Search Results for: mauri zealand

More Kiwi missteps: New Zealand tries to infuse spirituality into chemistry (and electrical engineering)

Here are a few items about the impending invasion of New Zealand’s “indigenous knowledge” into the chemistry curriculum (the government has decided to give the indigenous way of knowing, Mātauranga Māori (MM), status coequal to that of modern science in the classroom, and also bring about equity in funding of projects incorporating MM. First, we have … Continue reading More Kiwi missteps: New Zealand tries to infuse spirituality into chemistry (and electrical engineering)

Could Mātauranga Māori advance quantum physics?

I suspect the answer to the title question is “No way!”, but the incursion of Mātauranga Māori (“MM”, or Māori “ways of knowing”) into New Zealand’s science is reaching ludicrous depths. Even in the U.S.A. we don’t see headlines like the one below. (Note that “complement” is misspelled as “compliment”.) Why am I so sure … Continue reading Could Mātauranga Māori advance quantum physics?

Nick Matzke on Mātauranga Māori vs. modern science

You may well recognize the name of Nick Matzke, as he was the former Public Information Project Director of the National Center for Science Education, wrote a lot of good anti-creationist material (including a debunking of the “irreducible complexity” of bacterial flagella as adduced by IDers), and played a major role in organizing the prosecution … Continue reading Nick Matzke on Mātauranga Māori vs. modern science

Indigenous spirituality sneaking into New Zealand’s science curriculum, pretending to be “science”

I got an email from a secondary-school science teacher in New Zealand, who gave me permission to quote it all (but of course I’m omitting his/her name). It shows the beginning of the incursion of Mātauranga Māori (MM) into secondary-school science classes. The government has decided that MM, which does include some factual knowledge (growing … Continue reading Indigenous spirituality sneaking into New Zealand’s science curriculum, pretending to be “science”

A good summary of the mess that is science education in New Zealand

If you want to see what the government of New Zealand is up to with respect to science education, you can’t do better than listening to this video/slideshow by two exponents of the “we-need-two-knowledge-systems” view. I’ve gotten a lot of scary stuff from Kiwi educators in the last couple of weeks, but this one site … Continue reading A good summary of the mess that is science education in New Zealand

A Kiwi zoologist decries the erosion of science in New Zealand

It’s rare when a Kiwi scientist writes an article calls out the erosion of their country’s science by an overly worshipful attitude towards “indigenous ways of knowing” (Mātauranga Māori in New Zealand).  Over at  BreakingViews.co.nz, Auckland zoologist Brian Gill blasts the tendency of New Zealand’s science societies to kowtow towards “other ways of knowing.” How … Continue reading A Kiwi zoologist decries the erosion of science in New Zealand

Proposed New Zealand school curriculum and some strong pushback from four academics

New Zealand is, as I’ve mentioned before, engaged in reforming its curriculum for secondary schools. Right now the government’s Ministry of Education has begun rolling out “proposals,” documents that outline the curriculum area by area.  The Ministry is soliciting comments from the public on these areas, with the intention of implementing a final curriculum by … Continue reading Proposed New Zealand school curriculum and some strong pushback from four academics

New Zealand government spends $2.7 million to test already-debunked indigenous theory about the effect of lunar phases on plants

We’ve already learned that, with respect to some indigenous “scientific” theories, the New Zealand government is willing to commit the “Concorde” or “sunk cost” fallacy, continuing to fund lines of inquiry even though those projects have already been proven wrong or unproductive. A particularly egregious example, which I’ve documented before (see here, here and here) … Continue reading New Zealand government spends $2.7 million to test already-debunked indigenous theory about the effect of lunar phases on plants