Katera gets merit for resilience

Katera gets merit for resilience

Katera Rikihana-Tukerangi is now a qualified teacher, but earning the qualification has not been easy.

Working full-time at Ōtaki College, raising five tamariki, supporting her whānau and balancing study commitments both online and away from home, the path to becoming a qualified teacher demanded resilience, sacrifice and determination.

Now, Katera (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga) has achieved something that’s a first for Ōtaki College – completing her teaching degree while continuing to work at the school.

Katera graduated in April with a postgraduate diploma in teaching with merit through the Ako Mātātupu secondary teaching programme, a two-year course designed to help grow Māori and Pacific educators in schools. Her achievement is especially significant because she remained in the classroom while studying, balancing online learning, off-site noho (courses) and practical teaching responsibilities at the same time.

“It was definitely a juggle,” Katera says. “I was working here full-time, studying online, travelling away for courses and still managing whānau life. It was full-on, but I just kept going.”

Her teaching journey began unexpectedly in 2023 when Ōtaki College principal Andy Fraser approached her to help support the Māori department for 10 hours a week.

Katera had already built a strong career in the social services sector, working with organisations such as Raukawa Whānau Ora, Te Puna Oranga o Ōtaki, Stand Children’s Services, and Te Rūnanga o Raukawa. Teaching had not been part of her long-term plans.

“I came in just to help out,” she says.

Soon after, the school’s reo Māori kaiako (teacher) resigned. Katera stepped in under a Limited Authority to Teach (LAT), suddenly finding herself teaching te reo Māori to students from Year 7 through to senior levels.

“I honestly thought, what am I doing?” she says. “But I already knew a lot of our rangatahi through community work, so that made a huge difference.”

Recognising her natural ability in the classroom, Andy and head of Te Tari Māori Keremihana Heke encouraged her to formalise her teaching path. That led her to enrol in Ako Mātātupu – a programme combining online study, off-site residential learning and school-based teaching.

Unlike many tertiary students, Katera did not step away from work to study. Instead, she remained embedded in the school environment, teaching every day while completing assignments, attending virtual learning and travelling for noho-based courses.

It made her, she says, both a learner and a teacher at the same time.

“I was learning how to teach while actually teaching.”

The demands of study became even heavier when personal tragedy struck. At the beginning of her course, Katera’s mother, Rangiwehea Rikihana, became critically ill. While attending her first noho in Auckland, she learned her mother had only weeks left to live.

“I was devastated,” she says.

After returning home to be with whānau and later farewelling her mother, Katera faced a difficult decision about whether to continue.

“I thought about stopping, but Mum really wanted me to do this.”

So she carried on. It was a tough time in her life. But in April, all of it paid off.

Katera graduated with merit, an achievement she says reflected not only hard work, but strong support from whānau, colleagues and the school.

“I didn’t realise I had graduated with merit until afterwards,” she says. “I probably would have got an ‘excellent’ if I got all my assignments in on time, but I had a lot of personal stuff going on at the time.

“It was still special to get a merit though.”

Her qualification also represents something larger for Ōtaki College.

As the first staff member to have completed a teaching degree while remaining employed and teaching throughout the process, Katera’s journey highlights a new pathway for aspiring educators already working in schools.

Now a fully qualified kaiako, she teaches te reo Māori, emerging te reo Māori and Te Ao Haka, while continuing to inspire rangatahi through language, culture and identity.

She has also re-established Te Kapa Haka o te Kāreti Ōtaki, bringing kapa haka back to the school after more than two decades.

For Katera, earning her degree was never just about a qualification.

It was about proving that with determination, support and belief, it is possible to study, teach and grow – all at once.

“It’s probably the best thing I’ve done,” she says. “Now I know I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.”