faka'apa'apa (respect) towards the people then there is a guarantee that it will be
returned. Faka'apa'apa is about acknowledgement, it is about inducing a sense of
belonging.- 'Ofa(love)—'Ofais the philosophy underpinning Tongan society. If’'ofais
included in our practices our children will feel it through the words and our
approaches. If'ofais lacking then relationships would be heading towards a
negative path which Tongans would refer to asanga ta'e'ofa (unkind/damaging/
selfish). Showing'Ofa fe'unga(appropriate compassion, empathy, love for the
context) is fundamental to maintaining integrity and at the centre of all research
activities (Vaioleti 2006 , p. 31). - Tauhi Vā(maintaining and nurturing reciprocal relationships)—this is a vital
part of the Tongan culture where the emphasis is on forming reciprocal rela-
tionships between the students and the teachers. The Tongan culture highly
valuetauhi vābecause it is the connecting space between people rather than
space that separates. It is about drawing the space closer to each other through
reciprocal obligations and kindness. - Fetokoni’aki(working together/collective)—In the Tongan culture there is no
‘I’but a ‘We’instead—because the emphasis is on working together and
helping each other. In teacher education, and as teachers, we need to involve the
collective throughout our practice to ensure that we maintain the reciprocity of
tauhi vā.In this case our students are more likely to contribute meaningfully,
willingly and accurately. - Use of the child’s language. An acknowledgement of the greetings such as
‘mālōe lelei’will go a long way. It is important too for the teacher to say
students' names in Tongan correctly. Some parents will be very shy to speak to
the teacher in English. But the way in which the teacher approaches them
—‘mālōe lelei’—will help to get to know the parents, and they will open up,
because this gesture of respect will incline them to trust you with their children.
So it is with the children: as soon as you say mālōe lelei—oh wow! this Teacher
is cool you know! they can speak my language! - Acknowledging culture. Acknowledging their culture means respect for their
culture. Very little knowledge will make an enormous difference. Teacher
researchers are not expected to learn everything straight away. But those who
have made thefirst move are more likely to go to a cultural event, which
provides the opportunity to learn in more depth, and consequently develop
deeper understanding of the significance of‘difference’.
In terms of difference or different world views, the place to start is probably by
challenging the notion of the individual. Which would bring us to a notion oftauhi
vā, and the importance of the collective, the family, the village (for further dis-
cussion oftauhi vāsee Devine et al. ( 2012 )).
Teisina ( 2011 ), Pau’uvale ( 2011 ) and Wu ( 2008 ), have all been able to engage
with migrant communities in their own languages, and hence have been able to
gather richer data than is likely to be available to the student teacher who is limited
to English. The distance/difference between the English-speaking researcher and
476 N. Devine et al.