The 'community of care' improving the wellbeing of Sāmoan teachers
Tāfesilafa’i, an initiative rooted in fa’a Samoa (Samoan way of life) is enabling faiaoga (teachers) to nurture and develop early learning environments where both tamaiti (children) and faiaoga thrive. The approach is underpinned by the strongly-evidenced connection between teacher wellbeing and child wellbeing – when we look after our teachers, they can provide nurturing learning environments for the children in their care.
Since its formation in 2019, Healthy Families Waitākere has backboned Tāfesilafa’i, wrapping support around Aoga Amata at a community, regional and national level. To best address the unique challenges Aoga Amata face, Healthy Families Waitākere brought together a broad range of strategic partners, collectively working for and alongside Aoga Amata and their national association, Sosaiete Aoga Amata Samoa i Aotearoa Incorporated (SAASIA).
Tāfesilafa’i is a place for faiaoga to connect, share resources, and build confidence in integrating Samoan culture into pedagogy. Its approach offers professional development, collaborative resource creation, and asset sharing, all conducted in the Samoan language and aligned with cultural practices.
“Tāfesilafa’i has provided us with knowledge and skills, particularly from our own Samoan Fa’amalama o le Tofāmanino’ (worldview). Now we feel confident and empowered to use our own pedagogies that are fundamentally grounded in our Samoan values, language, culture, and spirituality.” - Faiaoga
A critical step in developing Tāfesilafa’i was identifying the immediate stressors faiaoga were experiencing and collectively explore solutions. Through this process, Tāfesilafa’i is rebalancing the scales so Aoga Amata have the same access to support and resources as that of their mainstream equivalents.
Fundamental to this rebalancing of opportunity has seen Faiaoga equipped with laptops. Identified early as a barrier, now having access to computers (and in turn, the internet), is enabling faiaoga to apply for external funding, network with one another and source educational resources online – all of which wasn’t happening prior to Tāfesilafa’i.
A toolkit is being developed to support faiaoga with tamaiti development across fundamental movement skills, and nutrition. Named Ola Malosi, the toolkit is unique as every element will be centred in fa’a Samoa.
Ultimately, the resounding achievement of Tāfesilafa’i is that faiaoga feel connected and confident to teach Samoan pedagogy and curriculum. By providing a space for faiaoga from different centres to meet, faiaoga further understand the importance of their work and the broader benefits it will have on the tamaiti in their care.
Photo credit: Geoffrey Matautia
Through Tāfesilafa’i, over 70 faiaoga are learning, sharing, and networking to support the health and wellbeing of over 400 tamaiti and their aiga currently in their care.
“We know the Tāfesilafa’i works, we can see it in the Aoga Amata. When early learning centres (mainstream and language nests) attendance is in decline due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19, the Aoga Amata attendance levels have increased. The continuing support from the stakeholders, who have been instrumental in establishing this initiative, to enable our Aoga Amata, teachers, children and parents to dream their dreams, to grow and to achieve what they may never have thought possible before.
Faiaoga shared that the children are happy and engaged in their learning, and we are the living evidence, our children, parents and communities. This is all the evidence we need to see to know Tāfesilafa’i is working.” - Irene Palea’i-Foroti, Fa’atonusili, SAASIA Director.