Abstract:

Universities attract increasing numbers of international students – offering co-learning opportunities for international students and local students. In some circles, this raises concerns about empowerment, diversity equity and inclusion – and concerns over how to deal with the tensions and paradoxes caused by global teaching versus local empowerment. In New Zealand, increasing numbers of Māori and Pacifica learners graduate from universities in New Zealand every year, but the numbers qualifying in accounting remain proportionally low (4% of NZ population). Many reasons for this phenomenon have been explored, one of which is a lack of cultural representation, inclusivity, lack of acculturation programmes. Not only are fewer indigenous learners coming into the tertiary education system, but statistics indicate that fewer complete technical business subjects. This paper provides a reflective commentary on how gamification of subject content and transferrable inter-personal skills can be used in quantitative and technical business subjects (such as accounting, auditing and taxation) to promote indigenous languages (Maori and other Pacifica languages). Further the paper includes action research from universities in New Zealand where deliberate focus on strategies to foster equity, inclusion, cultural sensitivity and acculturation within multi-cultural classrooms in technical disciplines. Using the lens of Constructivist Developmental Pedagogy, the paper applies cultural intelligence and several andragogy models to urge proponents of diversity to go beyond merely raising awareness of cultural differences, but rather to pro-actively embed and fully integrate cultural appreciation throughout learning experiences.

Keywords:

Culture, cultural sensitivity, Wordle, gamification, indigenous languages, diversity, equity, inclusivity.