly known as the Haudenosuanee Six Nations Confederacy.” Concordia is nonetheless part of Quebec province. The intent of the new Concordia curriculum is that it, “… creates a path where everyone is equal and no worldview is superior.”
The article goes on to comment that Concordia is decolonising by moving away from the ideas of the liberal enlightenment, dating from the 17th century to today. These ideas have underpinned the development of modern science and of the modern university, where open inquiry, and exploration and debate of new ideas, is fundamental. Concordia is asking its community to see the enlightenment worldview as unjust and discriminatory. Concordia’s decolonisation/indigenisation plan extends to their School of Engineering also – more on that below.
All of this is, regrettably, another instance of Critical Social Justice ideology in action. The reality is that, as much as it is desirable for all to thrive and prosper, individuals differ in their skills and abilities. What we must do is maximise the opportunity for all to succeed, but we cannot guarantee the outcome, unless it is through a dumbed down and undemanding curriculum.
Decolonising Science and Engineering in New Zealand Universities
Readers will see the parallel between what is going on at Concordia and moves to decolonise New Zealand universities and others in the Western world.
In New Zealand, decolonisation activist academics such as Hoskins & Jones [2] aim to change completely the cultural character of the university. For example, Hoskins & Jones say,
“Indigenisation refers not to the inclusion of indigenous people, values and knowledge within a largely unchanged or superficially-changed institutional structure, but to the normalisation of indigenous ways of being and knowing.”….. and,
“Indigenisation keeps a firm eye on institutional change; the university (or the school) becomes ‘more Māori’. Success on this model is evidence that the university has more (permanent, high status) Māori staff, and students, teaches more Māori knowledge in more Māori ways, is a place where Māori assumptions and priorities are supported and resourced, where people at all levels engage with each other on the basis of friendship and individual care (whanaungatanga and manaakitanga).”Decolonisation advocates argue for institutional change that will take the university away from being a home of culturally neutral academic discourse. Decolonisation involves the introduction of courses, taught by Māori staff, that are intended to be mandatory, covering the Māori worldview (Te Ao Māori), elements of Māori traditional knowledge (matauranga Māori), tikanga (protocols and processes), kawa (rules), together with particular interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand colonial history.
There is general support for the inclusion of traditional knowledge content in university history, sociology or anthropology courses, but not in the Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) areas. As one colleague at the University of Auckland recently said, “It's quite extraordinary that we are launching a course called "Epistemological justice: indigenising STEM" while at the same time we're being forced to cut science courses.”
In my own field, Engineering, the progress of this ideology has so far been felt less than in areas such as education, social sciences, and some areas of science such as environmental science. However, there have been strenuous efforts to position traditional knowledge on an equal footing with modern science right across our research and education system.
Engineering programmes are looking to incorporate Māori traditional knowledge, as seen initially in course content around sustainability, for example. Waikato University is introducing matauranga Māori and Kaupapa Māori into software engineering [3], although the article referenced does not make to clear how this will happen. The University of Auckland School of Engineering’s web page [4] on Matauranga Māori makes the following aspirational statement:
“We're committed to the unique Māori way of viewing the world — encompassing traditional knowledge and culture — and actively seek meaningful ways to reflect this in our teaching, research, and ways of doing.”Why Can’t We Decolonise Engineering?
I support engagement with Māori traditional knowledge and culture. However, advances in engineering science and technology necessarily continually crowd out earlier but valuable course content in a very full four-year curriculum. While Matauranga Māori is described as evolving steadily through time, in taught curricula we cannot afford the luxury of inserting much traditional knowledge, because it cannot contribute technically to advanced modern engineering.
I have noted previously [5] that the technological level of pre-European Māori society was without the wheel, without metal smelting, and without mathematics or written language, placing it approximately at the stage of other developing societies at or pre-3,000 BC. Naturally, therefore, practical aspects of matauranga Māori that relate to empirical observational knowledge, for example of flora and fauna and water in the natural environment, will be more valuable as a complement to biological and environmental sciences than to most areas of modern Engineering.
Engineers use science, mathematics and creativity to design technological solutions to society’s problems and to advance our built environment, static infrastructure, transport systems, IT, telecommunications, and medical technology, for example.
Engineering research often leads to new scientific discovery. Engineers are seen as pragmatic problem solvers and are required to be completely in touch with reality, as what they design and produce frequently has implications for individual or community health and safety.
Engineers are normally the ones held responsible when a building or bridge collapses or an aircraft crashes. The test is to ask yourself if you want to fly in a new jet aircraft where the airframe or jet engine design team members were selected on the basis of having significant traditional knowledge, or where only those with the most advanced technical education were employed. A similar question can be asked about your next robotic surgical operation. And, as artificial intelligence increasingly finds its way into more automated engineering design processes, what happens if critical social justice ideology somehow incorporates particular cultural or spiritual beliefs in Engineering software decision-making processes?
If we upset the analytical rigour of Engineering design and analysis by infusing traditional knowledge ideas, where myth, legend, spiritual beliefs, and belief in unprovable concepts are involved, we place at risk the integrity of the Engineering process. This may sound harsh, but the scientific and analytical/mathematical part of Engineering must adhere simply to the latest and most reliable science, while welcoming traditional knowledge viewpoints where they can add a useful empirical dimension, or a sociological viewpoint that might affect societal considerations, for example around the design of community buildings and villages.
We have been Warned
The idea that Engineering can be decolonised or indigenised does not stand serious scrutiny. New Zealand should stand warned by what is happening at Concordia University. Activism to give Māori traditional knowledge equal standing with modern science or Engineering cannot lead to better STEM education. However, we can continue to work to include such knowledge in appropriate courses outside those of, or complementary to, advanced modern science and technology.
Historically, New Zealand Schools of Engineering have stood tall internationally and our graduates have been highly employable overseas. Let us not go down the identity politics pathway that will adversely affect the content and quality of our Engineering programmes, and, inevitably, the international standing of our universities.
John Raine is an Emeritus Professor of Engineering and has formerly held positions as Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at AUT, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Albany and International) at Massey University, and Pro Vice Chancellor (Enterprise and International) at University of Canterbury. He has had a long-term involvement in NZ’s innovation system and chaired the Government’s Powering Innovation Review in 2011.
References
1. Lawrence Krauss: “Concordia ‘decolonises’ Engineering”, Quillette, 6th February 2024.
https://quillette.com/2024/02/06/concordia-university-chooses-ideology-over-science/
2. The Kawehau Hoskins and Alison Jones, “Indigenous Inclusion and Indigenising the University”, New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, volume 57, pp 305-320, 2022.
3. “Embracing Matauranga and Kaupapa Māori” Engineering New Zealand, 17th November 2021. https://www.engineeringnz.org/news-insights/embracing-m%C4%81tauranga-and-kaupapa-m%C4%81ori/
4. The University of Auckland, School of Engineering, “Matauranga Māori”, https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/engineering/about-the-faculty/matauranga-maori.html
5. John Raine: “Ideological Illogic – Facts Not Feels, Please”, Bassett Brash and Hide, 13th August 2024 https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/john-raine-ideological-illogic-facts-not-feels-please?
37 comments:
The point is, that in decolonising Engineering, it enables maori to claim it as their own. Point proven when they put a maori carving on it, made by now decolonised modern tools.
As a past Fellow of the UK IET I find this appallingly stupid. What do I know? If our coalition does not step up and deal with this idiocy as soon as yesterday, we can all bend over and kiss our derrières goodbye. De-fund this nonsense now and sack all those responsible or involved!
Some ancient civilisations were remarkably advanced even by modern standards with regard to feats of engineering and architecture. The pyramids and the Great Wall of China are shining examples.
And yet today, the engineering schools of Egypt, Mexico, China, etc, teach modern universal engineering and architecture.
Compared to the Maori, these ancients produced wonders that were way ahead of their time, and certainly way ahead of anything the Maori came up with many centuries later. But unlike the Maori, they don't clamour for their Bronze Age achievements to be raised to 'equals' of modern engineering and architecture. They have moved on. It's time for the Maori to do so.
75% of NZ women scientists believe that "“matauranga Māori should be valued on par with science”
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2024/10/majority-of-nz-researchers-see-maori-indigenous-knowledge-as-relevant-to-their-workbut-there-is-a-gender-divide
This racist choir braying for the Listener 7s blood showed how embedded it has become. Its infected the Marsden fund - even concrete research
https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/funds-and-opportunities/marsden/awarded-grants/marsden-fund-highlights/2023-marsden-fund-highlights/self-healing-concrete/
NZ Universities are peddling nonsense - they are lost
NZ has slid into a 3rd world swamp.
decolonization is a socialist lie
no body in NZ is living a pre-colonial lifestyle - not even maori.
so some elements of colonisation are apparently ok - like universities
so how much colonisation is ok and who decides
its just another marxist tool to divide and rule
The author and comments are all true and have been repeated many times. But do any decision makers at these Universities listen? Of course not. They will only sit up and take notice when their engineering students have gone overseas to study, and their funding is reduced through lack of numbers. Ideology gone mad.
To say Maori were the equivalent of people elsewhere at 3000 BC is a bit generous. Not only did they not have the wheel. They also didn't have pottery or projectile weapons like bows and arrows. They had no permanent structures like Stonehenge. Agriculture was just a couple of root vegetables which grew in limited places. Even the late Neanderthals had grains.
One thing primitive people have in common is that they think they are the centre of the universe and better than everyone else. Not because they are, but because they are incapable of understanding and appreciating what the rest of the world has got.
And notably, Maori also hadn't discovered pottery, which really does put them at a very primitive level of advancement. It is a nonsense to suggest their understandings of the world can meaningfully add to modern engineering knowledge. As for decolonising - why on earth would we want to do that? It isn’t as though Marori had attained any kind of idyllic level of civility, or achieved a level of technology that anyone would want to emulate, yet alone seriously seek to aspire to, today. Those that promote such rubbish are patently mentally challenged and should be committed to an asylum or, perhaps more appropriately, they'd find a cave more comfortable for their regressive minds? It all typifies what's now wrong with our universities and it's past time, we the public who subsidize these institutions, demanded that such woke stupidity ends.
“Decolonisation” is a Trojan horse for recolonisation.
As if we didn’t know it, engineering is totally dependent on (post-colonial!) mathematics. So how intelligent, educated people can be indoctrinated to think you can ‘decolonise’ engineering defies understanding. How many ‘decolonisation’ campaigners would happily do without the fruits of colonisation? Not need to answer that one.
The explanation is simple, and is one more example of the strand that runs through all of history: the pursuit of power. Its strategy is the exploitation of emotionally inadequate, pudding-brained people who feel the need to expiate their guilt by virtue signalling.
This process of colonising people’s minds is nothing less than a form of recolonisation. It’s just psychological rather than physical.
If anything, this country desperately needs recolonization.
Comment of the year to Barend. Why can't we have people like you in NZ politics?
MC
"Naturally, therefore, practical aspects of matauranga Māori that relate to empirical observational knowledge, for example of flora and fauna and water in the natural environment, will be more valuable as a complement to biological and environmental sciences ..." and are we to believe that Maori made discoveries in the natural environment, undiscovered by other civilisations, that are of benefit today globally? If so, what are some examples?
Drain the swamp ...
Anon@10.36 that's one thing you won't see are worthwhile examples. Bucket loads of rhetoric, but nothing at all really useful to humanity.
I listen to Māori topic seminars given by Māori academics. I rarely learn anything. The first five minutes is a long prologue about identity and then 15+ plus minutes of high school level material that I could gave guessed--if anything concrete stated. No knowledge advanced, no scholarly debate engaged. But that's true for many talks I hear given by many Arts or Education lecturers.
Pre-colonisation, Māori are estimated to have had a life expectancy at birth of about 30. These days it's around 74 for males and 77 for females with the potential for another 5 years if they really wanted it, So tell me again why colonisation was bad for the Maori race. Sure land was lost, but it seems to me swapping land for 40 or 50 extra years of existence is not a bad trade-off. After all - they had control of the land for 900 years and did nothing of consequence with it.
Note, we are WELL ON THE WAY to civilisation collapse. Just look at the exam results of our education system. All very well complaining about literacy levels and numeracy. The process has been underway for decades..... as long as Critical Race Theory has run. Look forward to cave-man culchur for your kids.
So far, no has mentioned that maoris are as much immigrants as the rest of us; they are colonisers from the Pacific. The decolonisation concept that maoris espouse is thus nonsense, unless they push off back to the Pacific island groups from whence they came. Come to think of it; that would solve a lot of problems.
I guess the main agenda is to get more Maori into engineering.
I am sorry to sound like a cracked record but I repeat; we have the longest tail of underachievement in the developed world.
Addressing this shameful statistic is what will have more Maori ( and all lower SES children) in all Stem subjects. Maori are at present over -represented in this tail.
The entire Western education systems and particularly the English
ones have adopted methods and theory that selectively discriminate
against lower decile children through having ineffective methods ( actually methods that are antagonistic to learning) of teaching and no work ethic or discipline. These deficiencies can be remediated by higher decile families but are unavailable to lower ones.
The current maths syllabus in primary schools and the inadequate teacher knowledge is an enormous problem. Hopefully the new workbook programme to be introduced next year will address this . This is where al our energy to solve any real or apparent inequality ought to be ;not just the endless analysis of the problem. Set up homework centers in poor areas or reach out and teach an illiterate child to read !
Marxism of course is the antidote modern academia reaches for to solve Maori underachievement but that is exactly the same ideology that has caused us to be where we are now.
It is very selfish of Maori to focus on their own low achievement without considering the plight of other racial and social groups who are also under-performing.
There are now many ‘cancelled’ scholars, made redundant from our universities, not for incompetence or obsolescence but for failing to bow before the decolonialists and their false gods. Those who have stood up and those who are now standing up against the woke takeover of the universities are the ones being made redundant. It’s going to be a devil of a situation to fix.
John Raine says “I support engagement with Māori traditional knowledge and culture.” Well I don’t. I’m just not interested in it. I’m not interested in religion either. But if Maori want to celebrate their traditions and language within their families and at their maraes that's fine. Just like, for example, the Catholic, Muslim and Jewish communities do within their families, synagogues, temples and churches. NZ is a secular democracy. I don’t want to learn Te Reo - it won’t help me trade or communicate with the rest of the world like English does. Matauranga would be fine as an optional anthropology paper, but I’d never want to study it. I find the haka primitive and embarrassing. But hey, I’m not asking anyone to listen to the bagpipes, read Robbie Burns or engage in Morris dancing either. I do however appreciate Westminster parliamentary democracy and law and order, which are arguably amongst the best systems in the world (and a major improvement on tribal wars, slavery and cannibalism). So, we’d be wise hang on to those, but for the rest, i.e. the supposedly wondrous basket of “traditional culture and knowledge”, I say each to their own and don’t ram your stuff down anyone else’s throat.
I am wondering when Darwins theory of evolution is rejected and replaced with a Maori creationist myth, cos it is such a colonist idea, by a white male. And what about Einstein ?
Barend: you're needed in Parliament. I hope you've got skin thick enough for the bile that'll be spewed at you though.
Gaynor, perhaps you might comment on the very bright children, which the 'system' has always mostly struggled to accommodate, now dumbed down out of existence. And the dumb children of wealthier white middle class parents now heralded as the example to strive for as they mindlessly accept the propaganda instilled in them.
I find your comments informed and considered.
Yep, some firm action. Its got this far by teachers as a breed being not quite of this world, and weak.
Maori are good at B### and bullying, and what we have now in education, is the result of too many being toooo kind. Fair to say its a Maori radical element, not the majority with other blood. In time they will do just as Darwin says...... disappear. Maybe this is their "last hurrah"
Very insightful. For sure 3000 years ago there were the civilisations of the Middle East... and China.... Maori no where near as advanced.
An what about.... colonisation's KFC, warm bedding, clothing, iphones, Agree its Marxism at work
Your last comment is vital. FEAR of "being different" rules. And alas, most in classrooms are not brave.
So..... anyone in these classes is basically going backwards.
Mmm... have thought long that Maori in blissful Hawaiki got brassed off with a certain element in their community, put them in wakas, and told them to take off over the horizon and not come back.
Mmmm..... agree
Yep...... children in wealthier schools are now required to use the "right" pronouns.
I am concerned about all children's achievement and certainly I believe everybody has been damaged by the present thoroughly destructive education system. I personally had two children who had all the advantages of well educated parents who helped them but one had
dyslexia and dysgraphia and the present system had nothing at all to help him. With intensive , traditional teaching he overcame these problems, , winning secondary school maths prizes and passing NCEA English level 3 and gaining a degree in computer science. The other had some brain damage from birth difficulties but gained a degree in maths with the same intensive and effective traditional methods. The third learned effortlessly and skipped classes going to secondary school at age 11 because he was able to do the current low level maths syllabus of junior secondary school level when he was 10 years old. Many teachers and parents were furious about this action , since it challenged the concept of social promotion regardless of achievement.
I was always aware that arts subjects had been hijacked by Marxism so directed the children towards STEM subjects to avoid the indoctrination. I am therefore horrified that solid science subjects and engineering have now been taken over as well.
My mother taught , privately 1500 children to read who had been failed by local high decile schools. The persecution she had from local schools because she dared to teach traditional phonics was so bad the 20\20 team made a doco. in 1997, about it, called 'Reading Wars'.
I concentrate on the long tail of underachievement because that is something traditional teaching methods never had but rather it is the product of Progressive -Marxism driven by the the deluded ideology that holds they have the complete answer to focusing on the 'Whole Child' as well as 'the poor and downtrodden'. Instead they produce high levels of mentally disturbed radicalized children who believe they are victims of some sort of discrimination and massive academic failure particularly with low decile children.
When I was a student at a NZ middle decile primary school in the 1950s everyone in the class of 50 could read and compute at the same standard . The more able were given extension work when they had completed the work the rest of the class did. Nobody I knew required extra tuition to keep up to the correct level.
The battle from my perspective is Marxism versus traditional beliefs, values and teaching methods. In the past we had exemplary education. Why do we have to have introduced Marxism ( Paolo Friere 's' Pedagogy of the Opressed') derived from countries like Brazil which do and did in the past have a massive economic gap ? I am however not denying there may have been some racial and social discrimination in some places in the past in NZ . Now it is inequality caused by an iniquitous education system.
Thoroughly agree with you. We are of an age. I am a trained teacher, primary and secondary, and tertiary latterly, long retired, and, yes Paulo Frere's work I had forgotten - [trained in theology in 70s...], predated the Critical Race rubbish of Derrida et al, which the NZ Maori grads latched on to in USA in 80s. Victimhood once learned is never overcome. So...... Maoridom buying into it will ultimately erase themselves. They can never win. [Darwin at work]
I am wondering if Marxism isnt a response to people becoming too domesticated. I remember if a wild wolf has a task to solve, it will persist for 30mins if necessary to get the reward, but if a domesticated dog has a task to solve, it will give up after 30secs or a minute, and wait for its minder to do it. Sound familiar ? There is a price to pay for lack of natural selection, and this could be it. I am seeing people becoming very domesticated, compared to our brainy ancestors.
And when those that thought the new coalition Government would herald in change to get us 'back on track', it seems it’s not only our universities, but for many organisations it's still full steam ahead (Manawanui-style - unaltering without regard to consequences, cost, or surrounding reality) woke.
Take for example the Nursing Council of NZ (who still leads its publications with the emphasised "Te Kaunihera Tapuhi o Aotearoa" handle) which is currently introducing new nursing competency requirements. Notably, "The Council carries out its functions within the context of its commitments, responsibilities, and obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and has developed a Te Tiriti o Waitangi policy statement to guide its work." In relation to that it states:
“Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a living document shaping Aotearoa New Zealand’s commitment to health equity, diversity, inclusivity and social justice. The Council is committed to Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the overarching framework for the standards of competence for enrolled and registered nurses, ensuring that public safety and culturally safe care are at the heart of the profession. The standards of competence incorporate the articles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi: • Kāwanatanga (Governance): Nurses foster partnerships with Māori and embrace diverse cultural perspectives in healthcare governance. • Tino rangatiratanga (Self-determination): Nurses support Māori autonomy and ensure that care is inclusive of all identities and backgrounds, upholding the right to self-determination. • Ōritetanga (Equity): Nurses are responsible for addressing health inequities and ensuring equal access to high-quality care for all communities. • Wairuatanga (Spiritual freedom): Holistic care is essential, recognising the spiritual and cultural dimensions of health for Māori and other diverse groups.”
Who would have ever known that the Council were signatories to the Treaty and that they are the defined (four?) ‘articles’, and that they set an overarching nursing competency framework? Perhaps when they realise that they operate in New Zealand, maybe it will also dawn upon them that it’s now a multi-ethnic country and that the use of Manglish is not ‘helpful’ in easy comprehension by many of its immigrant nursing staff, yet alone most of the populace? And since when should nursing competencies embrace political indoctrination? And the Nursing Council is a statutory body - what chance to rein in our universities, unless we cut their funding?
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