supporting tiriti-based curriculum delivery in mainstream early ...

The third stage encompasses the design of a plan to turn dreams into
reality. From the shared preferred future, participants co-construct or design ways
to create that future (K. Walker & Carr-Stewart, 2004). The question asked is:
“What would be the ideal?” (Yoder, 2005). This entails designing both short and
long term goals. McNamee (2003) suggests participants try to think beyond what
exists or has been done in the past. They are constructing what would be the ideal
plan (Yoder, 2005).
By carefully considering their vision and values from their wall chart,
participants from Case Study Three devised their action plan. This plan was
consistent with their existing skill levels with Tiriti-based curriculum and was
workable inside their current teaching programme. Having devised an action plan
this stage finishes with a commitment from each group member to put the plan into
action (English et al., 2003).
The final stage is destiny, or delivery, where the plan is put into action as
people discuss and decide the most desirable outcome of the appreciative inquiry
(Yoder, 2005). Participants are asked to be innovative and consider the question
“What could be?” (Reed et al., 2002, p. 39). The discussion and conversations are
about how to realise the programme as they have imagined it (McNamee, 2003).
Empowerment and sustainability are important aspects of this stage, as participants
commit to the next step of delivering the plans they have designed (English et al.,
2003). What struck me about the vision and subsequent action plan that was
created by Case Study Three teachers was that it was manageable and realistic,
which is discussed further in chapter 5 on the case study findings.
Appreciative inquiry is a process that evolves and allows for change to
occur. There is no recipe, as “reality is created in the moment, so each experience
will differ” (Hammond, 1998, p. 52). With Tiriti-based programmes each
experience is different and the curriculum whāriki that each centre creates suits that
particular centre. Valuing differences is an important aspect to appreciative inquiry
as is the crucial underpinning of the philosophy that there is something about every
group that works. Importantly, it is building upon what works that generates
change (Hammond, 1998).
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