puff 168 An ethic of empathy Unit Standard 16267

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Click Here!An Ethic of Empathy
Value clusters in social work education in Aotearoa-New Zealand

This Post may apply to the following Unit Standard;


16267
6 Credits
Develop a policy for practice in an Iwi/Māori social service setting


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Accreditation & Moderation Action Plans:


People credited with this unit standard are able to: identify and analyse a requirement for a policy for practice in an Iwi/Maori social service setting; design a policy in an Iwi/Maori social service setting; and reflect on a policy for practice.
Standard-setting body: Te Kaiawhina Ahumahi Social Services Industry Training Organisation Inc

Part One
Setting the platform

There are three songs discussed below which are commonly taught throughout Aotearoa- New Zealand in arts ans social science degrees where cross cultural or introductory Maori Studies courses are concerned. They have endured and would seem to offer a safe place for students to start learning.

These songs offer a first set or cluster or platform of values. The three songs are all shot and to the point with straightforward tunes.

Ehara i te mea
no inaianei te aroha
no nga tupuna
tuku iho, tuku iho

It is not as if
Love (aroha)comes from today
from the ancestors it comes down, is released down to us

E toru nga mea
nga mea nunui
e kiia na te paipera
Whakapono, Tumanako,
ko te mea nui, ko te Aroha

There are three things
important matters
spoken of in the Bible,
Faith, Hope
and the most important, Charity (aroha)

Ma wai ra e taurima
te marae i waho nei
ma te tika, ma te pono
me te aroha e
Who will support
the marae outside
by Truth, Faith and Love (Aroha)
(it will be supported)

The cluster of values emphasised in the songs include tumanako, faith, whakapono, belief, tika, truth. There is also, significantly, reference to tupuna, ancestors. The songs refer to a corpus of values handed down in tradition. They are little songs with big, heavy bits of emotion. At he same time the seem to be smal standards to bear, the tunes are clear and straightforward and the singing of them is, as people say, no big deal. They offer easy or apparently easy starting points. They tag on at the end of a speech as markers of good intent..

Aroha is a a central template, a basic guiding light in these songs. It matters in all things. Originally it meant to pity but under missionary and other influences the word has gathered an almost mystic, carry all quality evoking various kinds of love including romantic love, compassion and empathy.
These songs are all used extensively at meetings, particularly meetings where social work issues might be discussed.

A person coming to a hui under the cloak or korowai of aroha is coming under the auspices of care and concern for others. There is the sense that the person will not be threatened. These words of love are kare a roto, personal endearments. The songs functions as icebreakers and at the same time set a tone of warmth and conciliation.The songs are ways of settling the spirit; kia tau te mauri. They convey that the group singing comes both in peace and with an idea of creating harmony. The songs go with rangimarie, pai marire, te rongopai, with Rongo the god of peace but not Tu the god of war. In some ways they are songs for the house, the meeting house, the place of peace rather than songs of the marae where orators directly confront issues and, as it were, let off steam.

Section Two
Getting on with the job

The values described so far might be seen as a first set, a primer if you like. At a further level there is a second set which might include awhi, to embrace, awhina, to help, tautoko and taurima, to support or atawhai, to protect. These might be called awhi values in that they evoke both an attitude and what to do in a helping context.

The Maori words for these values are sometimes dropped in English expressions as in ; 'I came around to awhi her', or, 'I thought he needed a bit of tautoko.' They are also found in songs;

Awhi mai,
awhi atu
tatou, tatou e

Helping this way,
Helping that way,
All of us togeher

Maku ra pea,
Maku ra pea,
Maku ra pea e awhi e
Ma te ara, ara tupu,
Maku koe e awhi e

It is for m perhaps
It is for me perhaps
It is for me perhaps to embrace and help
By way of the path, the path of growth
It is for me to embrace and help you

Awhinatia ra! Let them be helped!
Powhiritaia ra! Let hem be welcomed!

The awhi group of words might be seen as a vocational set. These are words that social work professionals use and understand. Whereas the aroha set of values might be said to introduce matters an to set down a kaupapa the awhi set kep things going and form an everyday discourse. They state values to be used in applied situations.

The sets of values described so far make up an ethic.The two main aspects of the ethic might be aroha and manaaki; love and care. The awhi set are used in manaaki, in the immediate situation of help, the temporal application of care.

Section Three
The Four Cornerstones

The next set of values in social work education might be described as the four cornerstones.

wairua
tinana
hinengaro
whanau

Wairua means spirit, tinana means body, hinengaro refers to the mind and whanau to the extended family.

These are fairly commonly referred to in social work education. Sometimes they are put as four sides or cornerstones of a house, always as four interlinked dimensions almost like a quatrain. Milner once suggested that many Polynesian proverbs work as four intersecting points.

The four cornerstones ae sometimes said to offer an holistic model.Issues from one part flow into another.Matters to do with the hinengaro or mind can quickly become matters to do with the tinana or body. This is not, perhaps, exceptional in social work education.

This sense of relatedness is captured in what has become a kind of carryall word, whakawhanaungatanga. Literally his mans to make a relation or relationship, a connection. Such connections may be made through whanau links or through churches on the wairua side or tinana through sports perhaps.

The set of four zones works as an organiser. Sorting an issue into one of the categories is a first step in problem solving. These words add to the sense of a social work or social service ethic by setting out the dimensions of the work. They allow the world to be divided into sectors accepted by all.

Section Four
Powhiri values

A further set of values might be described as hui or powhiri values.

Here the reader is referred to Rangahau Pae Iti Kahurangi on Post 148.

In the process powhiri an issue or take is defined and people elect to support , tautoko the take or awhi the people concerned.

Inside the whaenui or meeting house there are many ways i which values and people are connected. I some respects the wharenui may be seen as a continuous information system. The last speaker in the whare connects all of the earlier speeches. Powhiri involves the exchange and processing of information.

Powhiri is a process of continuous movement between states of tapu and noa. Waiata is used to whakanoa speeches, as people come off a marae water is used as a process of whakanoa and so on.

This part of the ethic, this cluster of values is about social exchange rather like potlatch or Malinowski's kula ring. It is about eciprocity.

Conclusion

Four sets of values have been described and it has been suggested that they might be considered as an ethic.

The aroha set or cluster of values has been described above as introductory. Social work education stresses empathy from he first songs taught. The student is taught how to emphasise with clients.

The awhi cluster has been described as applied. Words like awhi and tautoko call for action in an affirmative way.

Whanau, tinana, wairua and hinengaro have been described as the four cornerstones. They offer dimensions, ways of breaking up the world in order to put it back together in an holistic way.

The powhiri cluster have been characterised as values of reciprocity.,

A lexicon of social work terms used in a specific community has been discussed. The history of this lexicon has not been discussed and must be left to a later time. The point of using the lexicon here has been to demonstrate an ethic of care based on empathy or, if you like, an ethic of empathy based on care.

Not considered here or at least not in any depth has been the significance or even the question as to what an ethic actually means or signifies. Under discussion have been terms from a minority culture caught up in an increasingly global situation. The need to assert an ethic as a matter of cultural survival may be a point to return to in the future.

The value clusters described represent an ethic that is a guide to appropriate behaviour , a guide that is employed in social work education. The value clusters are portals opening onto grounds of appropriate action. The first doorway i this ethic of empathy is aroha.

Bibliography

Bion, W. R. (1961) Experiences in Groups and other papers, Routledge

Ife, Jim (1995) Community Development: creating community alternatives- vision, analysis and practice, Longman, Melbourne

Stewart, William (1996) Imagery and symbolism in counseling, Jessica Kingsley Publishing