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

(Oakley, 2000). Further, I assert that for this study such sharing enabled trust to be
built.
When I arrived to meet the potential participants of Case Study Three, two
were already known to me. Peggy had been an early childhood teacher education
student at AUT University and we had enjoyed intermittent contact since then. I
had previously met Chris H at an overseas conference during her first conference
presentation. At that time, I was asked to provide support by her postgraduate
supervisor and after the conference we had exchanged emails and photographs.
The principle that emerges pertains to the importance of prior
relationships serving as a key to gaining access more easily. In the instance of this
third centre, Case Study Three, even though I had not met the other three teachers,
prior relationships paved the way to being able to build trust more readily and more
quickly with this team. Once access had been gained and rapport initiated it was
possible to commence the process of investigating how teachers implemented
Tiriti-based programmes.
However, case studies were not the only type of research that was carried
out for this project. Prior to collecting qualitative data I had surveyed a number of
early childhood teachers, utilising a largely quantitative questionnaire.
4.3.1 Questionnaire
The quantitative data came from a stand-alone anonymous questionnaire
that was distributed at the Eighth Early Childhood Convention in 2003. The
intention of the questionnaire was to discover respondents‟ practices in regards to
Tiriti-based curriculum. I wanted to learn more about the range, depth and
frequency of Tiriti-based learning activities that were implemented by early
childhood teachers. Accordingly, these matters were investigated through the use
of a survey that comprised both quantitative and qualitative questions.
Additionally, I was interested in discovering whether or not there was any
consensus among early childhood teachers about what constituted Tiriti-based
curriculum. Results and findings deriving from my analysis of the questionnaire
are presented and critiqued in Chapter 6.
The questionnaire (see Appendix A) enabled me to gather information
from a larger group of people in a relatively short space of time. Hoek and Gendall
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