Māori ako

In te reo Māori, the language of the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, the word ako means both to teach and to learn.¹ The concept does not separate the two roles. A teacher is simultaneously a learner, and a learner simultaneously contributes knowledge. The word encodes a relationship in which knowledge flows in both directions.

Ako is grounded in the broader Māori concept of whanaungatanga, which describes relationships built on shared experiences and a sense of belonging. Learning is understood as a communal activity, not an individual one. The quality of the relationship between teacher and student determines the quality of what is learned.²

In traditional Māori education, knowledge was transmitted through oral traditions, whakapapa (genealogy), and direct participation in communal life, including agriculture, navigation, and carving.

New Zealand's Ministry of Education has formally adopted ako as a guiding principle for the national curriculum. Ka Hikitia, the ministry's Māori education strategy, positions ako as a pedagogical framework emphasizing reciprocal learning relationships between teachers and students.³

The concept challenges the industrial model of education in which knowledge travels one direction, from teacher to student, from expert to novice, from authority to recipient. In ako, the asymmetry dissolves. The word itself makes the separation impossible.⁴

Timeline

• Pre-colonial, Ako operates as a foundational principle of Māori knowledge transmission through oral tradition and communal life.
• 1982, Rangimarie Rose Pere publishes Ako: Concepts and Learning in the Māori Tradition.
• 2013, New Zealand's Ministry of Education formally adopts ako in Ka Hikitia, the national Māori education strategy.

Endnotes

1. Pere, Rangimarie Rose, Ako: Concepts and Learning in the Māori Tradition (Hamilton: University of Waikato, 1982).
2. New Zealand Ministry of Education, Ka Hikitia: Accelerating Success 2013-2017, and subsequent strategy documents.
3. New Zealand Ministry of Education, Ka Hikitia.
4. Pere, Ako: Concepts and Learning in the Māori Tradition (1982).