Volume 10, Number 2, November 2022

Articulating a Māori educator’s pedagogical constructs: a co-constructed case study
by Willfred Greyling e Kiri Waitai

Abstract
We agreed, as a non-Māori manager and a Māori educator, to use personal construct theory (PCT) methods to articulate and reflect on the second author’s (SA’s) pedagogical meaning-making which she had intentionally aligned with a tikanga Māori approach to teaching a mixed group of non-Māori and Māori learners on a new – and by all accounts successful – foundation-level programme, Te Tuapapa Hauora (translated: firm foundation in health). We elicited SA’s pedagogical constructs, using four role titles she was positively disposed to, and four she viewed as opposites. We included SA’s choice of 10 constructs in a repertory grid. Her ratings allowed us to generate grid-based probes for reflecting on her pedagogy. We analysed post-grid interview data, identifying several key themes in her meaning-making which were consistent with key factors perceived as enabling Māori learners’ success (Chauvel & Rean, 2012). We arrived at a dual outcome: a co-constructed account of SA’s tikanga Māori pedagogy and an exemplar of how educators could use repertory grid analysis for reflective purposes.

Keywords: Māori values, constructs, elicitation, repertory grid.