Abstract
Using the concept of symbolic policy and drawing from an anthropology
of policy approach, this paper explores the ways that bicultural education
policy creates and sustains a myth of partnership between Māori and Pākehā/European
settler-descendants. Drawing from doctoral research undertaken in mainstream
Auckland secondary schools, the paper illustrates the ways that the educational myth
of biculturalism is sustained through auditing systems and institutional practices,
and discusses one particular effect of this process. For the research participants in
the study (a group of non-Māori students learning Māori language), bicultural policy,
as it tends to be enacted in schools, appears to contribute to an idealized conception
of Māori people. In this idealized conception, Māori people are believed to be
speakers of the Māori language and consequently the Māori language is perceived to
be healthy and thriving. Whether this perception is widely held is unknown, but it
has the potential to impact negatively on future Māori language revitalization efforts.
