Mātauranga Māori constitutes concepts and principles that are richly detailed, complex, and fundamental to Māoridom. It is important to remember that the practice of these are wider and more varied than their use within the proposed NCEA Achievement Standards and supporting documentation.

We also recognise that the cultures, languages, and identities of the Pacific Islands are diverse, varied, and unique. Therefore the Pacific concepts, contexts, and principles that have been incorporated within NCEA Achievement Standards may have wide-ranging understandings and applications across and within the diversity of Pacific communities. It is not our intention to define what these concepts mean but rather offer some ways that they could be understood and applied within different subjects that kaiako and students alike can explore.

The intent of the Standard

This Achievement Standard assesses ākonga understanding of one characteristic that is shared by two different religious or spiritual traditions. There are seven characteristics of religion that apply to all aspects of the study of religious or spiritual traditions. These include experiences, narratives, rituals, beliefs, moral and ethical teachings, social organisation, and material expression. Taken together, these characteristics identify and define what constitutes a religious or spiritual tradition. These characteristics are intertwined and complementary. Ākonga will discuss one of six characteristics, as narratives will not be a focus for this Achievement Standard. Understanding of religious or spiritual narratives is assessed in Achievement Standard 1.2.

This Achievement Standard relates to the Big Idea that religious and spiritual traditions draw on historical experiences that are interpreted over time. It also relates to the following Significant Learning: ākonga will explore different ways in which religious and spiritual beliefs and practices are identified and classified; and ākonga will learn about characteristics of religious and spiritual traditions, and how they have changed over time.

Making reliable judgements

Ākonga will explore how a characteristic is applied within a religious or spiritual tradition. The application of a characteristic within a religious or spiritual tradition refers to its expression, or how it is practised within a particular tradition. For example, ākonga may look at how a ritual is practised within a chosen religious or spiritual tradition. They will then discuss how a ritual is practised within a different religious or spiritual tradition. Higher levels of achievement require making connections between the characteristic and its unique application within the different religious or spiritual traditions. Ākonga may find both similarities and differences between the application of a characteristic within two different religious or spiritual traditions.

Ākonga will be able to show understanding of the meaning of a characteristic, and examine connections between the source of the characteristic and its application within a religious or spiritual tradition. Kaiako will guide ākonga in their understanding of the characteristics. Examples of six of the seven religious or spiritual characteristics to choose from include:

• religious or spiritual ritual
  • festivals, religious rites, ceremonies, prayer, and other practices. For example, rites of passage (births, coming of age, marriages, deaths), pilgrimages, festivals, daily prayer, and worship rituals.
• religious or spiritual beliefs
  • central beliefs or understandings that are traced back to significant narratives and lived experience. For example, the Christian creeds, the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, Papal Encyclicals, and the rabbinic teaching of the Torah.
• religious or spiritual moral and ethical teachings
  • for example, the Ten Commandments, Shari’a Law, Halakhah, and behavioural moral norms.
• religious or spiritual experience
  • everyday attitudes, emotions, commitments, and responses. For example, conversions, callings, and mystical experiences.
• religious or spiritual social organisation
  • for example, leadership, authority, laity and priesthood, caste system, hierarchy.
• religious or spiritual material expression
  • for example, symbols, art and architecture, relics, artefacts, and sacred sites.

The above definition of characteristics is based on Ninian Smart’s (1989) The World’s Religions, Cambridge University Press, p.10-21.

Collecting evidence

Kaiako may guide ākonga in gathering information on their chosen religious or spiritual traditions. The definition of religion provided by Ninian Smart may be used as a guide for collecting evidence on an appropriate characteristic. Religious or spiritual narratives can be used to support evidence of how a characteristic is practised within a religious or spiritual tradition.

Where possible, it may be appropriate to research local religious or spiritual traditions, to gather evidence of what a characteristic looks like in practice. If the religious or spiritual tradition is found in an Aotearoa New Zealand context, it will be important for kaiako to encourage ākonga to explore religious and spiritual traditions from a Māori or Pacific cultural context. Consider how these worldviews have shaped diversity within Aotearoa New Zealand.

Possible contexts

Ākonga may engage with local religious or spiritual communities to generate rich experiences and evidence of a characteristic of religious or spiritual communities. Ākonga may explore a characteristic of local religious or spiritual traditions through kōrero with local religious or spiritual leaders. Kaiako may wish to have an in-class wānanga about possible interview questions or how to kōrero kanohi ki te kanohi with a local religious or spiritual leader. Kaiako may guide these interactions.

Standard Exclusions

This Standard has one or more exclusions, or Standards that assess the same or similar learning. These Standards are excluded against one another to prevent assessing the same learning twice. You can only use credits gained from one of these standards towards your NCEA qualification.

Find out more about the NCEA Level 1 Exclusions List.

Literacy and Numeracy Requirements

This Achievement Standard has been approved for literacy in the transition period (2024-2027). 

Full information on the co-requisite during the transition period: Standards approved for NCEA Co-requisite during the transition period (2024-2027).