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I still feel like that. Do our Pākehā families want this? Do the families<br />

see it as important? We had a parent from another culture and she asked<br />

us not to teach Māori to her child, but to teach their language. She<br />

didn‟t come back (Int: B, 13/3/09).<br />

Given the above response, it is not surpris<strong>in</strong>g that teachers feel diffident<br />

about extend<strong>in</strong>g their skills <strong>in</strong> te reo Māori me ōna tikanga. Heta-Lensen (2005)<br />

observed <strong>early</strong> childhood sett<strong>in</strong>gs and stated that:<br />

I note with concern that when Māori do not achieve a noticeably<br />

significant critical mass, and so are not noticeably represented with<strong>in</strong> the<br />

demographic mix of an educational sett<strong>in</strong>g, educators tend to drop Māori<br />

values and the use of Te Reo Māori altogether. To be fair, this is<br />

sometimes a behaviour that is manifested <strong>in</strong> an attempt to be responsive<br />

to parental resistance to bicultural practices. However this was not the<br />

vision of Te Whāriki. (pp. 28-29)<br />

However, there were teachers like Alison (the head teacher <strong>in</strong> Case Study<br />

Two) who were committed to the vision of Te Whāriki and recognised the courage<br />

it took to implement Tiriti-<strong>based</strong> <strong>curriculum</strong>:<br />

Be<strong>in</strong>g prepared to acknowledge uncerta<strong>in</strong>ty, and be<strong>in</strong>g ready to beg<strong>in</strong> an<br />

unknown journey. Be<strong>in</strong>g prepared to be surprised, get knocked back, and<br />

try aga<strong>in</strong> (Email A 24/2/09).<br />

Despite Alison be<strong>in</strong>g uncerta<strong>in</strong>, she will<strong>in</strong>gly took risks to implement<br />

Tiriti-<strong>based</strong> <strong>curriculum</strong>. I suggest that by build<strong>in</strong>g on what teachers have already<br />

experienced as successful, they can move beyond fear towards appreciat<strong>in</strong>g and<br />

becom<strong>in</strong>g proud of their efforts. Unfortunately, there was a further issue that<br />

troubled not only participants and respondents, but also myself, and that was the<br />

fear of be<strong>in</strong>g accused of tokenism when beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g Tiriti-<strong>based</strong> implementations.<br />

6.5.2 Tokenism<br />

Teachers‟ concern about themselves and others be<strong>in</strong>g tokenistic recurred<br />

as a theme <strong>in</strong> the literature (Forsyth & Leaf, 2010; M<strong>in</strong>istry of Education, 2004a;<br />

Ritchie & Rau, 2006b) and that concern was no different this study. Tokenism has<br />

been def<strong>in</strong>ed as try<strong>in</strong>g to divert accusations of prejudice by mak<strong>in</strong>g some<br />

concessions to a m<strong>in</strong>ority group (Vaughan & Hogg, 1998). In the case of Aotearoa<br />

New Zealand, that would <strong>in</strong>volve <strong>in</strong>corporat<strong>in</strong>g Māori culture. As MacNaughton<br />

and Williams (2004, pp. 22-23) state “Tokenistic means mak<strong>in</strong>g a superficial or<br />

m<strong>in</strong>imal gesture towards represent<strong>in</strong>g and respect<strong>in</strong>g cultural diversity”. After an<br />

220

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