BRIAN FINDSEN

16. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT THROUGH CONTINUING EDUCATION IN A UNIVERSITY

Older Adult Education with Māori Elders

INTRODUCTION The development of partnerships between educational providers, especially in the poorly funded arena of adult and community education (ACE), can enhance opportunities which otherwise may not exist. Further, collaboration between a largely Pākehā (European)-managed tertiary educational institution and a Māori (indigenous)-based community organisation is a rare occurrence. This chapter examines the relationship between the University of Waikato and local Māori (indigenous New Zealanders), especially the close association of the Centre for Continuing Education with the Rauawaawa Kaumātua Charitable Trust, a specialist kaumātua (seniors), largely urban community initiative that supports holistic development for the Tainui iwi (tribe). The longstanding relationship is prefaced by understanding the wider dimensions of neo-liberal reforms, historical development of adult and community education in broader New Zealand society (for both Pākehā and Māori) and continuing education at the University (as a subset of continuing education in universities in general). The partnership emphasises strategic negotiation from both partners based on principles and processes consistent with their respective heritages and to developing a ‘win-win’ outcome in line with Māori kaupapa (philosophy) and tino rangatiratanga (self- determination). While the relationship has recently ceased due to governmental cuts to funding for university adult and community education (ACE), the processes of engagement illustrate how a marginalised group can prosper from a beneficial negotiated agreement to promote their kaupapa for collective wellbeing. The two institutions reviewed later in this chapter (the University of Waikato, particularly its Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) and the Rauawaawa Kaumatua Trust) are themselves subject to neo-liberal reforms which have been pervasive in most westernised countries as governments have rationalised resources to create ‘the minimal state’ (Olssen, Codd, & O’Neill, 2004). The education sector has been especially subject to increased monitoring and surveillance to maximise efficiencies from early childhood through to tertiary education agencies. In universities across New Zealand, all primary functions of teaching, research, administration and community service have been subject to constant review and some cost cutting. In community service and engagement, the focus of this chapter,

R. McNae & B. Cowie (Eds.), Realising Innovative Partnerships in Educational Research, 223–234. © 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved. FINDSEN universities have struggled to maintain relationships with local networks, including Māori, for both internal and external reasons. Internally, universities have placed more emphasis on research funding and have increasingly striven for high returns in research bidding to maximise their allocation from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), the principal funder of tertiary education on behalf of the New Zealand Government, for research funds. Externally, the internationalisation of universities has meant that overseas connections and engagement often have assumed major importance ahead of local networking. Hence, the partnership described in this chapter illustrates the benefits of local networking and collaboration. In this chapter the term ‘adult and community education’ (ACE) is considered as a component of ‘continuing education’. In some quarters the terms may be used interchangeably. Here it is acknowledged that ACE traditionally denotes largely non-vocational adult education; continuing education, as that part of education beyond compulsory schooling, has become increasingly professionalised and vocationalised (Findsen, 2001). To understand continuing education in a university context, that is, the context in which this bi-cultural programme has been developed, it is imperative to comprehend how the wider field of ACE has developed in this country.

THE CONTEXT OF ADULT AND COMMUNITY EDUCATION IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND It is prudent to locate the engagement of a university in the context of adult and community education developments in Aotearoa New Zealand to better understand university and community relationships.

Pākehā Adult and Community Education New Zealand education historian James Dakin undertook an analysis of New Zealand adult education in which he traced European history and associated education and contrasted it with innovative education/learning, principally indigenous. In his rendition Dakin (1992) emphasised how the organisation, institutions and methods of adult education in the colony mirrored those of the parent country. When British culture was in ascendancy in the new country, the adult education agencies, such as mechanics’ institutes, universities, the Workers’ Education Association (WEA), literary societies, schools of mines, were established for respective groups of new settlers. This copying and adapting was hardly surprising, given the tendency for new immigrants to reproduce social institutions from their previous homelands. Eventually, more diverse forms of adult/continuing education emerged such as in Māori education, parent education (including the parents’ centre movement), women’s education, in community arts, trade union education and rural development. The trend that is observable currently in older adult education is the successful dissemination of the University of the Third Age (U3A) movement throughout New Zealand and Australia. Indeed, the CCE at Waikato developed a vibrant 60+

224