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

The second open-ended question asked “What do you see as the main features
of an ideal bicultural early childhood curriculum?” I was interested to discover
if there was any consensus or shared understanding of an eventual aim of
realising an ideal Tiriti-based curriculum.
The final open-ended question gave respondents an opportunity to write
anything else that had not been covered by other questions. It is worth noting
that this question asking for additional comments provided some very useful
data as respondents took the opportunities to reveal not only their successes and
support structures for Tiriti-based programmes but also the difficulties and
tensions experienced in implementing this curriculum.
Piloting of Questionnaire
According to Jenkins (1999, p. 18) “the pre-testing or pilot phase enables
you to check the wording, clarity, range and order of your questions”. I asked three
colleagues to pilot the questionnaire and give me critical feedback on how I could
improve layout and wording and how well questions were understood. In addition
I asked them “how comfortable they felt about answering them” (Jenkins, 1999, p.
18). The questionnaire was then adjusted to take account of their feedback.
In addition, as I wished to be certain that the items that were included in
the questionnaire were relevant to Tiriti-based curriculum the questionnaire was
presented to the Māori Advisory Committee for approval, who agreed that the
questions asked were relevant and appropriate.
Sampling and Distribution
The strategy employed for achieving a sample for the questionnaire was
one of convenience, “where the respondents are selected according to convenience
of access” (Siraj-Blatchford & Siraj-Blatchford, 2001, p. 156). In this particular
instance, I chose the Eighth Early Childhood Convention as an appropriate place to
invite participants to contribute to the research by filling in the questionnaire, as
this was due to take place at the beginning of the time of my data collection. This
convention is held every 4 years in different parts of Aotearoa New Zealand, which
meant I could capture a national group from diverse early childhood settings.
Hence, I took the opportunity of bringing 300 copies of the questionnaire to the
convention in Palmerston North in 2003.
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