Agency
A learner’s sense of control in a given situation. A learner with agency feels capable of influencing their own learning and acting to accomplish their goals.
‘Aiga
(Samoan) whānau or extended family
Āhuatanga ako
Circumstances of learning
Aroha
Love, compassion, empathy, affection
Aspiration
Hopes and goals for learning and the future held by whānau, learners, and kaiako.
Ā tōna wā
In their own time.
Atua Māori
Māori gods
Autonomy
The freedom to make choices and have responsibility. Autonomous teaching and learning approaches are those that value children's rights, aspirations, interests, and ambitions.
Awa
River
Bicultural
In the context of Te Whāriki, bicultural particularly refers to Māori and non-Māori, as enshrined in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document.
Complex syntax
The arrangement of words and phrases to form increasingly complex sentences.
Critical theories
Theories that critique and challenge dominant world views with the aim of creating a fairer, more inclusive, and equitable society.
Culturally located
The cultural contexts and communities learners and kaiako participate in that influence their understanding about learning and identity.
Culturally responsive
Teaching responses that enable learners to connect new learning to their own prior knowledge, identity, and cultural experiences.
Curriculum design
The process of deciding and implementing learning, assessment, and evaluation priorities, using Te Whāriki as a foundation.
Digitally mediated contexts
Experiences and activities that involve the use of various digital technologies.
Diversity
The range of unique characteristics within any group, including their strengths, skills, gender, ethnicity, languages, cultural backgrounds, and abilities or disabilities.
Domain knowledge
Knowledge associated with a particular subject or topic. For example, science, mathematics, or art.
Equity
The principle of ensuring that each learner has what they need to progress and succeed. This often means providing specialised, additional resources for learners or groups of learners that otherwise would be disadvantaged or excluded.
Funds of knowledge
The knowledge and expertise that learners and their whānau bring to the early learning service because of their roles within their whānau, communities, and culture.
Hapū
Tribe or subtribe
Harakeke
Flax
Hinengaro
Intellectual, the mind
Hūmārie
Humility, gentleness, peacefulness
Intentional teaching
To teach with thoughtfulness and purpose, with the goal of facilitating meaningful learning and development. Intentional teachers offer a combination of teacher-initiated, child-initiated, and peer-mediated learning experiences.
Internal evaluation
The process in which kaiako systematically find out what is working or not working in their service in order to determine what improvements need to be made.
Inquiry (kaiako)
An ongoing, cyclical process that underpins effective learning as kaiako inquire into the impact of their teaching on their learner's learning.
Iwi
Extended kinship group, tribe, people
Kaiako
Teacher(s), educators, and other adults, including parents in parent-led services who have a responsibility for the care and education of children in an early childhood education setting. In settings where parents have collective responsibility for the curriculum, it is understood that kaiako will also be parents and whānau. This term conveys the reciprocal nature of teaching and learning, which is valued in Te Whāriki.
Kaitiaki
Trustee, custodian, guardian, protector
Kaitiakitanga
Guardianship, environmental stewardship
Karakia
Prayer, ritual chant, incantation
Kaupapa Māori
A Māori approach that assumes the normalcy of being Māori – language, customs, knowledge, principles, ideology, agenda.
Key competencies
Five capabilities for living and lifelong learning outlined in The New Zealand Curriculum, the curriculum for teaching and learning in English-medium schools. The capabilities are: thinking, using language symbols and texts, managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing.
Kōhanga reo
Māori-medium early childhood service with a focus on retaining and revitalising language and culture.
Kōrero
Conversation, chat, story, news, discussion
Kura
School
Learner identity
How a child views themselves as a learner. This evolves over time and can have a positive or negative effect on learning.
Learning dispositions
Characteristics and attitudes that influence a learner's responses in learning situations. Dispositions can either facilitate or hinder learning.
Learning trajectories
The progression of children's learning over time, which, while not being perfectly linear, follows a path towards greater complexity over time.
Local curriculum
The local weaving of Te Whāriki including the principles, strands, goals, and learning outcomes that reflect the aspirations, priorities, and valued learning of an early learning service's people and community.
Mana
The power of being, authority, prestige, spiritual power, authority, status, and control
Mana atuatanga
Uniqueness and spiritual connectedness
Manaaki
Show respect, generosity, hospitality, and care for others.
Manaakitanga
The process of showing respect, generosity, hospitality, care for others.
Marae
The complex of buildings and land associated with a pan-tribal group, whānau, hapū, or iwi.
Maunga
Mountain
Mauri
Vital essence, life principle, essential quality
Metacognition
A learner's understanding of, and ability to manage, how they think and learn.
Moana
Sea
Mokopuna
Grandchild; in the context of Te Whariki, mokopuna expresses intergenerational connectedness
Noa
Ordinary, unrestricted
Numeric symbols
The various shapes and words used to represent numbers.
Papatūānuku
Earth, Earth mother
Pedagogy
The means by which kaiako influence, support, and provide guidance for children’s learning and development. Pedagogy is supported by theoretical knowledge, understanding of Te Whāriki, values, and practice.
Pēpi
Baby
Physical literacy
The skills, knowledge, and attitudes that give learners confidence and motivation to be active.
Play-based curriculum
An approach to curriculum design where learners are encouraged to explore, experiment, discover, and solve problems in imaginative and playful ways.
Proactive strategies
Teaching strategies that anticipate possibilities, outcomes, and issues rather than waiting for something to happen and then reacting. Intentional kaiako will use proactive strategies.
Provocations
The intentional actions and interactions kaiako use to stimulate learner interest, ideas, and participation.
Raranga
Weaving
Reflection
The use of evidence, critical inquiry, and problem-solving to inform changes to practice aimed at improvement.
Relational practices/pedagogy
Teaching strategies that prioritise a sense of security and emotional wellbeing.
Rangatiratanga
Chiefly authority, right to exercise authority, sovereignty, autonomy, leadership, control, independence.
Self regulation
The ability to have appropriate control over emotional responses and showing resilience in response to disappointment or conflict.
Sociocultural
The influence of relationships and context on learning and development.
Split-screen pedagogy
Teaching and learning that gives attention to both the content and the processes.
Tangata whenua
People of the land (literal), descendants of the first people to settle Aotearoa New Zealand, indigenous people (used of Māori), person or people with customary authority over an area that may include land and sea. This authority is held by first settlement of an area or by succeeding to an area through active occupation and negotiation with the first peoples.
Taonga
A highly prized object or possession; includes socially or culturally valued resources, both tangible and intangible.
Tapu
Sacred, set apart, prohibited.
Te Aho Matua
Te Aho Matua o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori, the document that sets out the principles by which kura kaupapa Māori operate.
Te ao
The world.
Te ao Māori
The Māori world.
Te ao mārama
The world of life and light, this world, Earth.
Te ira tangata
The human essence.
Te Kore
The realm of potential being, The Void.
Te Marautanga o Aotearoa
The curriculum for Māori-medium schools. Te Marautanga o Aotearoa
Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa
The Pacific Ocean.
Te pō
The realm of darkness, the underworld, night.
Te reo (Māori)
The Māori language.
Te taha wairua
The spiritual dimension.
Te tino uaratanga
Essential values.
Tikanga Māori
Māori ways of doing, including practices, customs, and rituals.
Tinana
Physical, body.
Tīpuna/Tūpuna
Ancestors, forebears.
Tuakana–teina
Senior and junior siblings, used where an older or more knowledgeable child supports the learning of a younger or less knowledgeable child.
Tū tangata
Stand firm.
Waiata
Songs, chants.
Wairua
Spirit.
Wānanga
Educational seminar, institution or forum; (act of wānanga) shared deliberations, discussions, shared learning.
Whakahī
Pride.
Whakapapa
Lineage, genealogy, ancestry.
Whakatoi
Daring.
Whānau
Extended family, multigenerational group of relatives or group of people who work together on and for a common cause.
Whanaungatanga
Kinship, sense of whānau connection – a relationship through shared experiences and working together that provides people with a sense of belonging.
Whatumanawa
Heart, mind, seat of emotions.
Whenua
Land.
Working theories
Ideas and understandings that guide all human interactions. Children's working theories evolve and become more sophisticated through learning processes.
