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

It‟s really hard being brought up white European – not influenced by
Māori. It‟s really hard to feel confident. We don‟t have a support
network of Māori families. It‟s easier not to do it (Int: B, 13/3/09).
There were other factors at play which contributed to the thriving Tiriti-
based curriculum faltering. As already noted, a significant factor was that children
of whānau Māori who worked in partnership with the centre, moved on to school.
The principal factor, however, was Alison‟s departure. It had been Alison who had
led the way; who had been the one with courage, and was she who had the
knowledge and passion. Alison was the leader, and sustaining Tiriti-based
curriculum continuation without her leadership was undeniably problematic. This
factor has already been discussed earlier and does not, therefore, need to be
revisited here. Nevertheless, the importance of leadership as a key variable for
action development, especially with regard to Tiriti-based curriculum, cannot be
understated.
6.5. Overcoming Barriers to Tiriti-based Curriculum
Of several themes, fear emerged as the most confronting barrier to
implementing Tiriti-based curriculum. There was a fear of being labelled
tokenistic, but there was also terror about being inaccurate with Tiriti-based
practices. Moreover, teachers feared the reactions of parents. Other barriers to
success included lacking of confidence, and finally, spiritual aspects of Tiriti-based
pedagogy caused concern. These spiritual matters were a particular concern for
some Christian teachers, because they saw a contradiction between their religious
beliefs and Māori expressions of spirituality.
If this thesis has shown one thing it is that working from a positive
perspective which promotes strength-based models such as action development is
more effective that reverting to deficit approaches. Coming from the stance of a
problem – in this case, the problem of implementing Tiriti-based curriculum –
increases fear and paralysis (Tolich, 2002). Teachers in this research project
articulated that their fears impeded their development of Tiriti-based curriculum.
A consequence was that for some, their fears led to inaction.
6.5.1 Fears
In this study early childhood teachers expressed several fears which they
felt made the implementation of Tiriti-based curriculum difficult. They felt they
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