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Be neotenous: The importance of curiosity for teachers

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“Brown paper packages tied up with strings / These are a few of my favourite things…”

Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, 1965

I put the gift bag in the centre of the table. While the handles were tied together with ribbon, you could still see variously-shaped packages, wrapped in innocuous brown paper, peeking out. Like five-year-olds about to play ‘pass the parcel’, the teachers turned towards the bag, eyes following my every move, eager to poke, prod and explore.  

They were invited to pass the bag around and to choose an item that captured their imagination. As they unwrapped their parcel, they were full of questions: What’s in there? What have we got? What is it? How does this relate? Does this belong to her? Is it valuable? Can we eat them?

Sitting with questions confettied around them on sticky notes, a group of teachers became gripped with a narrative they had formed around one of the items. They were convinced it was an antique, that it must have been passed down to me, cherished, from grandmother to mother to me. That they must take care with it, lest it get lost or damaged. That it must have significant meaning: culturally, historically, sentimentally. They were dying to know the true story behind the item. They were hungry for knowledge.

As teachers, I think we are genuinely interested in generating and nurturing curiosity in our learners. We worry about squashing curiosity and the childlike wonder in our learners, particularly when they start school. We believe that curious learners are engaged, passionate, excited. But I’m not sure that we invest enough in our own curiosity as adults.

Many teachers are involved with inquiring into their practice. They use the teaching as inquiry cycle from the New Zealand Curriculum (2007), or perhaps the Spiral of Inquiry from Timperley, Kaser and Halbert (2014) to explore the needs of their learners, and what they can do to make a difference. These inquiry cycles are important and useful frameworks to guide professional learning. And they must start with a teacher’s own curiosity about what’s happening and why it might be happening.

Christopher Clark (1992) calls on teachers to “make the familiar strange”. He says that “this involves at least two steps: first, to believe that interesting, exciting, amazing things are happening all around us all the time; and second, to question the traditional ways, reasons and explanations that we usually take for granted” (p. 81). In other words, we should seek to see our world with fresh eyes, and to wonder about it. We need to be neotenous – retaining childlike dispositions into adulthood (Berger, 2014).

We may need to invest some time to nurture our neoteny. And looking outside of education may be useful – you never know what interesting and unusual potential connections you might make. So, go to the museum, the art gallery, the theatre. Spend some time in the bush, or walk around the block and challenge yourself to notice three things you haven’t before. Attend a public lecture, play a new game, listen to a TED talk or podcast.

We know from observing our own children and our students that curiosity drives a need to know; a desire to find out; that it can be the spark that can ignite a passion. To be curious is to be driven to learn. It opens doors and makes us eager to explore. Curiosity also sustains us through the messy pit of learning. It helps us to know that although we might not know yet, we are on the path to knowing more than we did previously. So pursue relentless curiosity. Question ferociously. Wonder and ponder and brood.

 

Where do you find inspiration within and without of the classroom? What do you do to nurture your own curiosity?

Curious to learn more?

Here are some links to curiosity for students:

Here are some links to curiosity and teaching as inquiry:

And here are some references to relevant literature on curiosity:

  • Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Clark, C. M. (1992). Teachers as designers in self-directed professional development. In A. Hargreaves & M. G. Fullan (Eds.), Understanding teacher development (pp. 75-84). London: Cassell.
  • Thomas, D. & Seely Brown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington: CreateSpace.
  • Timperley, H., Kaser, L., & Halbert, J. (2014). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Melbourne: Centre for Strategic Education.

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

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Manaakitanga

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He tangata takahi manuhiri, he marae puehu
A person who mistreats his guest has a dusty marae (the marae is an open area in front of the meeting house, and sometimes includes buildings)

Or in a non marae context:

“A lack of hospitality shown to others is a reflection on us all”

In this post I unpack the word ‘manaaki’ and share my thoughts to help us truly understand its rich meaning.  Some of this kōrero is adapted from a manaakitanga philosophy shared by Te Wānanga o Raukawa.

 

Let’s first look at the kupu to attain some understanding

Within te reo, a word has many dimensions, layers, and depth. Looking at ‘manaaki’ and the parts that form this word, provides some deeper insights:

Manaaki    (to protect, look after, and care for something or someone)

Mana-aki   (to encourage or to enhance one’s authority)

Mana-a-kī  (to be true to your word and what you say)

 

There are numerous examples of manaakitanga that are and can be expressed more often in your school or workplace

  • Catering for everyone’s needs, both physically, familially, mentally, and spiritually (Te Whare Tapawha)  
  • Considering manuhiri (visitors/guests) in the offering of the kind of manaakitanga well known on marae and practiced at your school/workplace
  • Giving people time to share knowledge, reo, and skills with each other.

When manaakitanga is truly understood and embraced, staff and learners support each other. They are respectful of every person, their whānau, hapū, and iwi with whom they have contact, directly or indirectly throughout their lives.

 

The concept of manaakitanga and its relevance to the behaviour of kaimanaaki has some very specific applications for others

Consider the following of your physical space:

  • treatment of equipment – the abuse of this is contrary to manaakitanga and does not reflect rangatira behaviour
  • being mindful of the needs of others to use equipment. This is very easy to forget, but especially important when the piece is sorely needed
  • interfering with the property of others, without their permission
  • intruding into another person’s space, or taking another person’s belongings and so on without authority are not the actions of a rangatira.

Each of these is a breach of the rangatiratanga of the person whose space or property is being interfered with, and each is a denial of manaakitanga.

Other practical ways we can show manaaki:

  • Using appropriate recognition when borrowing the work of others, for example images, presentations, whakatauākī/ whakataukī
  • To be respectful of other people’s spiritual beliefs and values, for example, using karakia
  • To manaaki, uphold and uplift te reo Māori/ te reo rangatira, or any reo for that matter, in what we say, how we say it, how it is used, what is appropriate and what is inappropriate.
  • Are your views personal, or a reflection of your school/workplace values and beliefs?
  • When we joke, do others find it offensive, derogatory, or even racist? Are we aware of these things? How do we know?

te-mako-blog-image-1The ability to bring together an iwi (people) is seen to be the work of rangatira and a true sign of manaakitanga. The role of maintaining manaakitanga is that of all the iwi.

Te mahi a te rangatira, he whakatira i te iwi

The work of a rangatira (ranga=weave, tira=group) is to unite the people

 

What other ways have you consciously embraced the value of manaakitanga in your place?

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Reviving Pasifika languages of the Realm

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The Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau are a part of the realm of New Zealand. What could this mean for the indigenous languages of those islands?

Teanau Tuiono in the islands

As I write this it is Cook Islands Language week, which also means we are in the middle of the New Zealand winter. So for most Pacific Islanders, feeling the cold (one of my car doors was so frozen this morning it wouldn’t open!) makes the tropical pull of our home islands that much more compelling.

The theme for this year is, “Kia ngākau parau, kia rangarangatu to tatou reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani“, translated, “Be proud of your language and protect its future”. It is a theme that underpins the perilous state of the languages and dialects of the Cook Islands. Niue also shares a similar threat.  Both the Niuean and the Cook Islands languages feature on UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. This view supported by a  2010 research publication, ‘O tatou ō aga’i i fea?/ `Oku tau ō ki fe? Where are we heading?: Pacific languages in Aotearoa/New Zealand1 by researchers John McCaffery and Judy Taligalu McFall-McCaffery which suggests that Niuean and Cook Islands Māori languages will disappear from New Zealand within a generation, unless urgent action is taken2. The research highlighted that fewer than five percent of the New Zealand-born population can speak Cook Islands Māori, and less than 11 per cent of the Niuean population can speak the Niuean language in New Zealand.

This was also highlighted in the PPTA Komiti Pasifika Paper, ‘Mind your language’, where it was noted:

‘Depopulation significantly affects the islands of Niue, Tokelau, and the Cook Islands. 91 percent of Niueans, 83 per cent of Tokelauans, and 73 percent of Cook Islanders now live in New Zealand. Because of the dominant numbers living in New Zealand and speaking English, it is likely that if they [the languages] fail in New Zealand they will not survive in the islands either. In fact, there will not be another generation of speakers of Cook Islands Māori Rarotongan in New Zealand. This language has dropped intergenerationally to levels as low as those of New Zealand Māori (5-8 per cent of school-aged children) before Te Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa Māori began.3’

With my father a Cook Island Māori and my mother a New Zealand Māori this kind of makes me Māori-Māori. Confused? Then you would be like the kid I went to school with in Avarua Primary, Rarotonga, when I tried to explain to him that ‘yes’ there were Māori in New Zealand, and not just in the Cook Islands. He was amazed. There were no television stations or televisions back then in Rarotonga, so I couldn’t visually prove what I was saying. He had to take my word for it, that yes my mum was a Māori, and yes she was from New Zealand.  

Down at the Tumunu on the island of Atiu
Down at the Tumunu on the island of Atiu

It’s quite ironic that I often find I need to use the colonial terms i.e. ‘New Zealand’ and ‘Cooks’, to draw distinctions and similarities between both the New Zealand Māori and Cook Islands Māori. I use ‘Aotearoa’ in place of ‘New Zealand’, when referring to ideas or contexts outside the ‘establishment’, like the land wars, the Treaty of Waitangi, and most aspects of tikanga Māori.

When I was young, most New Zealand Māori hui I went to were conducted in English, and most Cook Islands Māori gatherings were in the Cook Islands Māori language. On the Cook Islands side, we were encouraged to speak English because this would help us assimilate better into mainstream New Zealand, while our parents’ generation spoke in our island languages. The opposite was happening with my New Zealand Māori side. Assimilation wasn’t an option. There was the historical 1975 Māori Land March led by northern matriarch, Whina Cooper, successive Māori land occupations taking place around the country, and regular protests at Waitangi calling for the Crown to honour the Treaty. My mother and her generation had Te Reo Māori literally ‘whacked’ out of them at school. Māori language revitalisation continues to be a strong part of the Māori renaissance, and as a parent of Kura Kaupapa children, it is something I am grateful for. The benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism are well documented. The cognitive benefits have associated educational advantages, as well as having the added ability to help ground people in their culture, and strengthen their ties to their identity.

Strong community organisation, and consistency in reminding the State of its responsibilities and obligations to Māori, were a key feature to advocating for Te Reo Māori in Aotearoa. Clearly, Cook Islands Māori, despite being a Māori people, are not Tāngata Whenua of Aotearoa. I understand this more acutely than most, as someone that walks in both worlds. The establishment of New Zealand as a settler colony resulted in the loss of Māori and land resources often through violence (The New Zealand Land Wars) or legislation specifically designed to take away what little land remained  The Cook Islands also experienced colonisation but not as a settler colony due in the main to its size and relative isolation. The Cook Islands and Niue became New Zealand’s first Pacific colonies in 1901 and then protectorates along with supporting war efforts in WW1. The ability of mass arrival came much later with the opening of the Rarotonga International Airport, by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in 1974. The experiences of colonisation in both cases are as different as they are geographically apart yet the impacts continue to reverberate for generations.

Growing up, I did not know that New Zealand had a ‘realm’, and that I was a part of it. The Realm of New Zealand is the entire area whereby the Queen of New Zealand is the head of state. It is a collection of states and territories united under its monarch. New Zealand has one Antarctic territorial claim, the Ross Dependency; one dependent territory, Tokelau; and two associated states, the Cook Islands and Niue. In 1965 the Cook Islands became a self-governing in free-association with New Zealand and Niue followed in 1974. New Zealand is officially responsible for the defence and foreign affairs of the Cook Islands and Niue. However, these responsibilities confer New Zealand no rights of control and can only be exercised at the request of the Cook Islands and Niue. Tokelau came under New Zealand control in 1925 and remains a non-self-governing territory. With that relationship comes New Zealand passports which helps with access to jobs particularly in Australia where most Cook Islanders migrate to these days4. New Zealand supports the Cook Islands as a part of its development efforts in the Pacific5 and the Cook Islands supports New Zealand with imports for the tourism industry ($70.9 million in 2016)6.

All good relationships are based on the understanding that commitment is a two-way street, and the Pacific Islands communities are no strangers to this. This has culminated in an environment where Pacific Islanders continue to contribute at every level of New Zealand society, spanning from areas of sporting prowess and academic excellence, to arts and culture, and other spheres of New Zealand.

Cook Islands WW1 commemorations in Porirua
Cook Islands WW1 commemorations in Porirua

That commitment was profoundly demonstrated during World War One. The ranks of the Māori Contingent were seriously depleted during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, and subsequently, recruitment in New Zealand became more difficult. The government looked to Niue and the Cook Islands for reinforcements. Māui Pomare, the Member of Parliament for Western Māori and Minister Responsible for the Cook and Other Islands, took personal responsibility for this recruiting. An estimated 500 Cook Islanders, and a significant number of Niueans, responded. Most of them were in the Rarotongan Company, which served with the British in Sinai and Palestine, as ammunition handlers7. Māori leaders, such as Sir Āpirana Ngata, saw participation in war as the ‘price of citizenship’. A price that both Niue and the Cook Islands paid.

The right to learn and use one’s own language is an internationally recognised human right. While New Zealand has a particular responsibility under the Treaty of Waitangi and international law, to protect and promote te reo Māori as the indigenous language of New Zealand, it also has a special responsibility to protect and promote other languages that are indigenous to the New Zealand realm.

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Recognition of the various Pasifika ‘Language Weeks’ galvanise communities to celebrate who our respective languages and culture. But we need to be doing this for more than just one week out of a whole year. As someone who works in the Māori medium education sector, I am more than aware that when communities want to throw weight behind language revitalisation initiatives, it must be matched by resourcing and commitment. I think the Cook Islands and Niue have shown substantial commitment to New Zealand over the years, and so ensuring the protection and survival of their languages would be a significant way to reciprocate that commitment. It is a conversation not only for those of us from the islands but for those who remember that Aotearoa / New Zealand is part of a wider whānau of Pacific nations. The identities and cultures of Pasifika peoples are like the Pacific ocean itself unable to be contained by borders between nation states. There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ there is only ‘us’ and ‘ourselves’ and everything we do for Pasifika languages and education in Aotearoa must be done from the perspective of that great wide ocean.  

 

References

  1. The research draws together statistics, research, public data and community information from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. This includes information collected during visits to the four Pacific Island nations, 2006 Census data and The Pasifika Languages of Manukau Project – a major sociolinguistic study which examined Samoan, Tongan, Niue and Cook Island dialects in Auckland between 2000 and 2008.
  2. http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/09/niue-and-cook-island-maori-languages-threatened/
  3. https://www.ppta.org.nz/dmsdocument/302
  4. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/LifeinAustralia/Documents/MulticulturalAffairs/cook_islands.pdf
  5. https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/aid-and-development/our-work-in-the-pacific/cook-islands/
  6. https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/cok/
  7. http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/2015/07/ka-akamaara-ua-rai-tatou-ia-ratou-we-will-remember-them.html
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