Kia Tīmata Pai (Best Start Study): Observed Te Reo Māori Usage Within Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa New Zealand Following Professional Development

There is growing recognition amongst non-Indigenous New Zealanders of the importance of te reo Māori, the Indigenous language of Aotearoa (New Zealand). Several initiatives in Aotearoa aim to revitalise te reo Māori. Recent research highlights the potential for predominantly English-speaking educators to enhance and integrate te reo Māori effectively into their early childhood education (ECE) settings through access to professional development (Mitchell et al., 2023). This study assessed the influence of an oral language enrichment programme one year later. ENRICH aims to foster rich interactions between kaiako (educators) and tamariki (children) to improve their oral language (Reese et al., 2023). A specific aim was to increase the use of te reo Māori within classrooms. We re-visited 24 ECE centres from the trial’s 134 centres to capture 25-minute segments of naturalistic interactions between kaiako and tamariki across five routines: Kai (Food) Time, Group Time, Book Time, Free Play, and Nappy Change/Toileting. Regardless of condition, te reo Māori use increased over time during Kai Time and Nappy Change/Toileting, but not during other routines. We discuss reasons for this shift over time and why ENRICH did not result in greater increases in te reo Māori use compared to the Active Control group. Keywords: te reo Māori; Indigenous; language revitalisation; oral language intervention, early childhood; education; Aotearoa New Zealand.