Pedagogical intentions: Enacting a “refreshed” bicultural curriculum positioned at the crossroads of colonial relations, biocultural education, and critical literacy

Some of the “big” ideas around the refresh of Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa— Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2017) (Te Whāriki 2017) are that it is designed as a rich bicultural curriculum for every child, supported with the idea that “In Māori tradition children are seen to be inherently competent, capable and rich, complete and gifted no matter what their age or ability” (p.12). At a special briefing on Te Whāriki 2017 a Ministry of Education official, Nancy Bell, said “What worries the Ministry of Education most is that for many children the curriculum is boring, not rich enough in many services” (personal communication, June 2017). In Te Whāriki 2017, protection and promotion of children’s health and wellbeing; equitable access to learning opportunities; This article emphasises some of the shifts highlighted by the Ministry of Education in the refreshed Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa—Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2017) (Te Whāriki 2017). Some of those shifts include the ideas of Te Whāriki 2017 being a curriculum for all children, having a stronger bicultural framing, the intentionality of curriculum design, the importance of community engagement, the centrality of kaupapa Māori theory and its relationship to identity, language, and culture. This leads into a focus discussion of the importance of language and languages policy under the heading of critical kaupapa Māori theory. Drawing on the characteristics of the pīpīwharauroa, and through an example of pedagogical storytelling, this article theorises a whakataukī. Finally, the relationship of critical literacy to transformational praxis is explicated, arguing that it is through such pedagogy that the aspirations of the “refreshed” Te Whāriki 2017 as transformational can be enacted. This article rejects the construct of linguistic hierarchies, and challenges the perpetuation of colonialism’s corrosive languages policies and their privileging practices. It promotes the paradigm that all languages are powerful and that all early childhood centres, not just kōhanga reo, are language nests so it is incumbent upon kaiako and community alike to commit to the tenets of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, to social justice, and critical pedagogy for transformation.