Te Ako Whaiora- Through learning is well-being

There are many pockets of work across institutions like Unitec where the community has approached particular people or programmes with a plea to deliver to a specific need. The Graduate Diploma in Not for Profit Management was approached in 2009 by Te Rau Matatini (a national Maori Mental Health Workforce Development entity) to build leadership among Maori managers and leaders who were working within community social services and health provider organisations across Aotearoa.
This research study was spurred by the author who was appointed to the GDNFPM team as a Maori tutor to work with teaching colleagues and alongside students to maximise a positive and culturally responsive learning experience. As the study reports, this was achieved and the mutual learning for both non-Maori teaching staff and tauira Maori was realised and attributed to the conducive learning approach that is noho marae. Te Ako Whaiora provides a resource for teachers who are looking for examples and prompts to give effect to biculturalism in their teaching practice.