This research investigated how mātauranga Māori through a pūrākau could be used to increase a tauiwi teacher’s confidence and practice within a tuakana–teina learning relationship. Mātauranga Māori relates to the interwoven connections between humans and the world that inform tikanga. Relationship with the local hapū and their tikanga of partnership and whakamana provided a framework of whanaungatanga, through which ako occurred between the hapū and the tuakana–teina.

Nō te tau 2001 i whakatūria ai e Ako Aotearoa (National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence) tētahi tohu hei whakanui i ngā mahi a te tangata e whakaako ana i te taumata takiura. Me whakaatu te kaiwhiwhi tohu i tana ū roa ki ngā taumata tiketike rawa i tana mahi whakaako. Tekau mā rua ngā kaiwhiwhi toa i ia tau, kātahi ka whiriwhirihia ai e tētahi kōmiti kaiwhakawā kia kotahi te tangata e whiwhi nei i te Tohu Tiketike o te Pirimia. Mō ngā tau e whā kua hipa ake nei i riro i ngā kaiako Māori te tohu tiketike nei. Ko te aronga o tēnei tuhinga he whakaatu i ngā āhuatanga o ēnei kaiako kia mārama pai atu ai te whakaaro tiketike o te Māori ki tēnei mea te ako.

Āhuatanga Māori is at the forefront of an education students can expect to receive at a Māori tertiary organisation. Mainstreaming e-Education involves normalising electronic modes of teaching and learning into a conventional face-to-face teaching and learning tertiary environment. Conscientisation, resistance and transformative praxis are processes or stages that conventional teachers experience when faced with new electronic modes of course delivery. In a Māori tertiary organisation the conscientisation and resistance processes are amplified as a result of ako, the traditional Māori andragogical and pedagogical concepts of teaching and learning.