Introduction

Citizenship is a determinant of indigenous economic opportunities; it defines the ways in which people ‘belong’ to the national political community and influences access to the ‘sovereign and economic independence’ that Maori seek (O’Sullivan and Dana, 2008). Personal engagement in the national economy through the housing and labour markets is economically important, but also a mark of the extent to which substantive differentiated citizenship actually occurs. Collective interests are pursued with the benefit of a trans-generational timeframe, and with the support of compensation for Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. At the same time, the notion of distinctive ‘Maori’ economic development recognises a politics of difference in contexts where being Maori is important and where ‘Maori business is New Zealand business’ (Westpac New Zealand, 2014). Just as it is in Australia, it is cultural values that determine the purpose and parameters of economic activity. It influences the ways in which economic agency is understood and, generally, leads Maori to pursue the opportunities that international capitalism provides, rather than succumb to the victimhood of its constraints.

Economic development policy is decreasingly viewed from deficit perspectives but, instead, as a matter of agency. Similar values explain increasing Maori insistence on the education system's more effective support of economic aspirations, especially as the potential ‘demographic dividend’ that the Maori population structure creates depends on the education system increasing its responsiveness to Maori needs and aspirations. This is most likely to occur through modes of differentiation, as reconciliation, that counter systemic racism and low systemic expectations of Maori achievement. The chapter presents the Maori developed and highly effective teacher professional training programmes, extended from Bishop et al's (2010) Scaling up Education Reform: Addressing the Politics of Disparity as examples of policy development through explicit Maori engagement, and which show that the citizen is, indeed, ‘one who deliberates’ (Aristotle, 1988).

Economic development

Economic development, as differentiated citizenship, responds to the ‘characteristics inherent in how Māori view the world…[which are] important in assessing and proposing Māori economic development policy’ (New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, 2003).