Best for
Inquiry projects, seminars, mini-presentations, exhibition tasks, or preparation for the Unit 2 counter-narrative essay.
Unit 2 inquiry workbook • Years 8-10 • Project-ready scaffold
Unit 2 Guided Inquiry Project: Te Tiriti, Justice, and Counter-Narrative
This workbook turns Unit 2 into an actual inquiry sequence rather than a loose “research something” task. It helps ākonga choose a focus, gather evidence, test interpretations, and explain why the story still matters in Aotearoa today.
Free inquiry scaffold, premium adaptation path
This version is ready to print. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want the inquiry rewritten for a local iwi history, a different phase band, or a cross-curricular project with English, visual art, or civic action built in.
- Generate a locally grounded version with rohe-specific case studies and vocabulary support.
- Build support, core, and extension variants for different readiness levels.
- Save your project template into My Kete and keep refining it in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 3-5 lessons if used fully, or one lesson as a planning scaffold before a longer assessment.
- Grouping: Individual inquiry with teacher checkpoints and occasional pair critique.
- Prep: Curate a small source bank before students start. Do not send them into open searching with no boundaries.
- Teaching move: Conference the inquiry question early. Weak projects usually begin with a vague or unanswerable question.
- Support / stretch: Support with one chosen pathway and a limited source set; stretch with local research, source comparison, and public audience design.
Resources already provided
- Focus pathways that keep the inquiry bounded and purposeful
- Stage-by-stage planning, evidence gathering, and interpretation spaces
- Prompting for current significance and audience design
- Support, core, and extension expectations already built in
- A matching teacher-only curriculum companion
A guided inquiry should be genuinely guided. This page is designed so students know what to do at each stage without losing intellectual challenge.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how to frame a historical justice question that can actually be answered with evidence.
- We are learning how to compare perspectives and build a counter-narrative with integrity.
- We are learning how to explain why history still matters in contemporary Aotearoa.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can write a focused inquiry question and explain why it matters.
- I can gather evidence from more than one source and evaluate what it reveals.
- I can present a counter-narrative that is historically grounded and culturally respectful.
Curriculum integration / Te Marautanga alignment
The companion page makes the curriculum fit explicit across inquiry, interpretation, evidence, discussion, and historical argument in Aotearoa histories.
Mātauranga Māori and inquiry note
Through a mātauranga Māori lens, inquiry is relational. Sources are not just information units; they sit in whakapapa, place, and the lived consequences of Crown action. If you use local examples, follow local guidance and avoid treating iwi or hapū knowledge as generic content.
Land, law, and confiscation
Investigate how land loss was justified, contested, and remembered over time.
Language, taonga, and redress
Investigate how te reo Māori or another taonga became the focus of activism and Crown response.
Urban change and political awakening
Investigate how migration, racism, and city life shaped new forms of Māori identity and action.
Stage 1: My inquiry question
Question frame: How did... ? Why did... ? To what extent did... ?
Why this question matters in Aotearoa:
Stage 2: My initial hypothesis
What do you think you will find, and what makes you think that now?
Stage 3: My source bank
List at least three sources. Aim for more than one type of evidence.
Stage 4: Māori perspectives and other voices
Whose voices are clearly present? Whose perspective might still be missing or harder to access?
Stage 5: Evidence that changes or sharpens my thinking
Record the quotation, data point, or event that most strongly shaped your judgement.
Stage 6: What dominant story am I challenging?
Name the story, assumption, or simplification that your inquiry is pushing back against.
Possible final product
- Annotated slide deck
- Poster or timeline with commentary
- Short oral presentation
- Counter-narrative paragraph set
Audience and purpose
Who am I speaking to? My classmates, whānau, another class, my kaiako, or a public audience.
Current significance
How does this history still shape Aotearoa now? Think about policy, identity, rights, language, whenua, or public memory.
Checkpoint 1: My question is specific enough
Checkpoint 2: My evidence is strong enough
Checkpoint 3: My final message is clear enough
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi
Level 3–4: Investigate social, cultural, environmental, and economic questions; gather and evaluate evidence from diverse sources; communicate findings and reasoning clearly for different audiences and purposes.
English — Communication
Level 3–4: Read, interpret, and evaluate information texts; write clearly and purposefully for specific audiences; apply critical thinking skills to evaluate sources and construct well-reasoned responses.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
This resource sits within a kaupapa that recognises mātauranga Māori as a living knowledge system with its own frameworks, values, and ways of understanding the world. The New Zealand Curriculum calls for learning that reflects the bicultural partnership of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which means every subject area has an obligation to engage authentically with Māori perspectives — not as cultural decoration but as substantive contributions to how we understand our topics. The concepts of manaakitanga (care for others), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), whanaungatanga (relationship and belonging), and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) provide a values framework applicable across all learning areas, and all are relevant to the work in this handout.
Tuhia ōu whakaaro · Write Your Thoughts
Reflect on what you have learned today. What was the most important idea? What question do you still have?
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to develop a decolonized understanding of Aotearoa's history — reading the past through the eyes of tangata whenua, examining primary sources critically, and understanding how colonisation continues to shape the present. This unit centres mana Māori as the starting point, not a footnote.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can analyse a historical source for perspective, reliability, and significance — including identifying whose voices are centred or absent.
- ✅ Students can explain how a specific historical event — such as the NZ Wars, land confiscations, or the Dawn Raids — connects to present-day inequities and Māori-led responses.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide annotated source analysis frames for entry-level access — guiding students through the OPCVL or SOLO process step by step. Offer extension tasks asking students to compare a colonial-era source with a contemporary Māori account of the same event, analysing how the historical narrative has been contested and reclaimed.
ELL / ESOL: Primary source language (particularly 19th-century English) presents specific challenges — pre-read sources with students and pre-teach archaic or specialist vocabulary. Allow students to express historical analysis in their home language first before translating to English. Bilingual glossaries support engagement without reducing intellectual demand. Some ELL students may bring first-hand experience of colonisation from other contexts — honour these as valid comparative perspectives.
Inclusion: Decolonized history can surface difficult emotions for Māori students encountering colonial violence and injustice in the curriculum for the first time. Create a trauma-informed classroom. Neurodiverse learners benefit from chunked tasks and clear analytical scaffolds. Ensure all students understand that the purpose of this unit is not guilt but understanding — and that understanding is the foundation of partnership and change.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Decolonizing history means more than "adding Māori perspectives" — it means recognising that the dominant historical narrative itself is a colonial artefact. Whakapapa is an alternative historical framework: tracing connections, obligations, and continuity across time. The NZ Wars were not distant events — their consequences live in land ownership patterns, economic disparities, and community structures today. Tino rangatiratanga — the right of self-determination — was not surrendered at Waitangi and has been asserted continuously through protest, legislation, and resurgence. Teaching this history is an obligation of Te Tiriti partnership.
Prior knowledge: Students benefit from foundational knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi and its context. No specialist prior knowledge required for entry-level source analysis tasks — scaffolds are provided.
Curriculum alignment
- Aotearoa New Zealand Histories — Know: Understand that colonisation was a global process that had a specific and profound impact on tangata whenua in Aotearoa, and that Māori responses to colonisation have been continuous and varied.
- Do — Social Studies: Explore perspectives, use evidence to form conclusions, and share ideas — analyse primary sources, compare historical perspectives, and present findings.