Becoming Educultural: Te whakawhitinga o nga matauranga--Interfacing the Knowledge Traditions

In every profession, there comes a time when it is important to stop and evaluate the progress that has been made and to determine the changes that will be necessary to engage in new times and to meet new demands. The profession of tertiary education is no exception. In a period of rapid change many solutions are offered about what it takes to sustain effort in order to achieve success. Some of these solutions--for the acquisition of quality in education--insist on precision, rigour, consistency, and replicability. This paper purports that such qualities are of high value, yet appear incomplete if certain sociocultural elements are not taken into account. It is argued that we might better unravel our perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about education, when we draw from the historical and social contexts that have affected our worldview. These historical and social contexts might well be the tools that help to shape the values of learning, referred to in this paper as "becoming educultural".