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

ead in my room. The freedom to be oneself, whatever that self might be, was very
empowering. I came to value this freedom a great deal. Thus, it is not surprising
that for this thesis I wanted to use a methodology that would honour and value
what participants did and said. It was this thought, more than anything else, that
led to my considering, from the outset, that some form of participatory practitioner
research would be most appropriate for this study.
I have had an interest in Māori people and their culture since I was 7 years
old. In part this was sparked through the children in our neighbourhood whom my
father informally tutored in reading and whom he coached in sport. The first doll I
remember ever wanting was the Māori walkie-talkie doll at the local toy shop. I
can remember my delight in receiving her when I was 8 years old. I also enjoyed
learning poi and rakau as part of our physical education programme at school.
My understanding of, and interest in other cultures continued to develop
through visiting the homes of school friends and through people who came to our
house. My father‟s degree was in French and German and his interest and skill
with languages led him into conversations with people from overseas whom he
would invite home for dinner.
My decision to go to North Shore Teachers‟ College in 1965 to gain a
Trained Teacher‟s Certificate exposed me to the ideas of Sylvia Ashton Warner,
particularly those which were penned in her book Teacher (Ashton-Warner,
1963/1980). These ideas resonated and became pivotal in shaping my views on the
importance of context, relevancy, and freedom, especially in relation to working
with Māori children. Another influential book was Summerhill (Neill, 1973) 2 .
Neill writes about the link between freedom and happiness, and this made an
impression. He said “the difficult child is the child who is unhappy. He is at war
with himself; and in consequence, he is at war with the world” (p. xxiii). An
integral part of Neill‟s philosophy was that children who are free to choose are
happy. Freedom and choice continued to be a theme of my approach to teaching
and it also underpinned my philosophical approach to research. For me, it was
important that participants in any research that I undertook had the power of
2 This text was first published in 1960.
3