talona

Talanoa tips with Pasifika learners

Posted on by

Talanoa = conversation/s. These are conversations that build and strengthen relationships between Pasifika learners and teachers, teachers and parents, and schools and Pasifika communities.

Everyday talanoa (conversation) is part of life; it is a way of communicating to our peers, colleagues, and workmates. The talanoa is one form of communication that can easily be used when communicating with our Pasifika learners, their parents, families, and communities?

In this blog post I have shared with you ways of engaging with your schools, and questions you may ask as you work through using the talanoa process. What do Pasifika success, Pasifika aspirations, Pasifika presence, Pasifika engagement, and Pasifika achievement look like in your school or field of work? These ideas are outlined below to support you in your work.

read more
Posted in

The Tuakana-Teina model — Building the ‘Feagaiga’ between teachers and learners

Posted on by

Feagaiga – relationships. Feagaiga also comes with trust, love, caring and sharing

relationships

We all love to hear success stories for all sorts of reasons. Here’s one that I have been privileged to be involved that may be of interest and of benefit to others. I’ll let the teacher (I’ll call her “Teacher A”) explain the genesis of this story:

“[As a teacher in the 80s] I teamed the seniors up with the juniors each morning for reading. This meant every child got heard at least twice a day and then at home at night. The Hoani then told me the concept was Tuakana-Teina (big sister/brother with their younger sibling). What was interesting was that these students had the highest reading scores in that year from our class. There were several factors that could have contributed to this and as teacher inquiry was unheard of in the 80’s I never researched the possibilities.”

Teacher A transformed her professional practice and processes using the Teaching as Inquiry model.  She explored her past experiences of implementing the Tuakana-Teina concept by applying it in her class, which included priority junior students who were refugees and spoke English as a second language (ESOL).

The Tuakana-Teina model is a buddy-system model. An older or more expert tuakana (brother, sister or cousin) helps and guides a younger or less expert teina (originally a younger sibling or cousin of the same gender). The teacher at the centre of this story had a high percentage of Pasifika students, and the Tuakana-Teina model is easily transferred as Feagaiga in a Samoan context. This model was effectively used in Teacher A’s class, and reading levels were raised for the priority students as a result of her inquiry into her own practice and the impact of the model.

read more
Posted in

The Pasifika way of connecting and collaborating

Posted on by

So’o le fau i le fau – connecting the pieces together

Connecting -1In relation to my work as a Pasifika facilitator, the major support schools need and want is connecting with their Pasifika parents, families, and communities. In this post I will be drawing on my experiences around connecting and collaborating with the Pasifika communities. I have used a Samoan saying, ‘so’o le fau i le fau’, which refers to connecting the pieces together. You could visualise it as connecting jigsaw parts together, connecting tivaevae patterns together, connecting strands together when creating a flax basket or kete, in order to create a piece of beautiful art. I use this saying to help me connect with Pasifika parents, families, and communities.

Exploring the community

Whenever I am working with a regional school, I like to go for a drive through the streets of the township to see where everything is, and what sorts of places are there within a community. For me, this is important, as it connects me to the land, it gives me a sense of belonging, and it supports me in knowing where I stand in the community.

 

read more
Posted in

Creating the ‘talanoa’ conversation is all it takes…

Posted on by

We all like to talk, discuss, and laugh, and we feel relaxed when we have things to share — or even better: having something in common — because we all have something to talk about. However, it is easier said than done with the majority of our Pasifika parents, families, and communities who may still need that support when sharing their thoughts around their child’s or children's education in Aotearoa.

communication

Pasifika cultures involve story telling when establishing connections

In many of our Pasifika cultures, it is all about story telling, or telling our story to make the connections. When I am in a Pasifika gathering and I meet other Samoan delegates, they will always ask me for my name and surname, and then will they start making the connections. They will then move onto my father’s name and slowly you see them thinking and coming up with the question, “Is he from Vailele?” Or, if they ask for my mother’s name, they would say, “Does she come from the village of Afega?”. This is how we connect, and this is when relationships are built, and how the story goes on.

How do we best connect with parents of our Pasifika children?

We, as educators in Aotearoa, find this quite difficult. How can we create this kind of connection with our Pasifika parents, families, and communities? As a Pasifika educator we love to talk, and share our stories, and make things easy for ourselves — it’s the environment that we are in — that plays a big part.  It’s a safe environment where the space or ‘va’ is respected. The ‘va’ is a space between you and another person — creating a connection with your Pasifika parents, families, and communities is about taking the ‘time’ to understand where they come from, and let the Pasifika learners give you a head start with telling their story of who they are and where they come from. When you know your Pasifika learners’ backgrounds, and you know how they learn, you will have a better understanding of their parents and where they come from. This sort of information should give you a greater indication, or insight, into how to approach or start a conversation with your Pasifika parents.

The Talanoa model

I want to share with you the ‘Talanoa’ model that I have found helpful when working with school leaders and teachers.

Talanoa model

I have interpreted the above Talanoa model in a way that schools can use within their contexts, that can be used in many settings. I need to acknowledge the Pasifika academics who have developed this model (Manuatu, Vaioleti, Mahina, Seve-Williams).

Below I unpack this Talanoa model in relation to my work in schools.

The word ‘talanoa’ is a term meaning to talk or speak. The four elements around the word ‘talanoa’ are attributes that make the ‘talanoa’ more meaningful and rich. They are Tongan words with similar meanings used in other Pasifika languages.

Ofa/Love — When we talanoa with our Pasifika parents, families, and communities, whether we are in parent interviews or Pasifika parents fono/meeting/hui, we start with questions about ourselves. O ai a’u?  Ko ai au?  Who am I?. This sets the scene of your talanoa and shows that you are sharing your love with everyone by acknowledging who is in the meeting. This ‘ofa’ can mean different things, but in this case it’s about who you are. This becomes a time when barriers come down and you start building a relationship or connection with one another through knowing who you are.

Mafana/Warmth — Throughout the ‘talanoa’ the conversation is warm and not threatening to both parties.  At times, teachers just want to get to the point and then move on. Having this warmth in a conversation builds rapport, developing a connection to bring in the trust of the parents. The talanoa becomes more of a heart-to-heart, and a supporting of one another rather than picking up the bad points of the learner.

Malie/Humour — We love humour in our ‘talanoa’. The talanoa needs to have a bit of humour in order for the conversation to be real. Pasifika parents will often use an example that the teacher has given them and they will turn it into something hilarious. This indicates that both parties are starting to trust one another, and the relationship building is becoming stronger. You can often find something funny in a situation by over-exaggerating something to the point of being ridiculous. This is a great way of building that mafana as well.

Faka’apa’apa/Respect — The respect is the final element, but it is also woven  throughout the four elements, and this is where the ‘talanoa’ comes to fruition. Both teachers and parents start building the ‘where-to-next’ stage because of the mutual respect from both sides. This helps to build a shared understanding between the teachers and Pasifika parents, families, and communities.

I have used the Talanoa model with the schools that I have worked in, and I have seen the changes that it has made with building relationships and connecting better with Pasifika parents, families, and communities. I am looking to reinforce the Talanoa model by embedding it as part of CORE’s facilitation practice in schools.

Faafetai lava

read more
Posted in

10 things you need to know about Pasifika peoples in Aotearoa (dispelling some common myths about the Pacific)

Posted on by

Pasifika parent afternoon

Prompted by my colleague Manu Faaea-Semeatu, I put together the following list that should help educators to better understand Pasifika.

1. What “Pasifika” actually means

Pasifika is a term that is unique to Aotearoa and is a term coined by government agencies to describe migrants from the Pacific region and their descendants, who now call Aotearoa home.

2. Pasifika peoples are not a homogenous nation

Pasifika in Aotearoa refers to people who are descendants of the Polynesian nations of the  Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue, Samoa, Tuvalu, Tokelau. This means we don’t all speak the same language.

3. Fiji is not considered part of Pasifika (Polynesia)

Fiji belongs to a group of nations referred to as Melanesians. Other nations in this group include Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia (part of France), West Papua, Indonesia and Papua.  However we can still include them in the definition of Pasifika within the context of Aotearoa.

4. Not all people from Pasifika cultures can speak their heritage languages

Pasifika peoples in Aotearoa, especially if they are born here, may not necessarily have learned to speak their heritage languages. Usually this is because they have not had access to opportunities to learn their heritage language either in the home or at school.  However, some Pasifika peoples may speak their heritage languages in church communities or in their homes if they have strong speakers to help teach them.

5. Not all Pasifika peoples come from one Pasifika nation

Intermarriage is, or interracial relationships are, quite common amongst Pasifika peoples or with Pasifika peoples and other cultures. So, it is not unusual to have students in classrooms who, for example, may be both Samoan and Tongan, or Māori and Cook Island. This means that students in schools will benefit from teachers getting to know the subtle differences and nuances of the cultures of their learners.

6. Pasifika peoples like to congregate in group settings

Pasifika peoples like to work in groups to collaborate better with one another, which is traditionally part of their village life before migrating to Aotearoa. Pasifika learners dislike being singled out as this shatters their confidence and potentially harms their self-esteem.

7. Pronunciation of names

If you learn how to correctly pronounce names of Pasifika peoples, this will earn you much respect. Even using phonetics to get the right sounds will take you a long way when working with Pasifika peoples. By making the effort to ensure you use correct pronunciation, it shows that you respect Pasifika peoples and their cultures.

8. Establishing positive relationships with Pasifika peoples

Communication is the key and will result in a better partnership and outcomes between school and the home. To establish positive relationships, you must work with families to improve parents’ participation and contribution, even if you encounter some reluctance on the part of families to engage.

9. Pasifika voice

It is important to respect Pasifika peoples’ voice regardless of their language barriers. For example, even though their tone of voice when speaking their heritage language, or in English, may sound argumentative, they should be empowered to be heard and valued.

10.  Improve communication with Pasifika communities

Use accessible language in communications to homes and the workplace, and avoid professional jargon that might work to isolate or disempower Pasifika peoples.

Helpful links:

Polyfest

read more
Posted in