Name Angus Macfarlane | ||
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Angus Hikairo Macfarlane, is a New Zealand, schoolteacher and educational psychologist. He has mixed Scottish and Māori ancestry, and was born in Rotorua into a family of 14 siblings. His family identify with Ko Te Arawa e waru pumanawa, the "eight beating hearts" of the Te Arawa tribe from the Bay of Plenty region in central North Island.
The Educultural Wheel
Macfarlane’s research around these topics resulted in his creation of the "Educultural Wheel", which was first seen in his 2004 book, Kia hiwa ra! Listen to culture: Maori students plea to educators. It was initially a management strategy, designed to increase the development of successful teacher/student interactions with Maori students. It derived from previous research which showed that what Maori students identified as being most beneficial to their learning, was the relationships they had with their teachers. When put into practice, the theory showed significant benefits for not only Maori students, but for students of all cultures. This theory of student management strategy was based around the research and beliefs of many of Macfarlane’s favourite theorists from his educational psychology background.
According to Macfarlane, in relation to the Educultural Wheel:
"these concepts do not exist in isolation from each other - more often than not, they co-exist or are amalgamated. Since Maori insist on wholeness, this is quite natural".
The Educultural Wheel is made up of five interwoven concepts that cover the bases of all aspects of the classroom, these are: Whanaungatanga (Building relationships), Kotahitanga (Ethic of Bonding), Manaakitanga (Ethic of care), Rangatiratanga (Teacher effectiveness), and Pumanawatanga (General classroom morale, pulse, tone).