Key messages from Tapasā

• Interacting with families to understand their reality.
• Understanding socio-political histories and how they impact early childhood and school life.
• Challenging personal beliefs and actions.
• Changing practices to engage all students in their learning and making learning environments positive and safe spaces for all students.

Learning more about your background offers a deeper understanding of why you think, feel, or act in certain ways. If the way you do some things makes you feel like you don’t fit in, try looking at it in a different way: the things that make you different also make you unique. It is important that you understand your own distinctive identity and culture in meaningful ways in order to genuinely engage with and respond to the distinctive identities and cultures of others.

• Identify your own culture.
• Explore your own assumptions and biases.
• Recognise and critically reflect on your own values and beliefs; how do these impact your daily actions and interactions with others?
• Do you feel a sense of belonging in your setting? Why? Why not?

Consider these factors:

• Do you value and validate the voices of all learners?
• In what ways do you co-construct learning in collaboration with learners?
• Are you familiar with and do you understand a range of pedagogical approaches from other cultures, alternative worldviews, and belief systems?
• How do you support learners to connect with their home languages?
• Do all learners have a deep sense of belonging in your setting?
• Does your learning environment authentically reflect the cultures of all learners in your setting?
• In what ways do you integrate your learners’ cultural values into your local curriculum?

Research shows that for young Māori and Pasifika, a strong cultural identity builds wellbeing. If we embrace and strengthen our cultural identity, we strengthen our wellbeing and have a happy life.

"Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari he toa takitini: I come not with my own strengths but bring with me the gifts, talents, and strengths of my family, tribe, and ancestors." - Te Whāriki, 2017 (p.12)

Good teachers will incorporate cultural and linguistic elements, such as metaphors, blessings, proverbs, legends, individual values, inclusive and collaborative practices, and decision-making processes, and integrate this knowledge into their planning and teaching practices. One of the most effective strategies for teaching Pacific learners is to identify and consider cultural models, methodologies, theories, and indigenous knowledge and approaches when working with Pacific learners, parents, and ‘aiga. These include fa‘asamoa (the Samoan way), faka-Tonga (the Tongan way), faka-Tokelau (the Tokelauan way), faka-Niue (the Niue way), akano‘anga Kuki Airani (the Cook Islands way), and vaka Viti (the Fijian way).

Quality teaching practices, according to Pacific learners and their parents

•  Understand that my identity, language, and culture are important to me.
• Pronounce my name and words in my language correctly.
• Recognise that English may not be my first language, and communicate with me and my family in ways that we can understand.
• Do not make fun of me and my family if our English is not fluent.
• Make an effort to use simple words and greetings in our own language.
• Include my parents in my learning journey, and knowing that they value being involved.
• Communicate well and ask questions when you are unsure.
• Do research to find out more about me, my family, my culture, and my home island.
• Incorporate stories, legends, myths, events, activities, and symbols that I understand and are relevant to me when teaching.
• Understand values that are important to me and my family, for example, faith, spirituality, and family.
• Be a strong, kind, honest, passionate, open-minded, understanding, flexible, and compassionate leader who cares about me.
• "Know that I want to learn, but in a way and at a pace that is suitable for me." - Tapasā, 2018, p.9 

Tapasā is a complementary framework that aligns with The Code of Professional Responsibility, Standards for the Teaching Profession, and Tātaiako, three documents that set out expectations for the cultural responsiveness of teachers. As a sector, we are obliged to be culturally responsive, in accordance with these documents.

The Code of Professional Responsibility outlines the expectations of every teacher as a member of the profession. The Code identifies teachers’ responsibilities to learners, whānau, society, and the profession. The Standards for the Teaching Profession describes effective teaching practices across all education settings. In each setting, teachers and professional leaders are expected to work together to integrate, contextualise, and refine their own understandings of what each standard looks like as quality practices in their place.

Tapasā concentrates on effective teaching practices for Pacific learners. Tātaiako outlines effective teaching practices for Māori learners. Both the Tapasā and Tātaiako frameworks are designed to support culturally responsive practices that are beneficial for all learners.