identity and heritage
 : Identity
Approach: One to one (year 4); station (year 8).
432k
Resources: Photograph of Mäori children (year 4 only).

Questions / instructions:
YEAR 4
Here is a photograph of some New Zealand school children.
You can see that they are Mäori children.
New Zealand has people of many cultures. Mäori culture is very special to New Zealand.
Can you tell me three things that are very special to Mäori culture?

Prompt: If student gives answer in very general terms eg., 'culture', ask "what do you mean by that?"

YEAR 8
 New Zealand has people of many cultures.
Mäori culture is very special to New Zealand.
Write down 3 things that are very special to Mäori culture.

  % responses
y4
y8

Mäori children
Categories used:
 
art, craft, music, dance
29
38
history, myths, legends, beliefs
21
29
customs, traditions, ceremonies
20
38
land and treaty issues
7
26
family, hapu, iwi, leaders
8
23
language
29
26
daily living: food, activities
10
13
marae
5
17
other appropriate response
5
3
Number of different categories used: 3
2
1
0
16
28
32
24
41
38
16
5
Number of responses judged valid: 3
2
1
0
28
22
26
24
60
24
11
5
Overall rating [year 4 only]: very good
good
fair
poor
no response
4
15
25
38
18

Commentary:
The results of this task illustrate students' ideas and understandings about what is special to Mäori culture. When the validity of the different ideas was analysed about half of year 4 students gave two or three valid responses compared to 84 percent at year 8. Because year 4 students gave their responses orally, it was possible to make an overall judgement of their ideas and thinking, and the results show that a large percentage had some difficulty identifying features special to Mäori culture.