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

Thus, action development is what I have nominated as a blend of the
positive approach of appreciative inquiry following on from action research cycles
(see chapter 3). Two changes, however, were made by me to traditional action
research. The first is that the cycle was plan, act, evaluate (rather than observe,
which is too narrow for the process that occurred), and reflect. The second change
is that the evaluation and reflection examined the processes that were working and
the new plan was devised from the appreciative inquiry approach. This did allow
for problems to emerge but these were resolved from the perspective of
enhancement rather than problem solving. It was action development, therefore,
that enabled the participants in Case Study Three to embrace Tiriti-based
curriculum with pride in their achievements rather than guilt and fear, which were
often apparent in Case Study One and Case Study Two. Case Study Three
participants were also the only group that wanted to share their knowledge and
commitment beyond their immediate team. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out
that every teacher in the case study centres had started in some way to implement
Tiriti-based curriculum, so they already had strengths on which they could build.
7.5 Beginning Tiriti-based Curriculum
A pre-requisite for teachers in centres is that they are in agreement about
heading in the same direction in relation to understanding and defining Tiriti-based
curriculum. It is worth noting that among both participants and respondents and
also within the literature there was a similarity of definitions in what constituted
Tiriti-based curriculum. Integral to being bicultural in Aotearoa New Zealand was
Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership between Māori and the Crown which represents all
other ethnicities. In discussing partnership, the notion of equal power featured
strongly, however, it was this notion of power that caused Māori academics to be
concerned (Bishop, 1996; Durie, 2001; Johnston, 2001; O'Sullivan, 2007; G. H.
Smith, 1990). They rightly doubted power relations could be equal. That
notwithstanding, the definition of bicultural provided by the Ministry of Education
(1998) for the early childhood education sector, incorporates the notion of shared
“understandings, practices, and beliefs between two cultures” (p. 86), and this was
to the forefront in this thesis.
Because there was a similarity of definitions of biculturalism within the
literature and among the participants and respondents, it could safely be concluded
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