Kaupapa Māori assessment: A journey of meaning making

Abstract

Introduction This article describes the journey of a Maori early childhood centre towards an assessment framework that embeds Maori epistemologies, ideas of valued learning and cultural norms and understandings. The information presented is based on work completed in two interrelated projects. The first is the Te Whatu Pokeka: Kaupapa Maori Learning and Assessment Exemplar project, a Ministry of Education-funded project to produce a professional support assessment resource primarily for Maori early childhood services. The second is my doctoral thesis, Tikanga Maori as Outcomes for Early Childhood: Implications for Assessment: Kaupapa Maori Learning and Assessment Framework Development (Rameka, 2009), which journals the progress of participating Maori centres in developing Maori early childhood assessment approaches and framings. Background Best of Both Worlds Bilingual Preschool, the early childhood centre that is the focus of this article, is located in Papakura, South Auckland. It services a low-socioeconomic community with a high population of Maori and Pacific Island families. It is a Maori/ English bicultural, bilingual early childhood centre that was established in 1995. In 2004 a second centre was opened to cater for the growing numbers of children on the waiting list. The centres provide for 34 and 33 children respectively and employ 16 teachers who work across both centres. The majority of the children and teachers at the centres are Maori, although a diverse range of cultures, ethnicities and nationalities are also represented. The centres were established with the specific goal of supporting children to achieve academically in the New Zealand education system. The founders of the centre were frustrated at the rate of Maori educational underachievement that they were witnessing, especially within South Auckland. They believed that by exposing children to the best of both worlds, including all aspects of te ao Maori (the Maori world) and te ao Pakeha (the Western world), children would be better prepared to succeed in the education system, or in spite of the education system. The Best of Both Worlds philosophical statement is: To prepare children for school, to give them the confidence to question when they do not understand something. To openly discuss situations or events. For children to understand their tikanga (culture) and use it when an event calls for it. To know who they are and what they are as a person is important--their identity. To learn to challenge things and challenge life. To test the barriers and boundaries and learn to take risks in order to problem solve. To establish relationships with peers and ongoing friendships. To be a part of tuakana/teina (elder/younger sibling relationships) and understand how our elders look after our younger. To learn life skills in an environment where they are loved and understood. Methodology A qualitative, kaupapa Maori research methodology was used to gather, collate and analyse data in the research projects that underpin this article. In other words, they used an emergent methodological approach that located the kaiako, tamariki and whanau in their environments or settings and was concerned with meaning making, multiple interpretations or perspectives and collaborative endeavour. Not only do qualitative research approaches locate participants in their own environments or settings, they also support them to make sense of or interpret events in a way that affirms and legitimates their world views and lived realities. Denzin and Lincoln (1994, p. 4) state that: Qualitative researchers stress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry. Such researchers emphasise the value-laden nature of inquiry. …