week 3- making contacts in New Zealand

I am taking an independent study with Amy Shimshon-Santo and further developing my internship for New Zealand. After many emails to countless professors and community arts members in Auckland and throughout New Zealand I have two prospects: Marilyn Kohlhase, Director o'kaioceanikart, and Herman Pi'ikea Clark, a member of the faculty of the College of Education at Massey University in New Zealand. I asked myself the following questions to help me clarify my intentions for this internship. My answers follow each question.

Note: One of the distinguishing features of New Zealand Arts education has been
the inclusion of Maori and Pacific cultural perspectives within the content
and teaching orientation of the national arts curriculum and teacher
education processes. (source: Herman Pi'ikea Clark, Massey University)

1.) What do I need prior to my arrival in New Zealand? (Preparation)

I am trying to make find a professor and community member (culture bearer or art teacher) in New Zealand that I could develop an internship with that involves me working in the community in either a school setting or youth center setting that has children/teenagers learning and or practicing Pacific Island culture/dance/language/customs. Since my specialty is in dance in arts education, I would like to find the opportunities to not only observe other art teachers in their processes, but I would also like a chance to teach a dance course myself to students utilizing my own knowledge and experience of U.S. arts education practice and the California art strands. I would need mentorship from the professor and community member to guide me in this internship and through my research. At this time, I need the professor and community member that I decide to work with to assign to me books/articles/readings based around New Zealand’s national arts curriculum and dance as pedagogy that I should study now before I arrive in New Zealand.

2.) What campus will you be at in New Zealand? (Location)

I am not sure what Massey University campus I am going to be attending. It depends on what classes are being offered at each particular campus. However, I specifically want to take classes on Arts Education, New Zealand’s national school system curriculum, Pacific Island (Maori) Studies/History/Society, and or Pacific Island art, music, and dance. These areas of study would particularly assist in my research and internship work. I am working on this part of the paper work (choosing classes and campus location) for EAP at the moment.

3.) What is the purpose of the internship? (Purpose)

The purpose of this internship is to compare specific similarities and differences between the school systems here in the United States and the school system in New Zealand. I am aware that the New Zealand school system believes in carrying on traditional Maori traditions such as language, dance, chants, and the arts by teaching it in the classroom. I want to know why this is. (This section may grow into my core research questions) What is the condition of their society that makes it work in New Zealand (or the condition of their school administrations)? Is this only in private school or all schools including public? Is every student required to learn about the Maori culture in school? Why can’t this work in the U.S.? What is the effect or impact of bringing in Pacific Island culture and arts into the classroom (in New Zealand vs. in the U.S.)? Furthermore, I would specifically like to have a focus on dance as pedagogy (Pacific Island Dance).

4.) What do I want to get out of this internship? (Holistic Development)

I hope to attain a better understanding of how the national arts curriculum functions in New Zealand and why. (I may just focus on dance education if “arts” education is too broad) I want to learn how it came to be this way. What are the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand’s national arts curriculum and how can knowing this assist us in the U.S. with improving our own school systems?
The rich experience of teaching and learning Pacific Island culture and dance in the Pacific Island region, specifically New Zealand, will strengthen my knowledge about modern Pacific Rim societies and strengthen me as a teacher, dancer, and advocate for arts education. I will study first hand the idea of Trannationalism in reverse by practicing it- myself who has been trained in Polynesian dance in the U.S. who now will be bringing back this Pacific art to the Pacific (New Zealand).

5.) How long will the internship need it to be? (Duration)

I would like this internship to last the whole 6 month duration that I am studying abroad in New Zealand, February thru July of 2008. My research is a year long project that includes the internship but essentially is just a component to my entire 3 year fellowship with Arts IN. My goal is to analyze the lessons from cultural dance education and cultural arts education in both contexts (of New Zealand and the US) to contribute to intercultural understanding about arts education/dance education.

Now that I figured all of this out hopefully i can make Marilyn Kohlhase and Herman Pi'ikea Clark my cultural bearer and professor contacts/research mentors. This week (besides attending Amy's artsbridge class) i will begin reserching and reading about migration, immigration, and transnationalism to articulate the “fluxo e refluxo” the active back and forth relationship between the U.S. and the countries where our ancestors came from. Amy suggests that I read Lisa Lowe and Aihwa Ong. She also says that the Latino Cultural Citizenship book is really good for regional identity construction and migration