AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2010
The aim of this commentary is to address, in the Tongan language, the challenges of language and ... more The aim of this commentary is to address, in the Tongan language, the challenges of language and cultural loss by Tongan people in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and what Tongan people are doing about the imposition. The comments, ideas and perspectives advanced here are based on the assumption that Tongan language and culture are knowledge-and wisdom-different from the philosophies of the West. The discussion focuses on talanoa, a Tongan social construct conceptualized and applied as an approach to good living and the creation of cultural relationships in social, spiritual and political contexts. The second half of the commentary discusses talanoa as a Tongan pedagogical approach in the education of Tongan adults and children at all stages of the education system. Talanoa is a deep and meaningful approach, and by using it (Tongan) teachers, educators and researchers can promote and encourage critical and advanced thinking, leading to higher learning and deeper understanding. In academia, ta...
This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood educati... more This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood education scholars. Calling on both Samoan and Tongan indigenous understandings that breathe life into a Moana subjectivity is inclusive of ways of knowing, relating and becoming. We turn our attention to the importance of talanoa (stories/storying) in reconstituting olaga 2 and tangata kakato 3 in the act of decolonising Pacific 4 personhood in New Zealand early childhood education. Moana, the waters that bind Pacific peoples through genealogy, relationality and cosmogony, generate intersubjectivity; a folding of past-present-futures. It is in the spirit of Moana that we bring attention to the interconnectedness of subjects in the context of early childhood education in New Zealand. By way of movement in and with Moana, the currents, depth and flows, we problematise politics of early childhood education and professional teacher identity. Such tensions require navigation and as Hawaiian scholar...
A Companion to Research in Teacher Education, 2017
As experienced teachers, teacher educators and researchers in the field of migrant education we o... more As experienced teachers, teacher educators and researchers in the field of migrant education we offer approaches to the field of migrant education research at several levels: research possibilities that might be appropriate to teacher educators, to student teachers (and practising teachers) and to researchers who are providing material for teacher educators and student teachers. We emphasise the importance of recognising and respecting the difference in world views that are found among the diverse groups of people in our society, and suggest practical ways of circumventing the impulse to homogenise and by homogenising to erase the distinctiveness of the migrant student’s world.
This book contributes to the theorising of Tongan language and culture by exploring the notion of... more This book contributes to the theorising of Tongan language and culture by exploring the notion of langa ngāue in an attempt to deconstruct colonised thinking and demarginalise Tongan people from colonial ways of knowing and thinking. The importance of ngāue is illustrated metaphorically by its position in the centre of the taumafa kava circle surrounded by all chiefs and nobles in their social orders in the King’s presence. Tongan early childhood teachers who are involved in this study believed that langa ngāue should be based on the ‘core values’ that are important to Tongan people. While the Government in the form of ERO (Education Review Officers) focuses on the products of success as recorded in the official documents, they may not be able to ‘see’ the ‘success’ that made the journey worthwhile, because they do not perceive that it is the values, people and the interdependent relationships with the entire cosmos binding them together which constitute the real ‘success’ within th...
AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 2010
The aim of this commentary is to address, in the Tongan language, the challenges of language and ... more The aim of this commentary is to address, in the Tongan language, the challenges of language and cultural loss by Tongan people in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and what Tongan people are doing about the imposition. The comments, ideas and perspectives advanced here are based on the assumption that Tongan language and culture are knowledge-and wisdom-different from the philosophies of the West. The discussion focuses on talanoa, a Tongan social construct conceptualized and applied as an approach to good living and the creation of cultural relationships in social, spiritual and political contexts. The second half of the commentary discusses talanoa as a Tongan pedagogical approach in the education of Tongan adults and children at all stages of the education system. Talanoa is a deep and meaningful approach, and by using it (Tongan) teachers, educators and researchers can promote and encourage critical and advanced thinking, leading to higher learning and deeper understanding. In academia, ta...
This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood educati... more This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood education scholars. Calling on both Samoan and Tongan indigenous understandings that breathe life into a Moana subjectivity is inclusive of ways of knowing, relating and becoming. We turn our attention to the importance of talanoa (stories/storying) in reconstituting olaga 2 and tangata kakato 3 in the act of decolonising Pacific 4 personhood in New Zealand early childhood education. Moana, the waters that bind Pacific peoples through genealogy, relationality and cosmogony, generate intersubjectivity; a folding of past-present-futures. It is in the spirit of Moana that we bring attention to the interconnectedness of subjects in the context of early childhood education in New Zealand. By way of movement in and with Moana, the currents, depth and flows, we problematise politics of early childhood education and professional teacher identity. Such tensions require navigation and as Hawaiian scholar...
A Companion to Research in Teacher Education, 2017
As experienced teachers, teacher educators and researchers in the field of migrant education we o... more As experienced teachers, teacher educators and researchers in the field of migrant education we offer approaches to the field of migrant education research at several levels: research possibilities that might be appropriate to teacher educators, to student teachers (and practising teachers) and to researchers who are providing material for teacher educators and student teachers. We emphasise the importance of recognising and respecting the difference in world views that are found among the diverse groups of people in our society, and suggest practical ways of circumventing the impulse to homogenise and by homogenising to erase the distinctiveness of the migrant student’s world.
This book contributes to the theorising of Tongan language and culture by exploring the notion of... more This book contributes to the theorising of Tongan language and culture by exploring the notion of langa ngāue in an attempt to deconstruct colonised thinking and demarginalise Tongan people from colonial ways of knowing and thinking. The importance of ngāue is illustrated metaphorically by its position in the centre of the taumafa kava circle surrounded by all chiefs and nobles in their social orders in the King’s presence. Tongan early childhood teachers who are involved in this study believed that langa ngāue should be based on the ‘core values’ that are important to Tongan people. While the Government in the form of ERO (Education Review Officers) focuses on the products of success as recorded in the official documents, they may not be able to ‘see’ the ‘success’ that made the journey worthwhile, because they do not perceive that it is the values, people and the interdependent relationships with the entire cosmos binding them together which constitute the real ‘success’ within th...
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