Training for Bicultural Intervention with Families.

Abstract

As a Maori and a Pakeha we came together as lecturers and practitioners in this project to set up a context for training that could best reflect genuine commitment to an understanding of the term "bicultural". Our starting point was our recognition of the Treaty being about partnership and the active protection of taonga (treasure). In this context we defined taonga as the health and welfare of individuals and families in the bicultural community and in the classroom. Over the years many students, Maori and Pakeha, had disclosed that their voices in the classroom were subdued by their fear of saying the "wrong" thing in relation to bicultural politics in social practice. We believed that the most effective way to actualise the bicultural in the training context was, as Maori and Pakeha, to model our own dialogue, which had led to a collaboration we described as "work in progress". We wanted to avoid a teaching style that replicated oppressive adherence to orthodoxy, and thereby intended to maximise the significance for the learning outcomes of the lived experiences of the students in "dialogical action" (Freire, 1970). After the eight-week course, the students were surveyed as to their experience of this type of participation in the classroom. Primary in the focus of this research was both the effectiveness of the course and congruency with the process agreed on with the students at the outset. Responses strongly suggested that this style of training was effective and relevant with regard to both process and outcomes. The modelling we used as a key method in this project was cited in the survey results as the significant catalyst to inclusive and productive dialogue. "Waiho I te toipoto, kaua toiroa." "Let us keep close together, not wide apart." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)