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

practices, encouraged the team to refer to her. For example, Shani was the one
who taught them the waiata for the opening of the centre:
We‟ve got our opening ceremony on 9.00 Wednesday 10 th and we‟ve
decided at one of the last staff meetings to sing Māori song for kaumātua
who is visiting. Shani learned that song from her institute (Tr: N,
8/12/08).
Shani did have information from her studies but importantly she had
confidence and skills to teach waiata to the other teachers. In this way she had the
ability to influence the other team members (Hayden & Gibson, 2000). Duhn
(2010, p. 55) in her research recognised the importance in educational leadership of
this ability that “created the impetus for change”. The role of the leader is
significant, as can be seen in what happened once Alison left Case Study Two and
the impetus for maintaining Tiriti-based pedagogy disappeared:
Alison was passionate and pushed you. She role modelled the language
and read books and waiata. I haven‟t taught a waiata for ages or used
common phrases. There‟s not someone role modelling. Alison left three
years ago. We‟ve been in survival mode. Bicultural didn‟t feature (Int:
B, 13/3/09).
Although Brodie was committed to Tiriti-based curriculum, when she was
under stress and without a leader it could not be sustained. Further, I would
contend her mindset had not moved to the next level – that of seeing herself as the
one responsible for the implementation no matter what. This phenomenon of being
the one responsible or to “take ownership” was what Bishop (2008, p. 55)
discussed in his research with teachers working with Māori students as “where
necessary, teachers are able to discursively reposition themselves from discourses
that limit their agency to those where they be agentic” (p. 54). There were teachers
in this study who were able to develop this sense of responsibility to Tiriti-based
curriculum.
6.4.3 Sense of Responsibility
It was clear in this study that there were some teachers who had moved
beyond being committed to Tiriti-based curriculum to assuming instead a sense of
personal responsibility. In other words, so strong was their sense of ownership that
they would have implemented Tiriti-based curriculum even without the support
from their teams. In particular, D and Alison were convinced that it was up to
them to drive this curriculum. It has been said that each centre needs to construct
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