A Critique of New Zealand’s Exclusive Approach to Intercultural Education

Abstract

This article examines the intercultural initiatives, programmes and strategy documents in New Zealand education to answer the following two questions: What intercultural policies and strategy documents are offered to New Zealand schools and teachers to accommodate their diverse communities? Which communities do they include and/or exclude? It explores and discusses paradigms, policies and curriculum developments that have been developed to address the growing levels of diversity in New Zealand’s schools and identifies some of the current significant gaps. This article argues that within the dominant Anglo-European framework, there are increasing intercultural initiatives supporting Māori and Pasifika communities within New Zealand schools but there are very limited policies and initiatives addressing the wider diverse communities. I argue that policies and initiatives should be all-encompassing, comprehensive and inclusive; that is, they must fairly encompass all members of the society and not be limited solely to specific groups. Moreover, the current policy statements are implemented in an ad hoc manner i.e. they are not supported through the systematic resource banks, leadership, teacher education and training and enabling strategies required to create societies that are more inclusive, with respectful intercultural relations. This article will be of interest to policy makers at a national level, those who work in schools and centres, and teacher educators who have a concern for the inclusion of ethnocultural minorities and intercultural education.

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