Ēhara tāku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini: The Power of a Collective

• In Event: Imagining Possible Worlds With Young Children, Families, and Teachers: Sustaining Language/s and Family Pedagogies

Abstract

The dominant discourse of success in the life of a young child often includes academic success as a defining feature (Mistry, Benner, Biesanz, Clark, & Howes, 2010). School readiness is posited as a destination a child must reach “in time”, lest they fail to meet their potential (Spier Leenknecht, Carson, Bichay, & Faria, 2019). The burden of achieving this narrow notion of success rests on the child and their parents. Thus, parenting programmes have been designed to upskill parents and reinforce the message that “you alone can change your world—if you only try hard enough”. A number of programmes have targeted early oral language, which is used as a common indicator of a child’s readiness for school (Suggate, Schaughency, Mcanally, & Reese, 2018). These programmes lump together groups (i.e., low-income, indigenous, migrant, special needs), who are perceived as “at-risk” and of having language deficits (Hancock, Kaiser, & Delaney, 2002; Ramírez, Lytle, Fish, & Kuhl, 2018).
Transformation, however, must create a path towards redressing systemic inequities in education systems that prioritize colonial structures of power and valued knowledge systems (Hoskin & Jones, 2017). This study investigated the unique perspectives and epistemologies that a group of local indigenous Māori and Pacific women brought to a community-based parenting programme aimed at transforming infants, toddlers and young children’s oral communication. This research followed a qualitative kaupapa Māori methodology drawing on Māori values such as ako (learning, teaching and reciprocity), kanohi ki te kanohi (meeting face-to-face) and manaakitanga (sharing, hosting and being generous) to gather coaching narratives of four Maori/Pacific women (Smith, 2012).
Frustrated by stereotypes made about their parenting practices as indigenous peoples, yet cognizant of achievement gaps, four local women, a cultural advisor, and an advising speech-language therapist collaborated to create a culturally-sustaining initiative for parents in the community. These women describe themselves as coaches and used this opportunity to challenge the centering of English that dominates externally-developed programmes designed to increase the amount of parent-child interactions. Rather, the coaches drew on their Māori and Pacific languages, stories, and practices. They intentionally incorporated Māori waiata (songs), karakia (prayer or incantation), and pepeha (self-introductions to establish heritage and identity, and connect with those of others) into coaching sessions and materials. The agentive actions of this core collective affirmed their identities and legitimatized these practices for other parents.
The reciprocal nature of this organic and agentive approach to coaching strengthened the linguistic and cultural identities of these mothers and, for some, sparked a journey of cultural reclamation. These individuals bonded as a collective. Families are no longer “on” or “in” the programme, they are the programme. The Māori proverb "Aroha mai, aroha atu" meaning "love received, love returned” reflects the reciprocity of the parent coaches with other parents and within the collective team. Transformation through reciprocity is a powerful tool for dismantling deficit thinking about indigenous children and families. A collective of local families means that growing confident young communicators is not the responsibility of a sole parent, but of many parents and partners.

Authors

• Emma K Quigan, The University of Auckland

• Janet S. Gaffney, The University of Auckland

• Rae Siilata, Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiārangi