Abstract
Te reo Māori (the Māori language) is an important part of the culture and heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. To create programmes and policies which effectively grow and maintain the long-term health of te reo Māori will require a comprehensive understanding of how the next generation of speakers recognise, acknowledge, and value te reo Māori as part of their identity. The current project contributes to this need by investigating how a group of young New Zealanders enrolled in a mandatory te reo Māori class view and experience te reo Māori in their lives through a mixed-method research design comprising two studies. Study 1 is a quantitative analysis of the relationships between the students’ sense of belonging with the te reo Māori class and several other school-based measures (e.g. general wellbeing, social fit at school). Study 2 involved 15 one-on-one semi-structured interviews with students in the mandatory te reo Māori class and used thematic analysis to analyse the data. The results of Study 1 found no significant change in any of the primary measures from before and after participation in the te reo Māori classes. Two primary themes were generated from Study 2, 1) Te Reo Māori in My Life: Siloed or Holistic; and 2) Te Reo Māori Attitudes and Attributions. Across both themes, participants were generally comfortable describing the benefits of learning te reo Māori and their own willingness to learn while also describing many others as more hesitant or reluctant. When integrating the two studies it was apparent that the participants were able to recognise the importance and value of te reo Māori in Study 2, but these potential positive ideals were not reflected in the quantitative results of Study 1. The implications of these findings in relation to the wider literature, the limitations and future directions for this research are discussed.