Implementing culturally responsive and sustaining teaching practice through primary science in Aotearoa New Zealand

The need to achieve better education through science is not a new idea in Aotearoa New Zealand. During several curriculum changes between 1993 and 2007, and more recently in 2025, teachers have not been sufficiently supported by the Ministry of Education in how to implement these changes. The Education and Training Act 2020 requires all classroom teachers to demonstrate how they are culturally responsive in their planning and teaching. Schools and their teachers are to embed, as reasonably as possible, te reo me ngā tikanga, te ao, and Mātauranga Māori (te reo Māori = the Māori language, tikanga = the ways of being Māori, te ao = the Māori worldview, Mātauranga Māori = the Maori knowledge systems). In addition, the governing body that registers teachers and renews teaching certificates in New Zealand, the Teaching Council, requires teachers to demonstrate year-on-year how they are working to be more culturally responsive in their teaching practice, as they demonstrate a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the treaty signed in 1840 between the Crown and the Māori). This presentation will report on how teachers and preservice teachers in an Initial Teacher Education programme are being supported to implement more culturally responsive and sustaining teaching in their classroom practice. Specifically, it will report on how to meaningfully and non-tokenistically weave together both science curriculum and Mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge).