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

Having somewhere to go to enhance knowledge and have questions
answered enabled teachers to expand their understanding. In addition, student
marae noho, arranged as part of their studies, were a source of knowledge:
For me visiting marae was a very good experience from my
course…Māori customs and respecting each other. I think that was a
really good experience (Tr: N. 24/8/08).
Spending several days and nights in authentic Māori settings allowed
these teachers to be immersed in Māori cultural practices and beliefs and thus
enhanced their appreciation of this. An integral part of marae noho is singing
waiata. Sharing these waiata when teachers go back to their centres was popular.
This strategy enabled te reo Māori to be learned and practiced:
I memorised Māori lyrics and sang action songs in Māori language to
children. I followed colleagues to sing songs in Māori. Children began
to understand te reo Māori (Jl: C. October).
Not only was Chris H able to learn more te reo Māori by singing waiata,
but she was supported by her team in developing these skills. As well, the children
were able to extend their knowledge. Another strategy for support included using
the Māori/English dictionary:
Like when we get stuck for words we ask the other staff: “Can you
remember?” Or sometimes we‟re getting the dictionary again (Tr: N.
7/11/08).
Resources such as games, books and puzzles were available to support te
reo Māori. Some of these were made by the staff:
And I made some Māori resources… followed by the song. It‟s on the
wall. Pungāwerewere – it‟s about spiders… And the different colours of
spiders and we counted the spiders and we made the colours, the shapes.
(Tr: S. 8/12/08).
As staff supported each other, confidence and pleasure with their
achievements was evident, which is an important aspect of appreciative inquiry.
Peggy expressed her sense of achievement in her journal:
We sang many action songs such as “Pico, Toru!” The children were
happy and they did a lot of “Paki paki”. I was quite thrilled to take part
in waiata and putting my effort to say the words (Jl: P. 31/10/08).
Margaret, too, enjoyed the fulfilment that came with the children‟s
responses to her effort:
I felt great satisfaction when the children responded with some of the
books I read to them (Jl: M. 17/11/08).
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