Creating education spaces for successful Indigenous tertiary learners: The TATT Project

Abstract

This paper describes the Tutorial Assistance Teaching Team (TATT) project: a holistic, collaborative student success and retention initiative, designed for first-year social work students at Unitec Institute of Technology in New Zealand. The TATT project underwent its pilot year in the beginning of 2012. Though the project supports all students, it is particularly relevant to educators working with Indigenous student populations as the initiatives use Maori cultural principles. The TATT project brings together academic and pastoral care resources and creates culturally safe spaces for a diverse student cohort. The paper outlines the project’s cultural underpinnings, components, processes and student response, and discusses the lessons learned from the experimental first year of this on-going project.