Conceptual Framework for Hikoi ki te Hauora

The conceptual framework for this resource is based on the underlying concepts of the Health and Physical Education in New Zealand Curriculum of:

• Hauora / wellbeing
• Health promotion
• Socio-ecological perspectives
• Attitudes and values

The theoretical principles of Dr William Glasser's reality therapy which suggests that individuals have two basic needs:

• To love and be loved
• To feel worthwhile to ourselves and others

These needs involve:

• Survival (food, water, shelter, air)
• Love and belonging (caring friendships, relationships, connectedness)
• Fun (laughter, pleasure, relaxation, learning)
• Power (feeling important, being competent, receiving and giving respect, achieving)
• Freedom (having choices and options, being independent)

Reality therapy involves the concept of RESPONSIBILITY:

• When people take responsibility to fulfil their own needs they must do so in a way that does not deprive others of the ability to fulfil their needs.
• People try to find ways to have their needs met and sometimes when their needs are left unsatisfied it causes them to suffer and become more vulnerable.
• For some young people, in trying to have their needs met, they may experience feelings, have thoughts, and adopt such behaviours as:
  • Relationship difficulties with peers / family / teachers / authority
  • Refusal to go to and/or truancy from school
  • Withdrawal and isolation
  • Low sense of self-worth
  • Drug and alcohol misuse
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Acting out
  • Depression

The conceptual and theoretical frameworks for this programme provide a basis whereby the students who participate in Hikoi ki te Hauora can explore how their own needs are being met, how they can fulfil them, and how they can meet their responsibilities in ways that support their personal wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.

Dr William Glasser's steps to reality therapy

Glasser's reality therapy is about making informed choices. He offers some steps to planning for making informed choices:

• Ask yourself: What do you really want?
• What are you going to do about it now?
• Is it helping or is it against the rules?
• Plan what you really want
• Make a commitment to your plan
• Don't make excuses
• Accept reasonable consequences
• Never give up

Adolescent development and risk taking

It is important that teachers recognise the cultural diversity of students. Young people, at this phase of their development, are searching for a sense of who they are, where they come from, and where they are going to in the future. During this process of searching for their identity they will take risks. Many of these risks are a usual and expected part of this search. While risk-taking is not encouraged, it is defined and discussed within a context that acknowledges that life will always present young people with choices and options. Some will be straightforward and others will be more complex. Even carefully thought through decisions sometimes do not produce the outcomes that people desire or expect.