AUT - Study Pasifika at AUT University
Study Pasifika at AUT University
The Pasifika specialties are based on the belief that Pasifika children will benefit more from, and achieve more highly in, educational settings in which their teachers understand, value and support their first languages and cultures, and have the ability to provide learning experiences that draw on the knowledge the children have gained in their home settings when introducing school-based learning.
Concepts such as Tautai, Fonua, Ako, Poto, Tofāliuliu, Fatua'iupu, Alafua, Soālaupule and many more give a Pasifika context to educational ideas and can help the teachers to draw relevant connections between children's existing home and community-based knowledge and the ideas being taught within the educational setting.
Domains central to the teaching process – pedagogy, language teaching, mathematics teaching, programme planning assessment and evaluation – and research methodology will be taught using Pasifika knowledge, understanding and perspectives.
lalaga le talanoa – weaving of ideas
The philosophy that underpins the School of Education’s Pasifika education programmes takes on the concept of lalaga le talanoa or weaving of ideas in which Pasifika knowledges and beliefs are integral rather than peripheral to study.
This philosophy emphasizes a very unique way of weaving in Pasifika in which the weaving commences in the middle and then extends outwards. While the weavers lalaga (weave), everyone involved is engaged at multi levels of talanoa. Lalaga le talanoa embraces the power of lalaga as a metaphor to illustrate levels of talanoa before, during and after the weaving of ietoga (fine mat).
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