Key Findings

• The project found it was important to explicitly assess competency in Hauora Māori when such competence was part of the graduate profile.
• It found many teaching staff and clinical supervisors lacked confidence in teaching or assessing cultural competence, and needed opportunities to further develop in this area.
• It found strong commitment to cultural competence teaching and assessment was necessary at the institutional level.
• A resource was also developed to explore the key findings; propose what an effective cultural competence assessment programme looked like; and present key questions that educators and organisations could consider when developing a cultural competence assessment programme.

Key Recommendations

Develop, implement and evaluate assessment tasks | Develop tasks and emphasise demonstration of Māori health competencies in clinical practice. Develop methods to allow assessment of behavioural aspects such as communication skills, and to complement existing written assessments. Consider building capacity among clinical teachers who assess student achievement in the Hauora Māori domain.

Address assessment of Hauora Māori from a programmatic perspective | Consider perspectives from Māori health and related domains within educational programmes. Examine how the range of assessments conducted over the course of an educational programme contributes to an overall picture of achievement.

Ensure that assessment in areas such as Hauora Māori matters | Hauora Māori and related areas need to be positioned as educational domains in their own right, and performance should be associated with appropriate consequences for learners.

Increase capacity among clinical teachers for assessment of Māori health | The lack of capacity among clinical teachers to facilitate learning and undertake assessment in Hauora Māori limits the extent to which progress can be made in this area. Staff development is therefore critical for advancing knowledge and practice in assessment of Māori health.

Demonstrate institutional commitment to Hauora Māori and related areas | Many of the recommended actions from this research requires commitment at all levels of educational institutions in order for them to be fully realised. For example, leadership is needed to ensure that assessment of Māori health is valued appropriately, and that clinical teachers are prepared to facilitate learning and undertake assessment in this area.