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Feature

Maori Science: Hit Or Myth?

Will encouraging Maori perspectives in science education produce more Maori science students or relegate them to the science ghetto of creationists and flat earthers?

By Vicki Hyde

Christian creationists have battled, generally in vain, to have Biblical beliefs taught in school evolution classes. Now scientists and some teachers are worried that another belief system may be pushed into the classroom, as Maori folklore and culture gains attention in the science syllabus.

Five years of intense thought and discussion have gone into the new draft syllabus currently under consideration by the Ministry of Education. The last publicly aired version contained suggestions that teachers need to "acknowledge the beliefs, values and heritage of Maori students". It affirmed the special place of the Maori people as tangata whenua and encouraged the use of Maori language in science.

The reaction of many scientists to these suggestions is one of puzzlement. What relevance, they ask, has this to science teaching? Even the Minister for Science (DSIR), Clive Matthewson, said he was "a bit surprised" to learn of the recommendations.

"The recognition of any cultural context in a science syllabus only introduces an irrelevance which will inevitably distort and, perhaps, even destroy the very fabric of science education, " said Warwick Don, senior lecturer in Otago University's Zoology Department.

Like most scientists, Don considers the universality of science as one of the most important factors distinguishing it from all other human activities. Science deals with the real world and scientific methodology freely crosses cultural boundaries.

Scientists recall with a shudder examples of religious, cultural or political dabblings in science. The Soviet Union's biological sciences are still paying the price for letting Marxist doctrine rule agriculture and genetics. Physiological and psychological studies were used to justify the dominance of one race over another in the United States, Nazi Germany and South Africa.

Beverley Bell, who worked on the syllabus revision, sees the recommendations as benign. They are intended to provide a meaningful context in which students can relate science directly to their own experiences. By applying a Maori perspective, it is hoped to encourage more Maori students to take up science and to feel less alienated from science.

Pauline Waiti, of the University of Waikato, echoes those thoughts. In the "NZ Science Teacher" she outlined ways in which teachers could take a fresh look at science to make it more relevant for Maori students. Thus the unit on "Science and Me" (`Ahau') could start with "Whakapapa" (`Genealogy') to acknowledge the importance of the past. From there, the science units could go on to look at the body, growth and development and so on. Waiti sees the science as being the same, with only the teaching approach being made more appropriate.

She did warn that "we have to be careful that in contextualising content we do so sensitively and accurately, and we must make sure that all the necessary information is passed on. After all, we do not want to `ghettoize' Maori education."

The recommendations are part of a general move towards greater emphasis on context and learning experiences. The "science for all" approach aims to produce students who are scientifically literate and who find science topics personally and socially relevant.

"We haven't advocated a separate science, a Maori science, " Bell says. "We're saying that perhaps the context needs to be looked at differently."

A more radical approach is advocated by Helen McGregor and endorsed by teachers attending her session at the recent Science Teachers' Conference. McGregor contends that there should be no separation between Maori culture and Maori science.

In her approach, the wanderings of Ruaumoko, the goddess of volcanoes, are used to explain earthquakes and the movement of tectonic plates. Whales are classed as mammals because Tane Mahuta, god of the forests, claims them for his realm.

"Mythology is very much a part of scientific analysis, " McGregor says. It is not part of her culture to single out any particular area of study. There is no need to teach students distinctions between what is believed scientifically and what concepts have their basis in non-scientific beliefs.

Teachers at her session appeared to have no difficulty with this and, when asked, affirmed that creationism was an equally valid approach for European science students.

The problem with this is that it will produce students who will not be able to function effectively in the international scientific community. It could relegate Maori students to a scientific ghetto by discouraging critical thinking and encouraging the use of concepts that cannot be accepted scientifically.

Teachers agree that the deplorably low numbers of Maori students in science studies obviously demands more effective measures to gain their attention and interest. The draft syllabus goes some way to addressing those demands; its implementation as suggested by Helen McGregor goes a great deal further.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.