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|  | Ako and faiako : educational concepts, cultural values, and teacher role perceptions in Tonga
Author: Thaman, Konaiholeva Helu.
Institution: University of the South Pacific.
Award: Ph.D.
Subject: Education -- Tonga , Teachers -- Tonga -- Attitudes
Date: 1988.
Call No.: Pac LA 2270 .T6 T43
BRN: 66996
Copyright:Under 10% of this thesis may be copied without the authors written permission
Abstract: In writing this thesis, I have made the assumption that education (defined here as an introduction to worthwhile learning, after Kaye, 1986:54) can only be understood within the contexts of the society in which it occurs. As such, two issues need to be addressed by those who are in charge of (planned) educational development. These are: 1) the kinds of matters which preoccupy the thoughts of people in a given society and which they consider important and worthy of perpetuating: what I shall refer to as 'valued contexts of Tongan thinking1 and, 2) a people's educational ideas and philosophy as these are expressed in their language. It is further assumed that in so far as both of the above factors arc derived from Tongan culture, their impact on modern educational development in Tonga has not been fully addressed. My main tasks here, therefore, are: 1) to identify and analyse valued contexts of Tongan thinking; 2) to examine the meaning and evolution of basic Tongan educational concepts; and, 3) to show how these are reflected in Tongan teachers' perceptions of their role. I hope that my doing this will highlight two necessities for educational planners, especially curriculum developers, to appreciate that they must address social and moral questions as well as intellectual ones, and realise that many of the problems often associated with the failure of many educational innovations in Tonga may derive in part from, a) conflicts arising in the process of translating foreign ideas and, b) the difficulty of conceptualising these new ideas. Finally, this thesis may not only be about Tongan education, but itself constitutes an educational process, because what I have written has moulded my world view as well as expressed it.
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