Directions: Journal of Educational Studies, Volume 28 (1 & 2) 2006
The basics of learning: literacy and numeracy in the Pacific
Chapter 13
Eutia moa mai nanoa:
navigating currents of literacy and numeracy in the Pacific
Teweiariki Teaero, workshop critical friend
We treasure the diversity of the Pacific and seek a future in which its cultures,
traditions and religious beliefs are valued, honoured and developed (PIFS,
2005:2).
Introduction
When a group of Pacific Island academics, curriculum developers, policy
makers, teachers and representatives of other interest groups gathered in a one-
week workshop at Sia‘atoutai in Tonga, from 24 – 31 May 2005 to engage in
re-thinking the learning and teaching of literacy and numeracy in the Pacific,
they looked critically inwards to identify strengths that could form the basis of
new policy, curricula and pedagogy. In the process, they impregnated the brilliant
Tongan (and, by extension, Pacific) sunshine with optimism, encouragement and
excitement. Many of them experienced an exhilarating sense of empowerment
and emboldment as they deliberated on matters that, potentially, stood to re-
route the waa (Kiribati word for ‘canoe’) of Pacific learning to its rightful roots.
As the participants interrogated and critiqued existing policy, curricula, pedagogy
and assumptions pertaining to the learning and teaching of literacy and numeracy,
some of them also felt needling undercurrents of apprehension because, after
more than a century of being subjected to an education system that was premised
on exogenous processes, worldviews and beliefs, the task of re-routing the waa
of learning in literacy and numeracy to the Pacific sources was likely to be an
epic voyage fraught with challenges beyond that ‘talkshop’. The sardonic verses of
Ruperake Petaia (1980:10-11) in his ageless poem, Kidnapped, persistently and
silently floated around the meeting hall as the participants heard ‘expert’ opinions
and openly shared views and experiences. Perhaps Petaia’s verses are ringing louder
and are more loaded with meaning today than when he first wrote them. Below
is an extract from the poem.
1.The Kiribati title means ‘lift from within’.
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Kidnapped
One day I was
kidnapped by a band
of Western philosophers
armed with glossy-pictured
textbooks and
registered reputations
‘Holder of B.A.
and M.A. degrees’
I was held
in a classroom
guarded by Churchill and Garibaldi
pinned-up on one wall
and Hitler and Mao dictating
from the other
Guevara pointed a revolution
at my brains
from his ‘Guerrilla Warfare’
As rightly pointed out by several presenters at the workshop, such as Dr Bakalevu
and Lice Taufaga, and others (Teaero, 1999; Pene, Taufe‘ulungaki & Benson.
2002), one of the effects of Christianisation and colonisation in the Pacific region
was the subjugation of indigenous Pacific philosophies, concepts and processes
to exogenous ones. In the process, we grew (in the words of Petaia) ‘poorer and
poorer’ and ‘whiter and whiter’ while the colonisers ‘grew richer and richer’. All
Pacific societies have been, for a long time, thus significantly affected; most are
still struggling to extricate themselves from these effects. The strong consensus that
came out of Sia‘atoutai was to expeditiously reverse the trend and re-emphasise
Pacific values in education with a view to liberating ourselves from the tentacles
of kidnapping in the form of colonisation and neo-colonisation.
Education and schooling are, as Konai Thaman (2002) has consistently argued,
culturally specific and heavily laden with the values of the society that designed
and delivered the curriculum. In the case of PICs, it was the Christian missionaries
and colonial governments that imposed their values and processes on PICs and
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this has, as Petaia succinctly expressed in his verses, culminated in Pacific Islanders
growing ‘whiter and whiter’. While schooling and Christianity have brought
about many beneficial changes, these have also simultaneously brought numerous
concomitant disappointments in education, as pointed out by several regional
educators and educationists (Pene, et al. 2002). Sitting cross-legged at the heart
of the matter is cultural incompatibility. Taufe‘ulungaki (2002:15) sums it up
aptly:
The failure of education in the Pacific can be attributed in large measure to
the imposition of an alien system designed for western social and cultural
contexts, which are underpinned by quite different values.
Taufe‘ulungaki (2002:20) also asserts that:
… the western-derived developmental and educational paradigms which have
been adopted by most Pacific countries have failed to achieve their expected
outcomes. There is an urgent need, therefore, to explore alternatives based
on other value systems. For it is from values and belief systems that social
and cultural groups construct their world, create meaning, develop rules that
govern behaviour, and erect the institutions that formalise and transform
those abstract worlds into concrete realities.
The Sia‘atoutai workshop was, in many respects, an operationalisation of the ideas
espoused by Taufe‘ulungaki, Thaman and other Pacific educators (Pene et al.,
2002; Taufe‘ulungaki, 2005) in that, while focussing on literacy and numeracy,
it represented a significant and complementary part of the broader pan-Pacific
initiative by Pacific educators to re-think education in the region for Pacific
Islanders with a view to embedding it in Pacific values. It is also consistent with
the desires of Pacific Island leaders (PIFS, 2005).
The key ideas that came out of Sia‘atoutai are highlighted in this chapter, the
purposes of which are threefold. First, the major issues and challenges pertaining
to literacy and numeracy that were identified by the participants are highlighted.
Second, the implications of these issues and challenges are discussed in the light
of emerging ideas and realities. Lastly, some initial pointers are provided to assist
policy makers and practitioners in mapping and navigating ways towards desired
destinations. Many of these suggestions are framed around proposals espoused
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Directions: Journal of Educational Studies, Volume 28 (1 & 2) 2006
by the participants at the Sia‘atoutai workshop. Emphasis is placed on policy
development, research, curriculum development and teacher education.
The key ideas
Several important ideas regarding the re-thinking of the teaching of literacy and
numeracy in the Pacific emerged during the Sia‘atoutai workshop. They can be
categorised into six main areas, as follows:
1. The teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy in the region have been
dominated largely by notions and practices that are alien to this part of the
world.
2. The different cultures in the Pacific have unique ways of seeing and
understanding their worlds and ways of solving problems for living, including
ideas and practices in the areas of languages and ethnomathematics.
3. While not enough has been done to incorporate these aspects of Pacific
indigenous cultures into the contemporary curriculum, pedagogy, assessment
and policy, there is evidence to show that it can be done and can significantly
improve the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy.
4. While there is a growing corpus of literature by Pacific Islanders on indigenous
Pacific cultures, education and epistemologies in general and literacy and
numeracy in particular, there is still much urgent need for more immediate
and ongoing research into these areas.
5. It is best to pursue an integrated curriculum where literacy and numeracy, as
well as other subject areas, co-exist.
6. Pacific cultures are dynamic and the sense of identity is always shifting.
This needs to be appreciated and taken into account in any educational
undertaking, including the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy.
The participants considered these key ideas and their impacts on and implications
for educational policy, curriculum, pedagogy and teacher education. These are
reported in detail in earlier chapters of this book. In this chapter the major
challenges and difficulties that need to be overcome, if the contextualisation of
the learning and teaching of literacy and numeracy in Pacific schools is to be
successful, are highlighted.
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Challenges
There was overwhelming support from Sia‘atoutai for both the importance of
Pacific cultures and for these to inform and underpin the teaching of literacy
and numeracy in the region. This intention and attempt to emphasise Pacific
values and cultures in literacy and numeracy programmes in schools are perfectly
legitimate but the implementation is bound to be fraught with a number of
challenges, some of them substantial in nature. The major challenges that were
identified at Sia‘atoutai include:
1. a deep ingraining of western values in education systems in the region;
2. a still relatively limited understanding of our indigenous epistemologies and
how these could fit into classroom practice;
3. the multiplicity of languages;
4. a lack of appropriate curriculum materials;
5. inappropriate training of teachers and a lack of systematic opportunities for
staff development;
6. the absence of genuine political commitment, and
7. the onslaught of globalisation.
Formal education in the region has been relatively privileged. Ministries of
Education in PICs have been consistently receiving the shark’s share of recurrent
and development budgets, the average being approximately 20%. However, as
Thaman (2002:22) has argued,
… despite heavy investments by Pacific Island governments and external
donors, improved access at all levels of education, better contextualisation of
the curricula, improvement in the training of teachers, educational reforms
in the region, like that in other parts of the world, have had a disappointing
record. The quality of education, as measured by various international agencies,
remains low and the effectiveness of the education system is poor.
There is, apparently, a serious gap between these substantial investments, the
expected outcomes and the eventual reality. The challenges facing PICs in using
indigenous cultures and values in the teaching of literacy and numeracy are
discussed below.
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Deeply ingrained exogenous values and practices
In pre-contact times, Pacific societies did not have literacy as we know it from
the schooling process. Neither did they conceive of mathematical ideas as
conventionally conceptualised in the western sense. The Pacific Islanders’ various
ways of dealing with language and materials serve important purposes that are
directly related to daily living. Salanieta Bakalevu provides numerous examples
of ethnomathematics from several Pacific countries that are quite complex.
Lice Taufaga also provides many examples of rich linguistic traditions from the
region. Pacific societies had and still have their unique ways of mathematising
and their numerous languages (Lynch, 1993) are complex and rich. They have
been developed over millennia and are used almost exclusively in the home to
cater for and fulfil their users’ specific needs. In school, however, students have
had to grapple with exogenous concepts in literacy and numeracy. This is akin to
Pacific children being placed in a situation where they find themselves dancing
simultaneously to two different songs.
Christian missionaries introduced basic literacy and numeracy primarily for the
purposes of converting Pacific Islanders to Christianity and for simple counting
purposes. They were very noble purposes but, as formal education developed
over time, it became a tool for colonisers to assert and impose their alien values.
Taufaga argues that:
… for too long Pacific learners have been coerced into learning practices
incongruent with their ways of learning and knowing, one of the reasons
being the sanctity of conventional schooling (Holdaway, 1979).
These values and practices have become so ingrained in the education systems—
particularly the curriculum and pedagogy—as well as political, historical,
religious and socio-cultural aspects of life in the region that it is bound to take a
lot of time and effort to re-assert and re-centre Pacific values and practices. The
deconstruction of modes of learning and teaching that have been successfully
ingrained in the school curriculum, educational policy, pedagogy, assessment and
mindset of generations of Pacific Islanders is bound to require a lot in terms of
time and a reorientation and reconstruction of thinking and practice.
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Relatively limited understanding of Pacific epistemologies
There was a feeling at Sia‘atoutai that the level of knowledge and understanding
among Pacific Islanders of their indigenous epistemologies in general and literacy
and numeracy in particular, and how these could be successfully incorporated into
curriculum and pedagogy, is increasing but needs still more rigorous interrogation
and exploration. The complexity of Pacific societies and their epistemologies
(despite the erroneous assumptions by outsiders about their largely homogenous
nature) as well as the fact that they have remained largely uncovered in research,
renders them an expansive field for research. As pointed out by Lynch (1993),
the Pacific is home to a phenomenal 25% of the world’s languages. There are
also numerous elaborate and elegant mathematical ideas used in traditional
Pacific societies that are both effective and closely related to people’s ways of
life. Unfortunately, the usage of these has been waning with the times and has
been marginalised in the wake of western formal education, westernisation and
globalisation.
To compound these problems, almost all of the earlier research into the lives
of Pacific Islanders has been undertaken by outsiders. For various reasons,
many of these well-meaning researchers have interpreted events, ideas and
objects in the region in ways that are distorted at best and erroneous at worst.
These misconceptions and misinterpretations by non-Pacific Islanders become
understandable, given the insistence of some outside researchers to construct
meaning using their exogenous analytical frameworks and framing observations of
local Pacific phenomena against their own experiences. However, some foreigners
have been credited with making invaluable contributions to the enrichment of
the lives of people in the region, especially Christian missionaries who, among
other contributions, gave the written form to our languages, thereby introducing
western literacy and numeracy through formal education.
There has been an increase in the literature about various Pacific epistemologies
over the last decade, written by indigenous Pacific Island educators and researchers
(see Thaman, 2003; Nabobo-Baba, 2006; Mel, 1995; Huffer and Qalo, 2004).
This renaissance of interest was spurred on partly by the dissatisfaction and
disillusionment with education systems that persistently fell short of expectation
(Pene, et al. 2002) and partly as a direct reaction to the onslaught of globalisation.
Much of this research focuses on documenting the processes of indigenous
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education as well as the values that underpin these. Recently, many of these
indigenous ideas have been explored even further with a view to using them in
the framing of curricula in Pacific schools.
The multiplicity of languages
While the need to assert indigenous languages was accepted at Sia’atoutai, any
attempt to be culturally democratic in terms of giving due attention to all the
languages spoken in the region is bound to be a daunting challenge. The number
of languages s formidable, as pointed out earlier. Countries such as Papua New
Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have hundreds of different languages. The
number of people who use the different languages in the region ranges from 200
in some parts of Solomon Islands to about 300,000 in Fiji (Mugler and Lynch,
1996). Designing and implementing a nation-wide curriculum that caters for all
these languages would stretch the imagination of the best curriculum writers and
teachers implementing it. It would also place extra strain on the already meagre
resources, probably stretching them beyond reasonable effectiveness.
Taufe‘ulungaki (2005) provides a useful overview of literature on Pacific vernacular
languages, language education and their relevance to culture. The literature lends
support to the importance of vernacular languages in learning and the need for
the development and support of appropriate country-specific language policies.
These proposals are timely and sound, given the multiplicity of languages in the
region and some individual countries.
Shortage of appropriate curriculum materials
The problem of the shortage of suitable curriculum materials for primary and
secondary schools for literacy and numeracy was accepted at Sia‘aoutai. Many
attempts have been made to produce materials that are based on Pacific literature.
Significant inroads have been made over the past decade in producing teaching
and learning aids from local materials (see the photographs in James, 2004). The
Waka Story Book Series, published by USP’s Institute of Education includes
many stories written in Pacific languages, by Pacific writers. The stories are based
on oral traditions and current lived experiences in the region. This has been a
most useful start but, according to one participant at Sia‘atoutai:
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… we need to do more than just produce story books if we are to truly ground
our educational policies, pedagogies, curriculum and assessment in literacy
and numeracy on the essential elements of our very rich indigenous cultures.
This is not going to be easy in my country where we have many different ways
of doing things.
There is a need for more than books and materials that are produced locally if
the underlying core Pacific values are to be successfully utilised in the teaching
of literacy and numeracy. There is a need to consider, closely and critically, the
multiple languages, ways of mathematising and epistemologies in the region in
order to construct frameworks for curriculum materials that are consistent with
indigenous ways of mathematising and notions of literacy.
Inappropriate teacher training and lack of staff development
As with any innovation and change in education, the success of the movement
towards contextualising the curriculum in literacy and numeracy and grounding
it in Pacific cultures, values and systems will ultimately depend on the quality,
passion and commitment of teachers. It is common knowledge that many
teachers typically become entrapped in their teaching by the way they were taught
and merely adopt their teachers’ ways. They usually become set and entrenched
in their ways, making it difficult to alter their mind set and practices. Liberation
from such enslaving mindsets, therefore, becomes an important prerequisite for
successful engagement (Teaero, 1999).
An additional compounding factor is the examination-driven nature of schools
in the region. This, as pointed out by a participant, compels teachers to adopt
ways of teaching that have been proven over time to provide the desired results
in examination, that is, high pass rates. The immense pressure to produce high
pass rates leaves no room for experimentation or engaging in novel ways that may
prove detrimental to this purpose.
Feedback from the participants on teacher education programmes showed that
systematic teacher education and subsequent professional development in literacy
and numeracy that are premised strongly on indigenous cultures is still largely
absent in many PICs, including those with teacher training colleges. This need
not be the case. In 2000, the UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education and Culture
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(based at USP) and the USP’s Institute of Education published several modules
on Pacific Cultures in Teacher Education Curriculum designed to ‘assist teacher
educators in the USP region better contextualise their teaching’ (Thaman and
Benson 2000). One of these was specific to vernacular languages (Taufe‘ulungaki,
2000) and another to indigenous mathematising in Fiji (Bakalevu, 2001). All
these modules proffered many useful strategies on how Pacific perspectives might
be practicably incorporated into teacher education programmes.
The absence of genuine political commitment
There is no dearth of rhetoric supporting the grounding of education in general
and literacy and numeracy in particular in Pacific cultures and values. At the
regional level, Pacific leaders (PIFS, 2005: 2) indicated that they
… treasure the diversity of the Pacific and seek a future in which its cultures,
traditions and religious beliefs are valued, honoured and developed.
However, it is disappointingly obvious that the Pacific Plan perceives Pacific
cultures primarily from the perspective of their usefulness only in the promotion
of sustainable tourism. While tourism is a useful income-generating undertaking,
culture ought to be considered from its central position in the bigger scheme of
life in the region as a fundamental building block and feature of life in many
spheres.
SPBEA, jointly governed by many PICs, is also heavily involved in carrying out
projects in the region covering literacy and numeracy, especially in trying to
assist member countries gain greater competence in assessment and establishing
appropriate benchmarks (SPBEA, 2006a). SPBEA attaches a lot of importance to
literacy and numeracy, as evident from their statement below:
Literacy, numeracy and life-skills should not be taken for granted but should
be part of learning in both the formal and non-formal setting. One cannot
dispute the fact that being able to read, write and calculate well, to think
critically, to have positive values as citizens are keys to acquiring a better
chance for a better life (SPBEA, 2006b: 64).
Many sentiments about the right of children to be literate and numerate can be
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found in statements at international and national levels. For example, UNESCO
(2006) recognises literacy and numeracy as a right and fundamental requirement
for learning. However, a disconcerting factor is the absence of genuine political
commitment by most governments in the region when it comes to financing
efforts that would promote the grounding of the teaching and learning of literacy
and numeracy in Pacific cultures. There is at best little and at worst no reflection
of this rhetorical support in either the recurrent or the development projects in
most PICs. Most of the funding continues to be channelled towards the ’usual’
subjects being taught and the pedagogies being used: methods whose theoretical
underpinnings and orientations are derived largely from exogenous sources.
While much of the budget allocated to education is invested in examinable subjects,
including literacy and numeracy, it is evident from the Sia‘atoutai discussions that
no allocation is made towards financing efforts by locals to do more research into
how we could make better use of indigenous ways of thinking in mathematics and
literacy and how we could use these in the curriculum and teaching.
Until and unless the rhetoric is manifestly transformed into concrete action
and genuine political commitment, no significant progress will be made in the
movement towards the grounding of the teaching and learning of literacy and
numeracy in Pacific cultures.
The onslaught of globalisation
The last significant challenge that was identified by the participants at Sia’atoutai
was the onslaught of globalisation and its effects on all facets of life in the Pacific
but, more importantly, on education systems and cultures. These sentiments echo
the views espoused earlier by Nabobo-Baba (2002: 39):
As we begin the new millenium, most educators operate with increasing
awareness that education, like every other sector in a country’s economy, has
to deal with global forces. The Pacific States, given their relatively fragile and
limited economic bases, find themselves in situations where they are overly
dependent and controlled by donors and donor-driven agendas in education.
This externally driven scenario also has to contend with certain issues,
some new, some emergent. Some of these issues … are a rising emphasis
on technology and information, the increasingly popular discourse on the
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importance of preparing children for a competitive international information
economy, and an increasingly diverse, border-crossing population of learners.
There are numerous examples in this book of how these latest global developments
have had a direct impact on communication in the Pacific region. Lesley Lee,
MarylinLow and Lice Taufaga convincingly argue that these, too, have to be
taken on board as they are legitimate forms of communication and are useful
for understanding the world that we live in today. In addition, there has been
a significant paradigm shift from the conventional notions of literacy and
numeracy to those that are more accommodative of the local cultural contexts.
The understanding of literacy has also shifted from a mere cognitive process to
becoming a basis for personal and social change (UNESCO, 2006; Taufe‘ulungaki,
2003).
Globalisation, in its very essence, does not deliberately seek to promote indigenous
cultures but articulates and promotes an agenda that leans heavily towards creating
a single global community based on a new world order that is fuelled largely
by economic and communications forces. Global homogenisation, naturally,
marginalises at best and ignores at worst attempts to re-centre indigenous cultures
in education systems. Globalisation and the promotion of indigenous values pose
a polemical dilemma for they outwardly appear to be mutually exclusive although,
as we shall see later, this need not be the case. Globalisation has spurred on a
reaction among PICs to emphasise their uniqueness in efforts that are reminiscent
of those in the immediate post-independence era, during which PICs sought to
resurrect and re-emphasise important aspects of their disappearing cultures. This
alone is a compelling justification for the expeditious assertion of the shifting and
re-defining cultural identities of the Pacific region as manifested through literacy
and numeracy.
Future routes: voyaging beyond the current horizon
Education systems in PICs have been based predominantly on deficit models
and assumptions (see for example Taufe‘ulungaki, 2003). These, naturally, pose
some challenges. It is now believed that Pacific traditions, worldviews and values
can and ought to be used as inputs into the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment
and policy-making. Despite the plethora of formidable challenges that impede
these attempts, there are possible ways forward, all of which must start with the
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realisation and appreciation of the intrinsic strengths that are within our cultures.
These vast riches of our languages and ethnomathematical traditions that have
hitherto remained largely hidden, ignored and untapped were acknowledged and
brought to the fore at Sia’atoutai. These strengths must be optimally utilised to
ground the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy in Pacific values and
cultures, hence the title of this chapter, eutia moa mai nanoa (lift it first from
within). New efforts in reconceptualising and reshaping practice in literacy and
numeracy must, by necessity, begin with the incorporation of the indigenous and
cumulatively add on the exogenous in subsequent stages. The two need not be
mutually exclusive but can and must be complementary and exist in a synergic
manner.
Any meaningful movement forward must incorporate the local and global, or
the indigenous and exogenous, in a mutually enriching manner in a voyage
that commences from and is guided by inputs from local cultures. It is always
pedagogically prudent to commence students’ new learning experiences from
what they are familiar with and then progressively add new knowledge (Hilgard
& Bower, 1975). The arguments put forward earlier by Nabobo-Baba (2002: 36)
that ‘the two forces (the internal and external) must be both scrutinized, and their
strengths harnessed to benefit Pacific people’ are still valid.
I have canvassed a similar argument in a painting, reprinted in this book, entitled
Bwaninin te reirei (the completion of education) (Teaero, 2004: 80). The major
motifs are the coconut shell representing the local region and all its concomitant
features and the globe representing the global. The two are fused together and the
wick of education runs through the area where they overlap, exploding on top
with the brightness and fragrance of flowers. This denotes a desirable theoretical
position that espouses a contemporary education system that starts from the local
and then combines with the global in coherent ways.
Lice Taufaga (in Chapter 2) expresses the same idea thus:
They [Pacific Islanders] want their children to experience the best of two worlds;
the high-tech cultures of the western world and the culture and tradition of
their Pacific world that distinguish them from the rest of the world.
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TT_vol28_no12_2006-14_1.jpg)
Directions: Journal of Educational Studies, Volume 28 (1 & 2) 2006
Bwaninin te reirei from �aa
� in
aa in �t�r��� by Teweiariki Teaero (2004) IPS (p. 80).
Reprinted here with the kind permission of the artist.
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Grounding in Pacific roots
The attempts to ground contemporary educational thoughts and practices
in literacy and numeracy in Pacific cultures must begin with the collection,
documentation, analysis and development of Pacific Islanders’ notions of
both literacy and numeracy. This insiders’ view is essential if the core defining
characteristics of Pacific cultures pertaining to literacy and numeracy are to be
adequately reflected. In their respective papers, Salanieta Bakalevu and Lice
Taufaga (Chapter 2) highlight the fact that Pacific Islanders have unique ideas
regarding literacy and numeracy in their own traditional worlds that could be
profitably taken on board to enrich contemporary endeavours. Bakalevu cites
Kiribati counting that distinguishes between different objects, ni-Vanuatu beach
drawings that are extremely complex, and Fijian weaving patterns that clearly
demonstrate the use of important mathematical concepts. These could form
the basis of important mathematical concepts. All these should be gathered,
critically analysed, systematically organised to form the initial foundation for the
re-conceptualisation of literacy and numeracy, and then judiciously utilised to
develop educational packages. The urgency of the need to gather such information
is underlined by the fact that the bastions of such knowledge, our elders, are fast
disappearing.
A regional conference on arts education held in 2002 in Nadi, Fiji, was attended
by experts in the culture and arts of the Pacific. They concluded that Pacific arts
(visual art, dance, drama, crafts and oral traditions) continue to hold immense
significance and relevance in the lives of people in the region, and that the arts
stand to offer culturally grounded ways of learning and developing relevant
competencies in literacy, numeracy and other life skills (UNESCO, 2003). More
importantly, the participants provide many useful ideas and strategies that could
be profitably used in the teaching of literacy and numeracy. One of these is the
acceptance at the outset that there is a multiplicity of ‘languages’ and ‘literacies’
that are all equally effective and useful in terms of understanding Pacific worlds
and in developing appropriate curricula, pedagogies, policies and assessment
procedures. These include, inter alia, visual arts, crafts, poetry and dance.
There is, therefore, a platform upon which to ground contemporary curricula
and pedagogy in literacy and numeracy. However, one must not lose sight of the
important fact that today’s classroom must be an inclusive one that embraces the
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local and the global. This is because of a fundamental idea: that Pacific children
must be prepared to live as knowledgeable citizens who are capable of living in and
participating fully in their country of origin, the region and as global citizens.
Placing Pacific values in educational policy
The term ‘policy’ is defined here as:
… a political process where needs, goals, and intentions are translated into a
set of objectives, laws, policies, and programs, which in turn affect resource
allocations, actions, and outputs, which are the basis for evaluation, reforms
and new policies (Cooper, Fusarelli & Randall., 2004:3).
Like education itself, policy development in education is a value-laden process
and undertaking that inevitably reflects the biases and priorities of the people
who develop such policies. Given the absence of clear-cut policies in many
PICs, particularly, those with numerous vernacular languages, and the apparent
support for early learning in the vernacular and indigenous numeracies, there is
an urgent need to convince leaders in the top political echelons to expeditiously
and prudently shift from a position of mere rhetoric to concrete action. This shift
to action implies:
•
a development and articulation of clear policies on literacy and numeracy
that are based on sound political, socio-cultural, economic and educational
foundations (Taufe‘ulungaki, 2005), and sound administrative considerations,
and
•
realistic budgetary allocations to facilitate research and other necessary
undertakings that will promote literacy and numeracy that are grounded in
specific cultures.
Literacy and numeracy skills are deemed useful for various aspects of individuals’
and nations’ lives. Language, as Taufe‘ulungaki (2005) argues, can be used
for national unity, modernisation and individual and national identification.
Individuals can also use competencies in these areas for problem-solving in the
course of daily living and for facilitating upward mobility.
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It is therefore suggested that policy development in the area of literacy and
numeracy at national level be guided by the following principles:
•
local users’ notions of literacy and numeracy;
•
inclusiveness of an eclectic combination of the local and the global;
•
current needs, aspirations and priorities;
•
sound educational thoughts and practices, and
•
participation of key stakeholders such as teachers, teacher educators,
curriculum developers, policy makers and community experts.
Curriculum development
Salanieta Bakalevu (Chapter 8) encapsulates the key ideas in a coconut shell
when she equates the Pacific curriculum developer to a cultural bridge. Her
guidelines for curriculum development that enhances the incorporation of
relevant Pacific ethnomathematical ideas are based on five key principles. She
argues that curriculum developers must engage in the following tasks: establish a
philosophy of education, challenge existing curricula, develop curricula for their
own people first, use elders and quality people as resources, and, finally, facilitate
the professional development of teachers.
With the multiplicity of languages and enthnomathematical ideas, it is considered
a prudent practice to develop curricula that are adequately flexible to enable
teachers to incorporate the local while simultaneously maintaining and giving
due consideration to the national and global in an eclectic and pragmatic balance
that begins with the local.
Curriculum developers must also look beyond the traditional sources and explore
the rich oral and artistic traditions that exist in the Pacific. The use of the unique
visual arts (Teaero, 2002) and the lyrics of songs (UNESCO, 2003; Teaero and
Tebano, work in progress) are in themselves texts that represent Pacific Islanders’
perceptions and understanding of their worlds, even from their pre-literate
days. They are also consistent with the ILO’s and UNESCO’s declarations on
indigenous people’s rights to self-definition and self-identification.
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Teacher education
The importance of the roles of teachers in any new way of teaching and learning
of literacy and numeracy in the Pacific or elsewhere cannot be over-emphasised.
The concept of ‘teachers for all times’ who are ‘historically, linguistically, and
culturally grounded and articulate in terms of time, place and people’ (see
Upokoina Herrmann, Chapter 3) was repeatedly canvassed in Sia‘atoutai. This
compels teachers to develop a deep and substantive knowledge of mathematics
and the culture and language of their country if they are to be effective and for
teacher educators ‘to foster new consciousness in trainee teachers’ (see Salanieta
Bakalevu, Chapter 8).
It is important to emancipate all islanders, but particularly teachers, from the
bondage of conventional thinking that is premised on colonially imposed values.
As I explained elsewhere:
Emancipation here refers to freedom from previous injustices inherent
in earlier education progams that featured the subjugation of studies of
indigenous educational ideas to western ones. Such emancipation would
culminate in freedom from ignorance of our own indigenous educational ideas
and reclamation of an important part of our cultural heritage … (i)t liberates
our students and us from the mental confines of exogenous philosophies of
education – a kind of colonisation of the mind (Teaero, 1999: 39).
Teachers need assistance to develop a culture of learning in which they acquire
the necessary skills to keep on accumulating knowledge from reflective practice
and other modes. There is also a need to sensitise them to the existence of other
sources of knowledge that are available in the community, such as elders, songs
and dances of the local community and interactions with other stakeholders. An
embracing of all these and other sources of knowledge would assist teachers to
harness the strengths of the community they serve.
Ownership
The ownership of knowledge and modes of transmitting it that are specific to Pacific
ways of mathematising and notions and processes of literacy has always been that
of whole societies or individual groups within those societies in the Pacific. Pacific
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Islanders have always regarded knowledge as an important part of their heritage
and survival and guard it most clandestinely and zealously (Thaman, 2003). There
are forms of open knowledge that are intended for public use and other forms are
privileged or limited to specific clans or individuals. The language associated with
specific skills such as building meeting houses, building canoes, and speaking
in public during formal occasions, for example, fall within the guardianship of
people who are traditionally responsible for these. Similarly, the ‘mathematics’
associated with the construction of houses, canoes, navigation and the like is
‘owned’ by specific groups. This sense of ownership must be respected at the
outset, negotiated in the light of current needs and perpetuated in its appropriate
form. There is, therefore, a need to facilitate and ensure the participation of these
traditional owners in any research or development in areas pertaining to their
areas of expertise. Participation is most effective if it is based on the twin concepts
of stake and expertise. Stake refers to what owners stand to gain (or lose) from
any development. The greater the stake, the greater the people’s motivation is to
participate. Expertise maximises people’s inputs when participating in decision-
making and strategising, especially with regard to qualitative aspects. These, in
turn, would be expected to promote a strong sense of ownership and support.
Research
Literature emanating from recent research by Pacific Islanders in the field of
education (Pene, et al. 2002; Thaman, 2003; Nabobo-Baba, 2006) is growing.
Considered in its totality, the research by Pacific Island educators into indigenous
epistemologies and literacy and numeracy that has so far been undertaken is a very
encouraging beginning. These efforts must be sustained if a more holistic level of
understanding is to be achieved and if emerging needs are to be adequately satisfied.
There will always be a need for additional research, given the dynamic nature of
PICs and the need to develop a high level of knowledge and understanding of
aspects of our Pacific cultures that could inform the curriculum, policy, pedagogy
and assessment in literacy and numeracy.
Research into any aspect of Pacific knowledge should entail an interaction with
owners of the knowledge being sought. Safekeeping and gate-keeping of traditional
knowledge is often vested in elders and, as Bakalevu (Chapter 8) argues, there is a
need to make greater use of community resources such as elders because we ‘need
the wisdom and skills of elders and experts for an understanding of traditional
practices, knowledge and values’ .
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An important consideration in the conduct of research is the need to acknowledge,
be sensitive to and observe traditional protocols pertaining to accessing, using
and disseminating knowledge (Thaman, 2003). This calls for a co-ordinated
undertaking between policy makers, researchers, curriculum developers, teachers
and owners of knowledge to jointly formulate guidelines that adequately safeguard
the interests, self-esteem and needs of the owners of knowledge on the one hand
and the broader interests of users on the other hand. Part of this propriety is the
need to acknowledge the differences that may exist in any one culture or country
and to give these appropriate coverage.
Sustainability
The preceding discussion emphasises the contextualisation of the teaching and
learning of literacy and numeracy on Pacific cultures. The other over-arching
consideration is the sustainability of these innovations in contextualisation.
Innovations in education or any other field will fail to produce the desired
benefits if they cannot be sustained. The key requirements of sustainability, in
my view, are ownership, feasibility, suitability for current and emerging needs,
relevance to the local culture and the whole context, and adaptability to changing
circumstances. The grounding of these innovations in sound philosophical,
cultural and educational foundations is essential for their sustainability. If
innovations are designed and implemented in close collaboration with committed
and knowledgeable locals, their chances of sustainability will be significantly
enhanced. Any undertaking and innovation that is capable of withstanding the
rigorous test of time and sustainability is one that contributes meaningfully and
in tangible ways to the promotion and maintenance of quality living and pride in
one’s cultural heritage in the rapidly changing and globalised world.
Conclusion
While Pacific societies have been subjected to a long period of domination by
alien cultures, there is now an emerging sense of liberation arising out of efforts to
discover and use appropriate elements of their cultures in the education systems
in the region. The Sia‘atoutai workshop proved that the region is indeed rich in
ethnomathematical and language heritages that could be profitable, used alongside
exogenous thoughts, practices and processes to develop and deliver an educational
package that is simultaneously grounded in local ideas and relevant for the global
world. Instead of allowing the exogenous to continue bulldozing the indigenous,
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a route ought to be carved in which the best of both worlds is extracted and an
eclectic combination optimally utilised to re-define our goals, strategise, and map
out a more promising future that beckons sustainable, improved living and to
reaffirm our evolving identities as Pacific Islanders in an increasingly globalising
world.
There cannot be one single solution to the problems of literacy and numeracy for
the entire region, principally because the region is far from being homogenous.
Similarly, solutions need to be continuously revised to ensure their congruence
with emerging needs and circumstances and, therefore, their very relevance.
Sia‘atoutai provided a useful starter for educators from the region to identify and
focus on broader issues pertaining to the teaching and learning of literacy and
numeracy at regional level and for sharing country experiences. It is now time to
shift from rhetoric to action and to focus on country-specific issues. This entails
obtaining relevant local knowledge, devising effective and inclusive ways of fusing
it with the global in ways that best address the needs of each island state and the
communities within, and developing sustainable ways of implementing these. This
will be a fitting tribute to the diversity that we cherish and commonalities that
bind Pacific Islanders together. Properly utilised and managed, such undertakings
stand to transform island communities into self-renewing ones that thrive and
grow as a result of successfully fusing the local and the global. Innovations in
education that are implemented for providing solutions to problems produce
benefits only if they are appropriately contextualised and sustained.
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