E Tū Whānau Tikanga Rangahau Instrument: Technical Report

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The E Tū Whānau Tikanga Rangahau Instrument: Technical Report presents the findings of a pilot study and resulting instrument, co-designed with whānau and communities to quantitatively measure personal and community change experienced because of engaging with E Tū Whānau.

The Tikanga Rangahau provides a means of establishing measures of change over time and articulates and tests underlying assumptions inherent in the design. The validity of the data, and overall success of the project, relied on the use of te ao Māori frameworks to ground the entire design, data gathering, coding and analysis. The work also drew upon Western knowledge and research methods.

The E Tū Whānau Tikanga Rangahau Community Kete – an additional resource – was also produced through the pilot study. This provides a step-by-step guide for users of the rangahau. The Community Kete is available through E Tū Whānau.

E Tū Whānau is a kaupapa Māori family violence prevention initiative that is strengths-based and grounded in te ao Māori. For more information, please click the link below:

Key findings

1. Measures of meaningful change must be identified by whānau and communities. In this pilot project, whānau and communities have identified and provided 44 indicators of positive change (refined from 259) about things that are deeply profound and meaningful to them. To do justice to the rare, rich insight as to how whānau and communities experience change, kōrero from whānau and communities became the data – it did not merely inform the data.
2. Te ao Māori is the most commonly occurring measure of positive change for whānau and communities. Whānau, kahukura (whānau/community leaders) and external stakeholders in all three pilot communities, all identified ‘Te ao Māori’ as the most frequent measure of change. This key indicator includes measures of cultural (re)connection, greater understanding of Māori identity, valuing Māori culture, speaking te reo Māori, learning about one’s own whakapapa, whenua and histories, increased visits to Marae, and participation in Māori cultural events and activities.
3. Developing a new te ao Māori instrument required us to respond to a range of potential issues in design. Te ao Māori frameworks are critical to understanding and designing evaluation tools to be used with Māori communities. Application of te ao Māori frameworks guided the overall co-design in partnership with E Tū Whānau communities and was essential to ensure the measures are truly reflective of E Tū Whānau.

1. Neither survey methods nor use of a scale was appropriate for these communities. This was because the whānau and communities chose to rate each of their changes highly. By contrast, the use of a hierarchy for participants to compare, contrast and prioritise their changes did not support the participants’ experiences of E Tū Whānau.
2. In research like this project, ensuring all the different groups of participants are represented is more important than random sample selection. To ensure the sample genuinely reflected the broad range of experiences within each community, the researchers focused on ‘purposive sampling’, as opposed to a random selection which would miss key information within E Tū Whānau.
3. Potential and/or perceived bias in design had to be addressed. The core of the rangahau is the guided conversation between participant and researcher, leading to real or perceived bias in design. We sought to address this by ensuring: (i) two separate external lead roles were contracted: a research and data lead and a field research lead, to ensure insights and analyses emerged from within their own disciplines, while not unduly influencing each other; (ii) project oversight was provided by external experts from the Whānau Reference Group.
4. Validity of the data relies on the design integrity of the guided conversations, and the application of the coding process. Coding is the way all the changes participants have described are summarised and categorised, to be able to quantify the data. The data from this process consisted of a table of changes. The pilot project worked through four different versions of this process to finalise the codes.

4. Any changes to the Tikanga Rangahau require a clear theoretical and methodological basis. The indicators are sourced in community kōrero that has been shared with E Tū Whānau researchers over many years and are built on through this research. They are, therefore, in this sense a taonga. Any change to these base indicators should have a clear theoretical and methodological basis, and be reviewed by experts and communities as part of its own pilot process.