How do you create success for Pacific learners?
The Fonofale is a holistic, Pasifika model of health and wellbeing. As with Durie’s Te Whare Tapa Whā it comes from the healthcare sector.
You can use it to create success for Pacific learners.
Where does it come from?
The Fonofale Pasifika model was created by Fuimaono Karl Pulotu-Endemann (2009). Pulotu-Endemann is a Samoan-born, New Zealand-based academic and nursing professional.
What’s it for?
As with Te Whare Tapa Whā it’s designed to help you think about health, education or other aspects of life in a more holistic way.
What is it?
It’s a visual representation of Pasifika values and beliefs. We use the Samoan fale or house to describe the important factors of healthy development.
Here are the parts:
- The foundation. This is the extended family – the foundation for all Pacific Island cultures.
- The roof. The stands for the cultural values and beliefs that are the family’s shelter for life. This can include traditional as well as western ways of doing things.
- The Pou (posts). These connect the family to the culture. They also depend on each other. They are
- Spiritual. This relates to the sense of wellbeing that comes from Christianity or traditional spirituality or a combination of both.
- Physical. This relates to the wellbeing and physical health of the body.
- Mental. This relates to the mind including thinking and emotional wellbeing as well as behaviours.
- Other. This includes other things like gender, sexual orientation, age, social class, employment, and educational status.
The fale is surrounded by a protective layer. This includes:
- Environment. This relates to the relationships that Pasifika people have to their physical environment. This can be rural or urban.
- Context. This dimension relates to the “big picture’ for Pasifika including socio-economic or political situations.
- Time. This relates to the actual or specific time in history that impacts on Pasifika people.
How is it relevant?
It’s relevant because you can use your knowledge of the Fonofale to enhance your teaching. As with Te Whare Tapa Whā, this knowledge is not limited to just working with the people groups it represents.
This approach is also relevant because it will help create a learning environment that is culturally safe for Pasifika learners.
What does it mean for me?
If you identify as Pasifika, the Fonofale is a framework that allows you to talk about how you probably already work with your learners. If you are not Pasifika, the framework allows you to see your learners, particularly your Pacific Island learners in a different way, perhaps closer to how they see themselves.
Here are some questions from the learner’s point of view to help you focus on each part of the Fonofale model:
- Do I have support from my family to do this course? (Family).
- Does this course connect with my Pacific cultural values and beliefs? (Culture).
- Do I have the resources to do this course? (Physical).
- Do I believe that I can do this course? (Spiritual).
- Can I cope with the workload? (Mental).
- Is there anything that’s going to get in the way of my goals here? (Others).
- Are my surroundings, including home and work, going to help me achieve? (Environment).
- Can I afford to do this at the moment? (Context and time).
It may not always be possible to always attend to all dimensions of the Fonofale for all of your Pasifika learners. But one big implication is that if you have learners who are struggling, or who are not engaged, then the Fonofale may help you work out where the problem is and how to deal with it.
But one big implication is that if you have learners who are struggling, or who are not engaged, then the Fonofale may help you work out where the problem is and how to deal with it.