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Te Pū Wānanga o Anamata Gains Approval for Teacher Education Degree

Friday June 29, 2007

Te Pū Wānanga o Anamata has just gained approval for a teacher education degree. CEO Sandre Kruger describes the challenges and successes of going through the approval process.

"Anamata has recently hosted an accreditation panel for the purpose of approving a teacher education degree Tohu Paetahi; Mā te Reo for graduating total immersion primary teachers. It was an exciting and slightly nerve-wracking experience ending successfully in being given 'the green light', as our Chair Ranginui Walker termed it.

"Being accredited in teacher education is no mean feat, as a teacher education moratorium has been in existence for 6 years. No new providers have being considered and any modifications to current accreditation are by exemption by the Minister of Education.

"Te Pū Wānanga o Anamata has been accredited for a Diploma of Teaching since 1999, so we sought an exemption to upgrade to a degree. This was finally approved after 3 years of attempts! Our current application included an online version but the Minister declined this, as this was considered a new programme and required us to apply for a separate exemption. In the same letter, the Minister of Education reiterated his view that all teacher education should be placed in university settings. Therefore, it would have been unlikely that an application for exemption would have been successful.

"NZQA and the Teachers Council are joint approving agents of any teaching degree, and both of them are required for approval. Anamata’s degree is based on a new model which included a high level of te reo Māori and
Tūhoetanga; this was challenged by the panel. Of course they roared with laughter when I proposed that some of the worst teachers were in universities, but students still enrolled because the same people were content rich. And this is what our degree proposed; that our primary school teachers were definitely well versed in teaching skills in curriculum but lacked depth of knowledge, content and context behind the curriculum.

It is our belief at Anamata that by being a Tūhoe or iwi organisation and part of a unique culture, we have the basis for innovative teaching and learning models and this can only come about from not being in the public tertiary arena.