Toi Te Kupu, Toi Te Mana, Toi Te Whenua [electronic resource] : culturally appropriate early childhood education

"Paper presented at the CHILDREN AT RISK Conference,
Norwegian Centre for Child Research,
Bergen, Norway,
May 1992."

This paper discusses the issues of power, self-determination, and culturally appropriate learning as they relate to Australian Aboriginal, Native American, and Maori early childhood programs. It is asserted that many programs for the education of indigenous peoples in Australia, the United States, and New Zealand have failed to serve the needs and aspirations of those peoples, because the majority culture in those countries has historically maintained policies of assimilation of and hegemony over native peoples. Only in the last several decades have national and local governments and agencies come to address the inequities of early childhood programs within indigenous communities. The aims of culturally appropriate early childhood education for indigenous peoples include: (1) acknowledging the validity of cultural knowledge and ways of learning; (2) enhancing self-esteem, cultural pride, identity, and self-concept; (3) enhancing educational outcomes, including maintenance of the people's native language; (4) educating for self-determination; and (5) furthering bicultural and multicultural understanding. Real progress to meet the educational needs of indigenous peoples is possible by providing for the control of their educational resources by the indigenous peoples themselves.