Life’s Complexity
The openness and complexity of life today can make finding meaning and the qualities that contribute to it – self-efficacy, competence, purpose, direction, balance, identity and belonging – extremely hard, especially for children, where these are Tau O Te Manawa (heart-felt turning points) of the developmental journeys they’re undertaking. Another vital quality, tumanako (hope), is easily lost if life is episodic, lacks coherence and predictability. Faced with a bewildering array of options and opportunities, children can become immobilised or propelled into trying to have them all. Pulling together the threads of our fragmented lives isn’t easy in an unfriendly user environment where the choices for competing heroes and leaders have increased rapidly with the use of TV, Internet, mobile phones and migration over longer distances to live in different cultures where the promise of paid employment and a better life is more attractive even if it doesn’t prove to be ideal.
TODAY’S VALUES
Eastern & Maori Culture Western Urban Society Childhood Work
| Property is available to the extended whanau & hapu | Consumerism, acquisition consumption, materialism | Holism and balance – economics only a part |
| Collectivism – whanau, hapu, iwi dependence | Individualism, hedonism & independence | Cooperation, group work, interdependence |
| Koha, bartering, reciprocal giving, friendly deals | Economic rationalisation, Decline in social capital | Sharing resources, borrow, live better on less |
| Customary practices and tribal stories are the model | Postmodern, episodic fragmentation, pluralism | Peer relationships offer guidance and partnership |
| Present is related to past traditions of ancestors | Unpredictability, loss of roots and uncertainty | Shared action planning,purposeful conversation |
| Tribal identity, whakapapa | Multiple identity | Collective identity |
| Extended family belonging & tribal obligations | Isolated interest groups separated from one another | Networking and interaction encourages trusting relationships |
| Kaumatua, tribal leaders, healers, multiple parenting | Corporate hierarchies, managers, teachers | Childhood peer groups, team mentors, facilitators |
| Listen, look and follow | Control & manipulate | Let go & work together to understand |
| Oral handing down of knowledge and wisdom | Mass Media, Internet, emails, new technology | Global resources enhance face to face interaction & interpretation |
| Wananga, hui, consensus | Virtual reality, competition | Vicarious reality, empathy |
| Kawa & ritual accompany seasonal spiritual practices | Separation between religious & secular groups | Whole of life compassion & generosity |
| Conservation, care for living beings & creation | Plunder the environment, mono-farming & planting | Ecological balance, organics and permaculture |
| Self-restraint | Self-indulgence | Social, cultural obligations, relevant interconnections |
| Endure adversity | Problem orientated | Preventative action relevant to strengths |
| Communal belonging and familial bonding | Personal isolation, anomie, alienation & cynicism | Build a sense of community through networking & mentoring |
Mahi Whakapumahara
Who are we with our thoughts and memories?
1. Many of your feelings about an event working with children will come from the immediate situation. Feelings are influenced by your own values, ideas and beliefs.
2. Values are those aspects of living you care about and are important to you. They give you a reason for doing things. As a youth mentor you hold many, varied values and beliefs about education, such as those in regard to how children can be taught and how they can respond. You develop them through your own experiences, your observations of others and your studies. Your own values and beliefs and those of others affect what you do.
3. For example, if you think that sitting and listening to someone is an important skill, you will favour focus group and interacting during family circle times. If you believe that children’s learning is best fostered in spontaneous free play, you will hold fewer structured group times.
4. In order to recognise your values and beliefs ask the following questions:
What is important to me as a youth mentor?
What do I believe is essential for children’s learning and care?
What do I believe about a parent’s role in group mentoring work with children?
From answering these questions it can be fairly easy to compile a list of ten or more values and beliefs. More challenging is to say why you consider them to be important. Another way of recognising your values is by reflecting on situations you felt comfortable or uncomfortable with and asking yourself why you felt that way. If you felt uncomfortable, it is likely your values were compromised as they were in conflict with what you wanted to do as a youth mentor.
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