Today we spent the day at the Auckland College of Education. It was a very full day (read: I was tired at the end) but a lot of really interesting conversations were able to take place. I have been thinking a lot about the difference between an additive philosophy of multiculturalism (you add in information about different cultures, i.e. Black History Month, but don't allow the other cultures to transform the values of your educational system) as opposed to a transformational philosophy of multiculturalism (the experience, norms, and values of other cultures transform the way you teach and education ultimately becomes a vehicle for social change). The schools I have visited so far claim to be committed to biculturalism and it is clear that they teach some information about Maori culture and history, but the structures of the schools remain essentially Pakeha (European). Today I was able to ask some questions about this to people who are responsible for teacher training. Sadly, no one was really able to give me a satisfactory answer to my questions, but I will keep asking them.

Because te reo Maori ran the risk of becoming a dead language, a number of Maori medium schools (te reo Maori immersion) have opened in the last ten or fifteen years. These schools are having a lot of success in developing Maori pedagogy, teaching Maori language, and preserving Maori culture but they are essentially segregated institutions (Pakeha are welcome, but only about 5 non-Maori students attend these schools in the whole country) and it doesn't seem to me that there is much interaction between the kura kaupapa and the mainstream schools in terms of talking about how to best educate Maori children. I'm hoping that next week when we are in Wellington and meet with another education college and the Ministry of Education I may get a few more answers.

Here is our entire group at the top of Mt. Eden, one of the many volcanoes that Auckland is built on top of. The man on the far left is our bus driver, Ken Going, who was a member of the national rugby team (the All Blacks, the name refers to the color of their uniforms, not their skin) in the 70s and was one of the first Maori players named to the team. Everywhere we go people say, "do you know who your bus driver is?!?"

This is me with Jacquelin. In the background you can see part of the Auckland skyline. She thinks the caption on this photo should be "Fulbright Scholars are always hard at work" but I want to use the caption to tell you that Jacquelin was born in Antigua, grew up in New York City, taught in Japan for the last two years for the U. S. Department of Defense and will be teaching in Iceland next year. She is so opinionated that I look like a wilting flower next to her!