Professor Brian Boyd: Place—or Race?—in Education

Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland has enshrined “place” in education in a top-down and almost entirely unargued-for way. “Place” appears to be a cover for race: an attempt at social justice and possibly an attempt to lift Māori performance in the university and society. The roots of this shift go back to 2022, when a broad curriculum “transformation” was proposed. The elements dealing with “place” were initially given great prominence. They promoted idealized, romanticized, and essentialized Māori ways of thinking and attempted to instil a narrow and fixed interpretation of te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Dr Michael Johnston: Universities’ approach to Treaty at odds with academic freedom

New Zealand’s university leaders seem restless. In recent months, Massey, Victoria, Canterbury and Auckland Universities have all advertised for new Vice Chancellors (VCs).

Along with the things one might expect in a VC, like an outstanding academic record and experience in senior management, the jobs ads all emphasise Treaty of Waitangi considerations. The Massey ad says that ‘Te Tiriti principles are central to its governance and operations.’ Canterbury University wants its new VC to ‘embed Te Tiriti principles across all aspects of university life.’ The University of Auckland claims that ‘a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is fundamental to its future direction.’

Pee Kay: He Puapua is alive and well!

If you want to influence and change thoughts or actions, where do you start? In education of course! In particular, the most impressionable, the younger generation.

Have a look at the NZ Secondary Education Curriculum Renovation.

The Ministry of Education states –

Professor Jerry Coyne: Mātauranga Māori strikes again

This article from the New Zealand Herald shows what we already know: that “indigenous ways of knowing” in New Zealand, or Mātauranga Māori (henceforth “MM”) are loudy touted as making substantial contributions to scientific knowledge—in this case to predictions of volcanic eruptions. And while it’s possible that MM can make some contributions to predictions of the damage that could result from eruption, even those predictions are nebulous.

Ani O'Brien: It's just a passport cover... except it's not

The battle over the words on our passports says a lot more about New Zealand than we’d like to admit.

So, they’re flipping the words on the cover of the New Zealand passport… again. New Zealand is to return to sit above Aotearoa. Cue the headlines. Cue the outrage. Cue the proverbial dick measuring. Cue the race-baiting.

Professor Jerry Coyne: Why Mātauranga Māori Isn’t Science

A interview with a “heterodox” New Zealand scientist - “Why Mātauranga Māori Isn’t Science:”

I’ve written a lot about the controversy in New Zealand involving whether the indigenous “way of knowing,” Mātauranga Māori (MM), is equivalent to modern science (often called “Western science”) and, as many maintain, should be taught alongside modern in science classes (see all my posts here).

As I’ve noted, because MM does have elements of empirical truth in it, like information (established by trial and error) about how to catch eels, when berries are ripe, and so on, it is characterized as a “way of knowing”.

Jerry Coyne: Trying to reconcile indigenous ways of knowing with “white” ways of being in New Zealand

This article actually appeared on the Museum of New Zealand’s website, and is about as explicit an argument for the country adopting indigenous “ways of knowing” (Mātauranga Māori, or MM) as I have found. You may remember that MM is a mixture of practical knowledge, religion, superstition, morals, teleology and guidelines for living. Despite this mixture, there has been a constant battle to get MM taught as coequal with modern science, though the argument has euphemistically changed to coequal “ways of knowing.”