Weaving indigenous Tangata Whenua and western counselling theory and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

This workshop describes some of the preliminary research findings of the first year curriculum development in the Bachelor of Social Science (Counselling) endorsement. Students' learning is scaffolded to produce a professional practice unique to Aotearoa New Zealand. As counsellor educators informed by social constructionism we detail our intention to teach in ways that produces parity between indigenous models of practice, and selected western theory and practice. We provide a description of the re-shaping of our first year ‘core’ counselling curriculum evoking the metaphor of ‘weaving’ to describe our process. We outline our rationale for re-shaping the first year ‘core’ counselling modules; some of the taken-for-granted assumptions in the curriculum; and some of the challenges.