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

An important feature of case studies is that all data are admissible. Within
the three cases which comprise this study, this meant that transcripts of meetings,
teachers‟ journals, observations and interviews became parts of the overall data set.
However, each centre was studied for a specific (negotiated) period of time and
within the physical boundaries contingent upon whatever activities were
undertaken by that centre. This aligns with Hancock and Algozzine (2006) who
define case studies as “intensive analyses and descriptions of a single unit or
system bounded by space and time” (pp. 10-11). I chose descriptive case study
because it exhorts the researcher “to present a complete description or phenomenon
within its context” (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006, p. 33), and because this approach
best allowed me to investigate the realities for teachers in their work of
implementing Tiriti-based pedagogies and curriculum.
For this investigation, therefore, I was interested in discovering, in
collaboration with participants, what actually happened as they sought to
implement the bicultural aspects of Te Whāriki in their own centres. This allowed
each centre to be “studied in its natural context” (Hatch, 2002, p. 30) thus enabling
Tiriti-based journeys of each centre to be exposed.
I wanted to be able to study this situation carefully as it was (or was not)
happening, and in a case study “researchers hope to gain in-depth understanding of
situations and meanings from those involved” (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006, p. 11).
Hence, focusing on how co-researchers worked as a team was an important aspect
of the research, not only because I really was interested in a collaborative study,
but also because collegiality remains consistent with my own early childhood
education beliefs. Moreover, I remain convinced, even now, that richer
information is more freely given and shared when a collaborative and collegial
approach is nurtured. Indeed, this is, ideally at least, how curriculum planning and
implementation are meant to occur in early childhood education. As Merriam
(1998b, p. 19) has noted, “the interest is in the process rather than the outcomes, in
context rather than a specific variable, in discovery rather than confirmation.
Insights gleaned from case studies can directly influence policy, practice, and
future research”.
Given Metge‟s (1990) assertion that the bicultural journey in education
can be likened to a continuum, it was reasoned that as each centre would most
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