Opening Keynote by Angus Macfarlane, University of Canterbury Professor of Maori Research

Nau te rourou, naku te rourou. Your food-basket and my food-basket

Leading educators in the new millennium have identified key goals as being paramount for Maori development. Three such goals include: to live as Maori, to be participants in a global world, and to experience a good quality of life. These goals can be perceived as a vantage point to setting an agenda for planning and carrying out educational research, where the pursuit of knowledge and ways of progressing are strongly situated within a Maori worldview, Te ao Maori. Kaupapa Maori Research (KMR) and Action Research (AR) approaches, while different, are not incompatible. Within both approaches researchers are expected, by their communities and by the institutions that employ them, to have some form of critical and historical analysis of the role of research in a range of dynamic contexts and sites.

Action research is a particular approach to research that aims to improve practice or have a real world application. Individuals involved in the Action Research process are often part of a 'community of practice'. Referred to in Maoridom as a 'whanau of interest', this collaborative approach often employs a blend of Action Research (AR) and Kaupapa Maori Research (KMR) principles.

KMR and AR are often seen to be relating to enhancing the quality of life for selected individuals and groups. The outcomes of the research activities can be useful to a variety of constituents—general and special educators (teachers, administrators, related services personnel), whanau, policy makers, and certainly the students themselves. This presentation will seek to argue that KMR and AR can co-exist - by varying together in patterned ways.


Professor Angus Hikairo Macfarlane is of the Te Arawa waka and its confederate tribes. The thrust of his teaching and research activities is concerned with the exploration of culturally responsive concepts and strategies that affect positively on professional teaching practice. In 2003 he was awarded the inaugural Senior Research Fellowship by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. In 2004 his landmark book Kia hiwa ra! Listen to culture – Māori students’ plea to educators was published. In 2009 he was appointed University of Canterbury Professor of Maori Research, and he continues to publish extensivly and influence practice within and byond New Zealand.