Approach to Teaching Te Reo Māori in a Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf School 

 

The Waldorf Impulse 

 

The ‘Special Character’ of our schools is based on the understanding of child development indications given by Rudolf Steiner. The Māori Curriculum Guidelines are formed out of an inter-play between this ideology and an understanding of tikanga and kaupapa Māori and therefore requires that different learning experiences be brought to the students at specific times and in certain ways. This may be most easily seen perhaps, in the link of Māori studies with the story and history curriculums and how these curriculums relate to the developmental stages of the children in each class.  

 

Waldorf teachers recognise the inherent spirituality of all students. They aspire to educate the entire person: the life of deeds through will-based activities, the emotional life through depth of heart experiences and the thinking life through timely experience of the world and its many-sided viewpoints. The students are thus enabled to experience an education of head, heart and hand.  It is with this premise that we should approach the integration of te reo Māori and Kaupapa Māori into our teaching. 

 

The Waldorf Impulse in relationship with the learning of Te Reo Māori 

 

General Aims 

 

The aim of second language teaching in Steiner Waldorf schools is to encourage a positive attitude towards people of other cultures and languages, as well as fostering human understanding generally through establishing the ability to empathise with another person’s perspective and way of seeing the world.  Learning second languages offers the individual other perspectives on his or her own language, culture, attitudes and thinking, thus helping the student see the world from a variety of perspectives. 

 

The aims of learning te reo Māori are therefore composite. The first goal is for the students to be able to communicate in te reo Māori. Secondly, by learning te reo Māori, students gain an insight into the character, customs and traditions, literature, culture, and history of the tangata whenua.  

 

The teaching of te Reo Māori will also assist to validate the cultural roots of Māori learners in our schools. While contributing to the building of self-esteem and personal skills of Māori learners, it will help foster understanding of culture and where we stand in our unique physical and cultural environment, here in the South Pacific for all learners and teachers.  The learning of the te reo Māori will also help promote positive and constructive teaching and learning relationships. 

 

Language is threefold in its basic nature. It facilitates self-expression, communication and provides a framework for dialogue, speaking and listening. Secondly, language is a means of structuring and representing concepts and thoughts. This enables the student to map his or her experiences. Thirdly, language can reveal to us much about the world.   In contrast to materialistic conceptions of language, Waldorf education takes the view that any language has its own unique sound and this sound gives expression to something of the essence of the soul quality behind it.  This is one of the reasons why the learning of a language like te reo Māori, is such a powerful formative force.  

 

Teaching Methods 

 

Initial contact with te reo Māori should be a broad experiential and contextual one. There is an intrinsic progression from oral to literate language with the oral element remaining paramount. In building literacy on orality, there is a strong emphasis on the gesture and situation. Language holds a middle position between movement which is internalised to become speech and speech which is further internalised in thinking. 

 

Working intensively with language harmonises and extends the child’s affective responses to the world. Not only do the students become more articulate; they have more to say. Thus the process of learning te reo Māori can serve to meet the developmental needs of the child and help enable them to discover their own abilities in the language while developing their social skills. 

 

During the first three years of instruction the focus is on oral work. The children are introduced to a range of activities, verbal exchanges (greetings, question and answers to everyday situations), karakia/verses, stories/pakiwaitara, counting rhymes, movement activities/korikori-tinana, waiata and games designed to engage them and carry them in the stream of the language without the need for translation or explanation. There is much repetition and new material is introduced slowly and deliberately.  

 

It is not necessary for the children to have an intellectual grasp of all they hear and repeat. During this time they are able to develop sensitivity to the basic intonation patterns of te reo Māori in a way that will be much more difficult after the age of 10 or 11. 

From Classes 4 or 5 a more conscious learning of language coincides with the new developmental stage the children are now entering. They continue to practice what they have learned but begin also writing and reading, as well as being made aware of the structure and spelling of the language. Drawing on what the children have learnt by heart and ear in the first three school years, the children start by writing what they already know and understand. 

Throughout the Middle School, the children continue their oral work, which always remains at the heart of the teaching. This may take the form of acting out short plays or scenes. Reading material is introduced once the children are familiar with the letters and can read familiar sentences, usually in Class 5. The teaching of grammar is limited. Grammar is very much reduced to a ‘need to know’ basis in the Middle School. 

 

The expectation of achievement of students learning te reo Māori in the Upper School will depend on the amount of time and teaching resources that are provided. But in general there should be high expectations of achievement, and learning should be relevant to the developmental stages of the student and the environment that they are in. 

 

 

The main points of view may be summarised as follows: 

 

• students and teachers should share an interest in the themes that are studied, which implies collaboration in their selection 

• enthusiasm is the main factor in language teaching 

• presence of mind and openness to the world around us and our communities needs to be practised, in order to be alert to the latent questions that live in the souls of the students. 

 

Introduction to Teaching Languages in Rudolf Steiner Schools 

 

One of the striking features of the first Waldorf School, founded by Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart in 1919, was that all students from Class 1 up were taught two languages other than their mother tongue and at least the learning of one other language is the intention of most Waldorf/Steiner Schools in Aotearoa, New Zealand. 

 

In Waldorf/Steiner education it is emphasised that anything children are taught at school should be based on child development.  In other words, a true understanding of the developing human being and their inherent talents should be at the heart of all teaching and education. 

 

The encounter with a second language should not only serve to extend the individual’s horizon in a formal manner. It should also enrich the diversity in their inner life, nurturing their very soul.  In early Waldorf/Steiner schools it was seen vital to introduce languages other than one’s own as a means of counteracting whatever one-sided influence any particular language exerted on the developing child. By getting to name and recognize the objects in the world around them in a new way through the medium of a different language, every child would be given the opportunity to break free from the confines of their own language. 

 

Rudolf Steiner indicated that an education of this kind would prevent children from growing up into narrow-minded, nationalistically prejudiced adults. Instead of encouraging attitudes that ultimately separate people from one another, tolerance and mutual understanding between people should be consciously cultivated. 

 

It was viewed that different languages in our world shape, the inner life and viewpoints of their speakers in their own ways – revealing unique and totally varying aspects of human nature. 

 

 

Background behind the Commitment of Teaching Two Languages in  Steiner Schools 

 

Which Languages should be Taught? 

 

Rudolf Steiner was surprisingly pragmatic when it came to choosing the two other languages for young children to learn. During his last cycle of lectures on education in England (Torquay, 1924) people asked him which languages would be most appropriate for a future school. Steiner said that this choice should be made on purely opportunistic grounds. 

 

The only thing that should influence the decision was whatever the respective life situation required. The question as to which other language the children should learn in the Lower School was, to Rudolf Steiner’s mind, much less important than the fact that another languages were being taught at all. 

 

When we apply Steiner’s view on this subject to the same question ‘Of which languages should we teach in New Zealand?’ it seems not only opportunistic but imperative that we choose Te reo Māori as the second language.  This choice will help us to embed our education into the land and culture in which our schools exist. 

 

 

Which Teacher? 

 

In the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart, a second language in the lower classes was often taught by class teachers.  In smaller schools in New Zealand this might also now be the case with the teaching of te reo Māori. This usually means that the class teacher knows their class very well, thus enables the teacher to work effectively with them. 

 

Class teachers on the other hand, sometimes have the disadvantage of not being as proficient with the language as a teacher whose mother-tongue is te reo Māori, or who have studied their subject thoroughly. This is where having a speaker of Te reo Māori among the staff is a great advantage. They are the “living representative” of the language the children are learning, and have the authentic body language that is such an important component of any language. If they also possess the other necessary attributes of a lower school teacher- among them the love and understanding of the children of this age group, flexibility, and a good sense of humour – and, addition to all this, an understanding of tikanga and kaupapa Māori and a sufficient repertoire of rhymes, stories,  games and songs etc., they will be ideally suited to present te reo Māori in an authentic way, so to speak,  and will not find it difficult to maintain the use of the language throughout their lessons.  

 

Another pedagogical aspect should also be taken into consideration. It is essential for each school to have a team of teachers working together to support the teaching of te reo Māori and supporting tikanga and kaupapa Māori within the school environment.  

      

 

Approach 

 

Rudolf Steiner gave various indications about the way children could be introduced to other languages in the first three years of school. The single most important suggestion is probably that children should encounter the language in a direct way, i.e., not through translation. 

 

The use of English should be kept as much as possible for situations such as explaining a game or giving instruction.   

 

Rudolf Steiner said that children as well as learning songs, stories and poems should be taught to have little conversations about everyday life. 

 

“Poetry before Prose” 

 

The more practical ability to communicate in te reo Māori has to be balanced by the best way for children to learn a second language.   Again and again, Rudolf Steiner emphasized the importance of using poetic language in the first three classes. Poetic language, based on the rhythm and rhyme, is learnt far more easily by children than is prose language.  

 

We are lucky in Aotearoa, that within our teaching resources, we have a rich resource of waiata and action songs that have a rhythmical, lyrical and poetic language quality.  Learning through waiata and waiata-a-ringa introduces the children to the flow of te reo Māori. 

 

The Value of Playing Games and Using ‘Formulaic Phrases’ 

 

Playing games is an important part of te reo Māori lessons in the lower school. It is widely accepted that children remember 20% of what they hear, 50% of what they hear and see, and 90% of what they experience through active participation. In an “activity-based” teaching approach, games in te reo Māori have their rightful place, and indeed are an indispensable part of lessons. They should have a special place in every Lower School language teacher’s repertoire, not just because the children like them more than other activities, but because they offer a unique way of enticing the children to speak te reo Māori. The child focuses on the action, not on the speaking or on the grouping of words and the enjoyment of active participation in a language game removes any inhibitions a particular child might have. 

 

Rudolf Steiner recommended that, in language lessons in the Lower School, we should “cultivate the element of reflex actions by language”.  So games like ‘Tahi, Rua, Tahi’ are very beneficial for the acquisition of language. 

 

Written Language 

 

Sometimes we are asked by parents why the writing of te reo Māori is introduced as late as Class 4.  The reason for this is twofold: From a developmental perspective, the child passes through an important phase between their ninth and tenth year. They slowly begin to distance themselves from their surroundings and to perceive objects around them in a new light. So this is the right time to introduce the written mode in a second language. 

 

The other reason is to allow the children to build a large knowledge of aspects of ‘mahi toi’ in the course of the first three classes, thus having at their disposal a suitable body of language and activities that can be used in the first steps of handling the written word. The next stage, from writing to reading, is immensely facilitated when first texts that the children get to read are somewhat familiar.  

 

 

 

Te Tahuhu O Te Matauranga  Ministry of Education Documents 

 

There are a number of ministry of education documents that have been supplied to all Steiner/Waldorf schools in Aotearoa/New Zealand, that support our schools in their aspirations to embed: te reo, Te ao, tikanga and kaupapa Maori in our schools. 

 

We recommend that every teacher in Waldorf/Steiner Schools in Aotearoa New Zealand become familiar with these documents  

 

• List of Supportive Documents:  

• Ministry of Education  Tataiako 

• Cultural Competencies For Teachers of Maori Learners. 

• Gardiner and Parata (2007), He Aratohu: Integrating Kaupapa Maori into Mainstream secondary School Teaching and Learning Programmes. Ministry of Education 

• King, P (2002) Te Ra Waldorf School Curriculum 

• Sorger, A Horizontal Curriculum: Te Ra Rudolf Steiner School