A Curriculum Programme Resource (CPR), a critical guide to Maori and Pakeha histories for educators

The CPR consists of six Unit booklets that make one box-set of the CPR for education centres to purchase, copy, do professional development, read, plan and teach from. The content chronologically covers Te Ao Maori o Nehera, British Isles, Two Worlds Meet, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Pakeha Responses, Maori Responses. Optional junior and senior activities and integrated curriculum term-overviews included. It is a single programme to help educators plan and teach their approach to New Zealand’s Maori and Pakeha cultures and histories cohesively.

This CPR can practically support New Zealand Curriculum goals, which require New Zealanders to be knowledgeable about Maori and Pakeha, to understand histories of their relationship and enact the Treaty of Waitangi Principle. It can effectively enact Ministry and other related educational policies that expect educators to do this. It has been written in response to research findings that teachers have outdated knowledge about Maori and Pakeha histories, a lack of accurate history, Treaty and Maori knowledge. Teachers also steer clear of “controversial” content and believe younger students cannot manage this content. The CPR addresses these findings and is a must in every education centre in this country.

There has been unsuccessful attempts to do this content, currently nothing produced meet the requirements necessary to practically cover this content identified in the research. The CPR does what other attempts don’t. It is based in critical multicultural history and social science pedagogies. It is more directive, comprehensive and based on authoritative historical texts. It has a practical focus. It includes two worldviews, two knowledge bases: a tangata whenua view, and a Pakeha settler group view. It draws on all Treaty texts, a local and global context, histories of colonisation and an honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi discourse.

The CPR’s initial target audience is primary schools, principals and practitioners but it can also be Professional Development for all educational levels such as secondary and ECE, including school Boards of Trustees. It has been written for both mainstream and Maori pathways. It has been written for practitioners of all ethnicities to teach students of all ethnicities.

After reading the Unit booklets for professional development, educators can use the CPR in a range of models of delivery. They then select from the CPR to create their own unit plans, lesson plans, and assessments for delivery as is a teacher’s craft. Schools can collate their teacher planning and resources. A staff member/s can be a caretaker of the CPR.