before the interview:
Initially, before I got into teaching, I had no training in second language teaching but once I got into teaching I went and did a course called Whakapiki i te reo at X University. There, their whole emphasis was on how to teach te reo as a second language and the stuff was pretty mind blowing and eye opening and you just realised how much, you know, you didn’t know and what you should be doing and actually how much you were disadvantaging your kids by not knowing that stuff as well and how much easier too it made teaching te reo. . . . I rave about that course. It’s probably the biggest thing that somehow bettered my teaching. . . . Unfortunately that course at that time was only six months and from what I hear the government came in and changed the course again. I don’t know what it looks like now. But you know when I did it, six months was good but if I'd done it for a whole year, I think you would’ve come out heaps better, more proficient teacher.. . . [It] definitely changed the way I teach. . . .
So far as reading in the area of language teaching research is concerned, both of the interviewees signalled that this was a near impossibility in view of the extent of their other commitments. As Teacher 1 observed:
I don’t do a lot of reading of, in terms of language acquisition or second language teaching stuff like that. For me, I’m the type of person that likes to see, feel and experience rather than read. I'd rather have practical sessions. . . . I haven’t done any [professional development]. That’s why I don’t do readings. I just don’t have the time. I don’t do any courses and then on top of that you got manukōrero to do, kapa haka all that on top of that as well. So in terms of your own professional development and your own continual up skilling, it’s quite minimal, it’s quite minimal, a lot of it is hit and miss. It would be good to take some time out but unfortunately just can’t do it.
Teacher 2, while having had the advantage of attending a six month training
course (during which he had leave of absence from school duties), made a similar point:
When you’re a Māori teacher you don’t get time to do much reading 'cause you’re doing too much other stuff . . . If you do, it will be when you’re sitting in the staffroom, and you will see a magazine. If it’s highlighted there, you’ll pick it up and have a read there but not consciously. I don’t go out of my way to go and read stuff. If it falls into my lap then I have a read if not then yeah.
Examples of the types of activities in which Māori teachers are generally expected to engage over and above teaching were outlined by both of the interviewees. Some relevant extracts from the interview transcripts are provided below.
Teacher 1:
Not only are we a department which teaches reo, kapa haka and visual arts but we also are the lead for pastoral care for our Māori students. Um, and that takes up a big chunk of our time, as well as pastoral care. . . . So it’s . . . there’s added pressure in terms of being a Māori teacher, not only about
the reo and tikanga but a lot of it is about pastoral care for our students. . . . everything on the Māori teacher. . . . Yeah, yeah, and you know like if the Māori teacher doesn’t take the lead well then those kids just fall off. . . . So yeah, as a Māori teacher, you know, you do get run down but you still have to work under the English-medium guidelines. You have to work twenty hours a week, you have twenty hours’ worth of class. You get five hours, not free time but five hours unallocated class, and that’s for class, your assessments, marking and reports and all the sort of stuff but then on top of that, as Māori teachers, you've still got all your pastoral care things that you have to do. So time allowance would be good and an acknowledgement of all the stuff that you do over and above normal teaching duties. Yeah, after a while it wears you down. You do get worn down. You do get sick of it.
Teacher 2:
[Teachers] flick you students 'cause they can’t handle students in their class and so you know you could be teaching a lesson and you get pulled out of that lesson cause you gotta go and do that job . . . or you got to go sort out a kid 'cause you’re the only one with a relationship with that kid. You know, it’s all those extra things that people don’t see, those extra responsibilities and you know everyone knows the Māori teacher ends up doing the kapa haka and all that. So all that time you’re spending doing that you could be producing resources for the classroom or you could be putting time into your thing.
Clearly, so far as the interviewees are concerned, there is a need for more high quality training specific to the teaching of the language (both pre-service and in- service) than is generally available to teachers in secondary schools. A major issue, however, so far as time for in-service training (and for teaching preparation) is concerned, is the fact that Māori teachers have so many responsibilities over and above teaching (in addition to those duties performed by other teachers). For Teacher 2, full recognition of the consequences of the absence of adequate pre- service training came only after he had had an opportunity, several years after he
began teaching, to experience some professional training during a period during in which his school responsibilities were temporarily suspended.
3.6.2 Understanding of some concepts critical to the new curriculum document
3.6.2.1 Communicative language teaching
Asked about communicative language teaching, an approach fundamental to the curriculum document, both interviewees indicated that they were uncertain about the meaning of the term.
Teacher 1:
Yes, I have come across the term. No, I don’t understand what it means.
Teacher 2:
Gees, oh, I have heard that, ask me what it is, a definition, I’m not too sure. If you asked me what it was I’d probably say for myself it would be communicating, using the language to communicate an idea or teaching with the kids, but also communicating with the kids and getting the kids to communicate back, so that backwards and forward not just one way. But I don’t know, I could be totally wrong.
In common with many of the teachers who took part in the questionnaire-based survey, both interviewees expressed some uncertainty about 'communicative language teaching', an approach that is recommended in the curriculum document. 3.6.2.2 The concept of language proficiency and its relationship to achievement objectives
The responses of the two interviewees to a question about their understanding of language proficiency indicate considerable uncertainty.
Interviewer: What do you understand by the term ‘language proficiency’? Do
you believe it can be measured?