Tangata Whenua in distance education: An emerging model for isolated Maori secondary students in the Correspondence School

Abstract

This paper examines Canadian models developed for distance education delivery to indigenous peoples of Ontario and Alberta. It then reviews a similar New Zealand model, a partnership of Te Puni Kokiri and the Correspondence School. Analyses of the school's Charter and Strategic Plan are followed by descriptions and structural analysis of two Secondary Learning Centres, with comment on the changes in Maori student performance in 1993-1994. A theoretical perspective is developed. The emerging challenge is to modify curriculum through consultation with the Tangata Whenua to recognise more fully partnership for Maori with a central institution of the compulsory sector of the New Zealand education system.

Keywords

• distance education
• distance learning
• Maori students
• learning support