Example courses

• Ako 1: Ngā Anga—Care and education frameworks and pedagogies

  This course introduces you to practice frameworks taught across the programme, including professionalism, ethical practice and reflective practice. We examine the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Code and Standards, the EC regulatory framework, and professional guidelines such as Tātaiako and Tapasā. We focus on notions of wellbeing, belonging, diversity, cultural sustainability and inclusivity.

• Te Ao Hurihuri 1: Te Tiriti—History and transformative education

  This course introduces the historical context for education in Aotearoa, beginning with pre-colonial Māori tikanga, the early contact period, He Whakaputanga, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the impacts of colonisation since 1840. It includes examples of Māori resistance to Tiriti breaches and an overview of Waitangi Tribunal findings, with a focus on the implications for transformative education, including ecological justice, in contemporary and local education contexts.

• Te Ao Hurihuri 2: Ngā Auahatanga—Innovations in Care and Education

  This course provides students with an opportunity to interrogate the genealogies of indigenous and Western models of childrearing and the intergenerational transmission of languages, values and knowledges, including a view of play and playfulness. Students engage in in-depth exploration, comparison and critique of historical and contemporary contexts for early childhood philosophies and programmes, with a focus on Indigenous models (such as Kōhanga Reo, Aoga Amata, Punanga Reo and Punana Leo) and key Western pedagogical innovations and influences (such as is seen in the work of John Dewey, Frederick Froebel, Rudolph Steiner, Maria Montessori, and the MacMillan sisters).

• Te Ao Hurihuri 3: Ngā Ariā—Theories of growth and learning in context

  This course offers an introduction to, and a critical analysis of, historical and contemporary theories of learning, growth and transformation across the lifespan, with a particular focus on young children and their education. The course examines theories informed by Māori, Pacific and other Indigenous world views as well as key Western theories of learning and development.

• Te Reo Māori 1: Hei Whaiora

  In this course, student teachers are introduced to te reo Māori me ōna tikanga in relation to the conceptual framework that underpins Te Whāriki, including the place of tākaro, or play, in te ao Māori.

• Tātaimarau me Te Reo Māori 2: Kia Rere—The '100' Languages of Children

  Students will explore introductory notions of creativity including Māori, Pacific Peoples and Western conceptualisations. They enhance their own creative skills and attitudes by exploring languages, literacy, visual art, music, dance, drama, science, maths and technology. They develop enriched understandings of design for programme planning and learning environments, which integrate digital learning, a sustainability focus, and transformative approaches. The course incorporates a te reo Māori language component congruent with the level acquired in TCHG 102: Te Reo Māori 1 that builds on earlier te reo learning and uses a corpus of language appropriate to working in these curriculum domains.