Angus Hikairo Macfarlane

Angus Hikairo Macfarlane (born late 1940s), is a New Zealand, schoolteacher and educational psychologist. He has mixed Scottish and Māori ancestry, and was born in Rotorua into a family of 14 siblings. His family identify with Ko Te Arawa e waru pumanawa, the "eight beating hearts" of the Te Arawa tribe from the Bay of Plenty region in central North Island.^[1]

Education

After completing primary school in Rotorua, Macfarlane moved on to attend Hato Petera College where he immersed himself in the school's sporting, academic, and cultural activities. It was during his time at Hato Petera that Macfarlane developed an interest in traditional Maori tikanga (customs), which eventually led him to complete a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Maori studies and education, at the University of Otago.

Teaching career

Following the completion of his tertiary education, Macfarlane went on to become a secondary school teacher, with the majority of his teaching career being spent in senior positions. He become the head teacher at a school for adolescents with profound behavioural difficulties.^[1] He became interested in the psychology of education, and developed a theory of Educational Psychology, modifying it to work with students of culture who had been identified as being "at-risk".^[1] For a number of years, Macfarlane lived and worked in close proximity to adolescents whose disorderly lives were leading them to develop antisocial characteristics that would eventually lead to exclusion from both school and society. His ability to reflect and theorise led him to develop Tikanga Maori-based teaching strategies that allowed these "at risk" students the opportunity to experience success within the schooling environment. The experiences that Macfarlane had during these times were the sources of his present thinking and literature.^[1]

The Educultural Wheel

Macfarlane’s research around these topics resulted in his creation of the "Educultural Wheel", which was first seen in his 2004 book, Kia hiwa ra! Listen to culture: Maori students plea to educators. It was initially a management strategy, designed to increase the development of successful teacher/student interactions with Maori students. It derived from previous research which showed that what Maori students identified as being most beneficial to their learning, was the relationships they had with their teachers.^[2] When put into practice, the theory showed significant benefits for not only Maori students, but for students of all cultures. This theory of student management strategy was based around the research and beliefs of many of Macfarlane’s favourite theorists from his educational psychology background.^[3][4][5][6]

According to Macfarlane, in relation to the Educultural Wheel:

"these concepts do not exist in isolation from each other - more often than not, they co-exist or are amalgamated. Since Maori insist on wholeness, this is quite natural".^[1]

The Educultural Wheel is made up of five interwoven concepts that cover the bases of all aspects of the classroom, these are: Whanaungatanga (Building relationships), Kotahitanga (Ethic of Bonding), Manaakitanga (Ethic of care), Rangatiratanga (Teacher effectiveness), and Pumanawatanga (General classroom morale, pulse, tone).

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Macfarlane, A. H. (2004). Kia Hiwa Ra! Listen to Culture: Maori students’ plea to educators. Wellington, New Zealand Council For Educational Research.
2. ^ Bishop, Berryman, Richardson, & Tiakiwai. (2002). Te Kotahitanga: the experiences of year 9 and year 10 Maori students in mainstream classrooms. Report to the Ministry of Education, September, 2002. Hamilton: University of Waikato
3. ^ Bishop, R., & Glynn, T. (1999). Culture Counts: changing power relations in education. Palmerston North: Dunmore press
4. ^ Durie, M. (1994). Whaiora: Maori health development. Auckland: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Jones, F. (1987). Positive Classroom Instruction. New York: McGraw – Hill
6. ^ Kounin, J. (1987). Discipline and group management in classrooms (Revised ed.) New York: Holt, Rinehart & Wilson.

• Pere, R. (1994). Ako: concepts and learning the Maori tradition. Wellington: Expo

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