‘Educultural’ learning vital for teaching effectiveness
A new book focussing on ‘educultural’ education has highlighted the need for the country’s teachers to gain a better
understanding of their culture and the culture of others if teaching and learning in the classroom is to become more
effective.
Kia hiwa ra! Listen to culture - Mäori students’ plea to educators is based on the research of Dr Angus Macfarlane,
Senior Lecturer at Waikato University, and focuses on classroom management skills that can make teaching and learning
more culturally relevant.
The book draws on research carried out by Dr Macfarlane in three contrasting educational sites in his Te Arawa iwi, with
the experiences of ‘educultural’ learning in the Ngäti-Whakaue Enrichment Class at Ngongotahä School near Rotorua being
used extensively.
“This learning centre showed what could be achieved through the efforts of culturally aware educators who were better
able to understand and respond to the learning needs of today’s diverse classrooms.”
While the focus of the book is on Mäori students, Dr Macfarlane says many of the ideas and strategies can be introduced
and implemented for all students who make up diverse classrooms.
“As Aotearoa / New Zealand becomes more ethnically diverse, there is a greater need for a clear understanding of the
roles various cultures play in education and the implications for teaching and learning in an increasingly changing and
complex classroom environment.”
Dr Macfarlane says that while this understanding of cultural issues in education is vital, there are other contextual
issues which may complicate the teaching and learning process.
“The number and diversity of minority students is on the increase while at the same time there is a rapidly changing
economic, demographic and political landscape. Giving teachers guidance and strategic advice on how to cope with this
huge array of influences and get the best out of a culturally diverse learning environment is therefore one of the key
issues facing teachers right across the education sector.”
Kia hiwa ra!, which literally means ‘to be alert’, was launched today at a Parliamentary function by Mäori Affairs and
Associate Education Minister Parekura Horomia. The book is published by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research
at which Dr Macfarlane was, in 2003, the first senior research fellow.
ENDS Any enquiries, please contact Rob Murray, Communications Manager, NZCER, 04 802 1468. Issued by NZCER in
conjunction with the University of Waikato, Te Whare Wänanga o Waikato. Please find attached an article by Dr Macfarlane
that is to be published in March in the new Waikato University magazine Waikato. You are welcome to quote from this
article on the proviso that it is credited to Waikato magazine.
Biographical note
Dr Angus Hikairo Macfarlane is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, Waikato University, responsible for
teaching and research within the Master of Special Education programme. He has a particular interest in special
education, especially from a cross-cultural perspective, as well as the development of effective classroom management
skills.
In 2003, he became the first New Zealand Council for Educational Research Senior Research Fellow, spending much of his
residency working toward the publication of Kia hiwa ra! Later the same year, Angus completed his doctoral thesis
entitled Culturally inclusive pedagogy for Mäori students experiencing learning and behavioural difficulties.
Until recently, Angus was national co-ordinator (cultural curriculum) of the Resource Teachers Learning and Behaviour
(RTLB) programme, a nation–wide Ministry of Education initiative. His consultative and advisory skills are regularly
sought by schools and educational organisations throughout New Zealand and overseas.
Angus affiliates to the Te Arawa confederation of tribes of the central Bay of Plenty.
The article below by Angus Macfarlane is due to appear in the inaugural edition of Waikato University’s new magazine
Waikato, due to be launched in early March.
GETTING THEM EARLY
ANGUS MACFARLANE argues the classroom is a key to better intercultural communication.
Better communication between cultures is an obvious way of improving relationships between different ethnic groups in
New Zealand. The most promising venues for promoting intercultural communication messages are classrooms, schools and
the education sector in general.
In New Zealand, political developments, economic uncertainty, rapidly-changing demographic characteristics of
school-aged populations and concern expressed about social problems affecting young people have re-ignited arguments
over the roles schools are expected to play in preparing children and adolescents for productive futures. These
influences on our schools reflect global trends towards increased numbers, and diversity, of minority students attending
schools.
Here, sensitivity to the cultural background of Mäori students is seen as especially important for educators, as
educators who are culturally sensitive will be more able to understand, and respond to, the learning needs of today’s
diverse classrooms. My research on working with Mäori students has helped throw up ideas and strategies which can be
used with all students who make up our increasingly diverse classrooms.
Many explanations have been suggested for why a higher percentage of Mäori students are excluded from the success routes
at school, and are more frequently represented in alternative education programmes, or end up on the streets. Thirty
years ago, Ranginui Walker identified issues that continue to be major problems for New Zealand education. The first is
that most teachers in New Zealand schools are non- Mäori and mono-cultural. Professor Walker contends that many lack the
skills, knowledge and sensitivity to be able to teach effectively in a multi-ethnic classroom. He refers to a western
frame of reference, which often stereotypes Mäori success as restricted to limited domains such as sport and music. Add
to this the notion that mainstream schools appear to run counter to important Mäori cultural values and the issue of
incompatibility of cultures presents a major challenge. Some older Mäori retain memories of being told not to use their
own language at school and were put down as an inferior society practising an inferior culture. Some of these children
are now themselves parents and have little language or cultural knowledge to pass on to their own children. These
experiences can be compared with the plight of the native Americans, many of whom have descended from several
generations of a semi-assimilated minority, whose sense of loss translated into a deep suspicion on their part of the
majority culture-based agencies.
So a lack of understanding of Mäori customs on the part of the dominant New Zealand culture may be one critical reason
why many Mäori students fail in mainstream education and are often excluded from it. In a society which is frequently
described as bicultural or multicultural, it is not surprising that individual underachievement is often ‘explained’ by
referring to perceived deficits within the individual’s cultural background. However, it is increasingly common to hear
the demand that “the style of content of service delivery in such areas as health, social welfare, and education should
be constructed so as to take account of the cultural background of the people receiving these services, or that the
service should be culturally appropriate”. It is time to “listen to culture”.
The cultural reality of Mäori people remains strong. The culture is there. It is vital. It is meaningful. But one must
be in a position to observe it and to proclaim it. This requires assisting all the teachers in mainstream education to
get better at communicating interculturally. Calculated, pervasive, and deliberate connections to Mäori epistemology
formed the core of the learning activities at an ‘enrichment class’ located within a mainstream primary school
(Ngongotahä School) in my tribal area of Te Arawa. This class, known as the Ngäti Whakaue Enrichment Class, has been
resourced by the Ngäti Whakaue Education Endowment Trust.
Beverley Anaru was employed to set up and operate the classroom, established primarily for Year 2 students identified as
having learning and behaviour difficulties. Affiliating to the Ngäti Awa and Ngai Tuhoe tribes of the Eastern Bay of
Plenty region, Beverley Anaru has close affiliations to the iwi of Ngäti-Whakaue through her husband, Peter. While she
had significant teaching experience, it was her reputation as a classroom artiste (orchestrator par excellence of
classroom activities) that was the distinguishing factor that led to her appointment as head teacher of the unit.
In the early stages of my research I was able to link the pedagogy (science of teaching) of the Ngäti-Whakaue Enrichment
Class with some of the recognised literature on good classroom management. The classroom had a busy ‘tone’ to it. Anaru
was well organised and each lesson was presented with precision, clarity and exuberance. Room management provided for
movement to ‘work the crowd’ and allowed for attention to be given to all students simultaneously. Her with-it-ness
enabled her to know what was going on in all parts of the classroom at all times. The classroom was bright: rules of the
classroom were displayed, as were examples of children’s work, awards, reminders, class timetables, and pictures
promoting the bicultural nature of the Ngäti-Whakaue region. Mäori translations of key concepts and words were evident
on walls, tables and charts. The room had a ‘texture’ which incorporated real sight, sound, smell, and taste.
Importantly, the students seemed to delight in being there, in the presence of a skilled practitioner, who valued each
of them for simply who they were. Children reputed to have behaviour problems did not misbehave. Most were said to have
learning difficulties, yet in this environment they were motivated to advance their achievement and records of their
progress attested to that. ‘Withdrawn’ children became vocal contributors and ‘impulsive’ children seemed more in
control of themselves.
Anaru had a rich store of knowledge of the New Zealand national curriculum, te reo and tikanga. She had been at the
cutting edge of knowing and learning about curriculum content, classroom and social processes, academic tasks, and
students’ understandings. Her lessons had good momentum in the sense that she got students to attend to tasks and get on
with them; and she made sure activities had ‘closure’ and a smooth transition to the next activity. Her demeanour had a
powerful influence on her students’ learning and behaviour: her posture displayed confidence and suggested leadership,
enthusiasm and enjoyment, as well as appreciation of the content of the learning experiences and of the context in which
this was taking place. The children respected her assertive, no-nonsense approach. Their engagement in learning and the
delight they showed in being around her created opportunities for their teacher to smile warmly, a trait identified by a
range of literature as simple yet significant in terms of building trust between students and teacher.
Systems for gaining attention and clarifying expectations played an important part in Anaru’s approach. Tactics included
a range of uses of body language to help students pay attention and stay on task. She was often observed using
non-verbal behaviour management strategies, such as eye contact, physical proximity, conversational pause, facial
expressions and gestures in classroom interactions with students.
I argue that a central characteristic of programmes such as this enrichment class that attend successfully to Mäori
students’ achievement is cultural centred-ness. It is not a pre-requisite that teachers be of the same culture as that
of the students in order to be effective. What matters is their ability to connect culturally and to promote a cultural
presence in their respective learning environments.
I use the term ‘educultural’ when referring to five concepts that are likely to have an effect on students’ learning and
teachers’ teaching: whanaungatanga (relationships), manaakitanga (caring), rangatiratanga (leadership), kotahitanga
(working together), and pumanawatanga (atmosphere). These concepts are the bases from which teaching strategies and
techniques evolve.
Acknowledging these concepts and employing a culturally relevant pedagogy will signal to students that their culture
matters. Such an approach offers students a dose of what is familiar, in terms of their Mäoritanga and their
Pakehatanga. If the learning and teaching connect with the cultures represented in the classroom, the students are more
likely to ‘switch on’. That is how critical the role of the teacher is. That is how critical it is for teachers to
develop skills in intercultural communication.
Today’s world is characterised by an ever-growing number of contacts resulting in communication between people with
different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds – communication taking place because of contacts within the areas of
commerce, science, media, travel ... and education. In all these contacts, there is communication that requires a
constructive and understanding approach. It is in the field of education that early intervention in intercultural
communication is most likely to occur. Intercultural communication, while not a new phenomenon, may well hold the key to
the building of more harmonious relationships for young and old.
Dr Angus Hikairo Macfarlane, a senior lecturer in the Waikato University School of Education’s human development
department, was awarded the senior research fellowship for 2003 by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. He
used his time on the fellowship to write a book entitled Kia Hiwa ra! Listen to culture – Mäori students’ plea to
educators.