title: From the rākau to the ngākau

authors: Derby, Melissa

subjects: research

abstract: The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in Aotearoa New Zealand has funded 11 National Science Challenges (NSC), which aim to tackle a series of big questions affecting wellbeing in society. One Challenge, A Better Start: E Tipu E Rea, is investigating four key focus areas that children encounter in their early development and is seeking to identify the factors that contribute to forming a solid foundation for fostering wellbeing and lifelong success. Central to the principles of this Challenge is the Treaty of Waitangi in that the Treaty provides a framework to guide whānau engagement, policy change, and praxis. This article describes how a ‘ngākau’ rather than a ‘rākau’ approach to shaping research inquiry within this Challenge facilitates more authentic and mana-enhancing whānau engagement in research interactions (Macfarlane, 2019). The development of a whānau questionnaire is drawn on to illustrate the ngākau approach in practice.

text: From the rākau to the ngākau The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in Aotearoa New Zealand has funded 11 National Science Challenges (NSC), which aim to tackle a series of big questions affecting wellbeing in society. One Challenge, A Better Start: E Tipu E Rea, is investigating four key focus areas that children encounter in their early development and is seeking to identify the factors that contribute to forming a solid foundation for fostering wellbeing and lifelong success. Central to the principles of this Challenge is the Treaty of Waitangi in that the Treaty provides a framework to guide whānau engagement, policy change, and praxis. This article describes how a ‘ngākau’ rather than a ‘rākau’ approach to shaping research inquiry within this Challenge facilitates more authentic and mana-enhancing whānau engagement in research interactions (Macfarlane, 2019). The development of a whānau questionnaire is drawn on to illustrate the ngākau approach in practice.

year: 2021

title: Māori men's positive and interconnected sense of self, being and place

authors: Rua, Mohi

subjects: Maori men, interconnected self, pluralistic identities, relational health

abstract: Māori  men are on the wrong side of the ledger when it comes to illness and crime rates. Correspondingly, there is a significant amount of research into issues such as abuse and premature death involving Māori men, who are also often characterised in public discourse as inarticulate, deviant and incapable of maintaining positive relationships. There is very little research on positive practices among Māori men who are caring and expressive, and who do not harm their partners, families, and communities. This thesis explores how Māori men negotiate a positive sense of self, relationships and a place in our society, which is awash with negative characterisations of Māori men. I document how Māori men's identities are pluralistic and on-going projects. These identities are negotiated within the settler society through interactions with other people and media characterisations. These identities are also negotiated within the Māori world through interactions with whānau (immediate and extended family) and participation in cultural rituals, including tangihanga (traditional Māori death ritual/funeral process). This research involves two separate, yet interrelated studies, and is guided by kaupapa Māori research, Māori cultural concepts, Māori relational understandings of being and health, and relevant social science theory and research. Study one explores Māori men’s relationships with other men, their families and media depictions of men in the settler society. The participants from study one are working class men who were also part-time members of a Territorial Army unit within which Māori and Pākehā  men come together through mutual interests and negotiate meaningful relationships, and various cultural similarities and differences. Study one drew upon an ethnographic orientation that included direct observations, narrative interviews, media diaries and photo elicitation projects to understand the everyday lived realities of participants’ in settler society. Study two explores the constructive engagement of working class ex-Army Māori men back in their communities of origin in order to investigate key aspects of their identities and relationships as men within the Māori world. An ethnographic approach was also used in study two and involved direct observations, participation in shared practices and narrative interviews. Overall, findings from these studies demonstrate how Māori men construct a positive sense of self that extends beyond the deficit-orientated characterisations offered by academic research and mainstream media depictions. In constructing understandings of themselves and their place in the world, my participants emphasise their meaningful relationships with partners, children, colleagues, friends and communities. These men invoke a positive sense of self through accounts of belonging, reciprocity, dialogue, intimacy, and care for themselves, their whānau, and traditions. Participants’ positive Māori self-constructions are fundamentally interconnected with other people, cultural traditions, physical and symbolic places, and shared practices. My research sheds light on Māori men’s ways of belonging and being that span, but manifest in unique ways within, the settler society and the Māori world. This research also contributes to scholarship on men that takes a strengths-based approach by considering the valuable everyday functions men serve within their families and communities.

text: Māori men's positive and interconnected sense of self, being and place Māori  men are on the wrong side of the ledger when it comes to illness and crime rates. Correspondingly, there is a significant amount of research into issues such as abuse and premature death involving Māori men, who are also often characterised in public discourse as inarticulate, deviant and incapable of maintaining positive relationships. There is very little research on positive practices among Māori men who are caring and expressive, and who do not harm their partners, families, and communities. This thesis explores how Māori men negotiate a positive sense of self, relationships and a place in our society, which is awash with negative characterisations of Māori men. I document how Māori men's identities are pluralistic and on-going projects. These identities are negotiated within the settler society through interactions with other people and media characterisations. These identities are also negotiated within the Māori world through interactions with whānau (immediate and extended family) and participation in cultural rituals, including tangihanga (traditional Māori death ritual/funeral process). This research involves two separate, yet interrelated studies, and is guided by kaupapa Māori research, Māori cultural concepts, Māori relational understandings of being and health, and relevant social science theory and research. Study one explores Māori men’s relationships with other men, their families and media depictions of men in the settler society. The participants from study one are working class men who were also part-time members of a Territorial Army unit within which Māori and Pākehā  men come together through mutual interests and negotiate meaningful relationships, and various cultural similarities and differences. Study one drew upon an ethnographic orientation that included direct observations, narrative interviews, media diaries and photo elicitation projects to understand the everyday lived realities of participants’ in settler society. Study two explores the constructive engagement of working class ex-Army Māori men back in their communities of origin in order to investigate key aspects of their identities and relationships as men within the Māori world. An ethnographic approach was also used in study two and involved direct observations, participation in shared practices and narrative interviews. Overall, findings from these studies demonstrate how Māori men construct a positive sense of self that extends beyond the deficit-orientated characterisations offered by academic research and mainstream media depictions. In constructing understandings of themselves and their place in the world, my participants emphasise their meaningful relationships with partners, children, colleagues, friends and communities. These men invoke a positive sense of self through accounts of belonging, reciprocity, dialogue, intimacy, and care for themselves, their whānau, and traditions. Participants’ positive Māori self-constructions are fundamentally interconnected with other people, cultural traditions, physical and symbolic places, and shared practices. My research sheds light on Māori men’s ways of belonging and being that span, but manifest in unique ways within, the settler society and the Māori world. This research also contributes to scholarship on men that takes a strengths-based approach by considering the valuable everyday functions men serve within their families and communities.

year: 2015

title: Teaching history is talking history

authors: Weston, Rowland

abstract: Like many teachers, my early practice was in equal parts reiteration and  repudiation of the models to which I had been exposed as a student. As a consequence of my own shyness I took great efforts not to place students in uncomfortable positions, particularly with regard to speaking in class. In retrospect, I can appreciate that I did not encourage or provide adequate opportunities for discussion. As I designed and reflected on my own pedagogic initiatives, it became clear that discussion underpinned the learning taking place in all classroom activities. Brookfield and Preskill have thoroughly and perspicaciously enumerated the myriad learning benefits accruing from the use of ―discussion as a way of teaching‖; and I am now convinced that it is integral to the learning process. Thus, I attempt to create a classroom in which students are encouraged to talk and feel comfortable doing so.

text: Teaching history is talking history Like many teachers, my early practice was in equal parts reiteration and  repudiation of the models to which I had been exposed as a student. As a consequence of my own shyness I took great efforts not to place students in uncomfortable positions, particularly with regard to speaking in class. In retrospect, I can appreciate that I did not encourage or provide adequate opportunities for discussion. As I designed and reflected on my own pedagogic initiatives, it became clear that discussion underpinned the learning taking place in all classroom activities. Brookfield and Preskill have thoroughly and perspicaciously enumerated the myriad learning benefits accruing from the use of ―discussion as a way of teaching‖; and I am now convinced that it is integral to the learning process. Thus, I attempt to create a classroom in which students are encouraged to talk and feel comfortable doing so.

year: 2011