A sense of moral purpose on the TKI site for educational leaders talks to “a commitment to improved learning and social outcomes is not just about supporting and guiding students, it also involves a commitment to the professional growth and support of other school leaders and teachers.” In addition, Barber and Fullan (2005) state that the “central moral purpose consists of constantly improving student achievement and ensuring that achievement gaps, wherever they exist, are narrowed.” Going back in time, Paulo Freire was a champion of what’s known today as critical pedagogy: the belief that teaching should challenge learners to examine power structures and patterns of inequality within the status quo. It was Freire (1970) who emphasised how important it is to remember, what it is to be human and saw education as a way to transform oppressive structures. His perspective arose from the values of love, care, and solidarity. In the year of COVID-19, we have had challenges to the education system that are “unprecedented” and that could be used as an excuse to go into survival mode. However, I feel proud of some of the ground that has been made by our Kura this year, in a dialectal way, with co-construction, ākonga voice and Kaiako with a moral purpose that has not only ridden the times, that has actually come to the fore of all we are trying to do. Trying to challenge the status quo, shift power, break institutions and Dr Ann Milne would advocate for, colouring in our white spaces. Attempting to decolonise the curriculum and working together to enable our Māori ākonga to achieve success as Māori. I would like to use two whakataukī to tell the story of our ongoing journey into challenging what success is seen as and measured by. These two whakataukī represent the work that the WSL team has been doing to make a difference for our ākonga. In addition, I will talk to the work of Stevie Davis-Tana with our Māori and Pasifika Rōpū and the on-going work with our graduate profile and how we will use this to show success for our ākonga.
Kāore te kūmara e kōrero mō tōna reka
The kūmara does not speak of its sweetness. However, I can talk about the Kūmara and how sweet it is and will do so by sharing the achievements and leadership shown by our team.
Piki kau ake te whakāro pai, hauhake tōnu iho
When a good thought springs up, it is harvested, a good idea should be used immediately. When I think of this whakataukī, I think of the power of collaboration and working together, with moral purpose to break new ground in attempting to change rhetoric into praxis. To do this we need an ongoing cycle of reflection and action. I have been lucky enough to work with our WSL (Kahui Ako Within School Leads) team this year in attempting to do this. Working in a very difficult year that has been disjointed. Where being responsive, flexible and agile has been imperative. While still needing that drive and moral purpose to make things better for our ākonga.
Meet the team:
From left to right we have Aidan Daley, Ngahuia Lott, Nikki Dowling and Raegan O’Malley. All of this team have other focuses and responsibilities within our school, but have come together and collaborated for the sake of our ākonga.
This team have been doing such awesome Mahi this year to ensure success for our ākonga. They have been charged with the leadership for our Kaiako around ensuring that Culturally Sustaining Practices underpin our curriculum and pedagogy in practice. No small ask, and are we there yet? Well no, there is a history attached to the way we “work” that need breaking down, questioning our practices, challenging our assumptions and shifting our practice that needs to occur in an on-going way. Are we on the right track? Yes!! There is passion and moral purpose to shift things and there has been gains this year in developing support systems to ensure we are working towards this.
We started off at the start of the year, where the focus in our hub curriculum is on whanaungatanga with a session for Kaiako on Te Reo o te Rēhia with Matewai as an outside tutor coming in.
The WSL team started off their sessions this year finding out the prior knowledge of our Kaiako on Tikanga, Te Reo Māori, Matauranga Māori and Ako. It is an expectation that these aspects are a part of your planning for modules and spins at our Kura, but our hunch told us that this may be an area where there are different capabilities and understanding from our Kaiako around this that we needed to explore strategies on how to support building this.
Within the Kura, there is a continuum of where our Kaiako sit around understanding of these concepts in theory and practice and we did not want to make assumptions about this. Here is the presentation on how this was explored and some shots of the PL in action.
When we started to look at citizenship which would be our big concept for the following term, Amelia from the learning design team kicked off the PLD with a provocation around a game show and created a game that might challenge how people interact in terms of citizenship when money is involved. The WSL team then went about supporting the Learning design team with resources on citizenship from a Te Ao Maōri lens. They called this resource Te kete ō ranga wairua, see more details below.
The WSL team then did a huge amount of Mahi helping to create a Kete for each area learning area and also for our Kaiawhina learning support team. The intention was to give some actual examples and resources to support the implementation of CSP across the Kura, no matter what lens you bring.
See links below here:
The inquiry into their practice continued with another session led by the WSLs, where Kaiako looked at specific data and anecdotal evidence to help challenge any assumptions about learners and to support their actions going forward with CSP in practice. In addition they reflected on how they have gone at implementing strategies over the year, particularly with the interruptions caused by COVID-19. All of this was stop start over the lockdowns we had in Tamaki Makaurau when learning was offsite. However, even with these interruptions the team continued their focus on CSP and building capability for our Kaiako to colour in white spaces. The last session we had led by the team, came back to seeing some examples of activities that teachers have used in practice in their classes and sharing these. Planning an activity incorporating, Tikanga, Te Reo Māori, Matauranga Māori and Ako.
Finally, staff planned forward and have been given the challenge to go into 2021 planning with a different lens on their plans. The WSL team will not tell you how sweet the Kūmara is, but I can, they have done an awesome job this year in difficult circumstance and I looked forward to seeing where the journey takes us next year. As a team we will work together with Whaea Leoni Williams to work on the strategic direction, in line with our school Charter. With a plan to create a rubric that uses CSP and other aspects to self assess ourselves against and to continue to move forward as a collective and a Kura.
Shifting power relations in our Kura is two fold, while we have our Kaiako inquiring into their own practices and working to colour in white spaces, we also have the amazing Stevie Davis Tana working with our Māori and Pasifika Rōpū. We could not ask for more having this inspiring Mana Wahine working with our ākonga and feel grateful to have connected with her. Please take the time to see her inspiring, amazing and thought provoking work below.
Here are a few photos of our Rōpū and Stevie in action.
Again in a year of interruptions we continued to work with our Rōpū and Stevie to co-construct what they wanted for them and their belonging in our Kura. Our whānau evenings were impacted on due to lockdowns, however, we were able to celebrate Matariki at our Kura and this was all led by the Rōpū. The planning, activities, cooking and sharing all led by our ākonga.
As a picture paints a thousand words, here is the final outcome of all their Mahi!!! They did such an awesome job!
Photos care of Javena Lakatani!
Another major goal we had for the Rōpū was to get them to come up with questions we should be asking them about belonging and learning at our kura. Stevie and I worked to co-construct and come down to the kind of things that we should be asking them about their learning and belonging and then asking them these. This is part of our school charter and strategic goals to gather this voice and use this to inform our practice going forward.
In groups the Rōpū came up with the following questions:
Does this school system work for you?
What are the positives and negatives of the above?
What teacher/s do you feel most comfortable with and why?
What teacher are you most uncomfortable with and why?
Who is your favourite teacher and why?
Who is a teacher who is really good at teaching and why?
What are some safe places/activities at school that you feel safe/belonging in?
Why do you feel safe in them?
Do you feel supported by teachers at the school? Why? Why not? If not what could we do better?
How could both modules and spins benefit your career pathway in the future?
What type of learning creates a positive impact on you through the school day?
Do you feel that your surroundings at school makes you feel like you’re in a safe environment?
Why?
Who are some individuals that help create a sense of belonging for you at school? Why may this be? (Peers, teachers, adults)
Are you as a student provided with both engaging and encouraging learning?
What can teachers do to make students feel comfortable and school?
What can teachers do to make your learning interesting/fun?
Do you feel that your culture is supported in the school?
Do you feel safe and comfortable in your community?
How can the style of learning here benefit us in the future?
Am I noticed for the good I do, or just the things I do that are wrong?
What puts students off task when they are in class?
What can make learning fun and engaging?
What makes hub fun for you?
Ākonga then negotiated to come up with a final set of questions and chose these:
Who is your favourite teacher and why?
What are some safe places/activities at school that you feel safe/belonging in? Why do you feel safe in them?
Who are some individuals that help create a sense of belonging for you at school? Why may this be? (Peers, teachers, adults)
What can teachers do to make your learning interesting/fun?
Does this school system work for you? What are the positives and negatives of the system?
How do you think this style of learning can help you in the future?
Do you feel that your culture is supported in the school?
What puts students off task when they are in class?
What makes hub fun for you?
Can you name two or more teachers who you feel care about you and support you?
Here is an example from one of our Year 9s Tia Solomua.
Here is a Year 12 Leah Brown talking.
Finally, an action as a Kura that we are trying to shift on is one that puts the Kura values at the fore, so that we are truly putting personal excellence as well as academic excellence into focus for our ākonga, Kaiako and whānau.
Maurie our Tumuaki over the last year has been leading a refocus on the graduate profile of our ākonga. We had a working group revisiting this. We drew on whānau voice that we have gathered in the past as well as our values. We had assessed our values in the past in projects, but wanted to revisit how this looks across all aspects of the curriculum, including projects, Modules and spins, hubs and life for our ākonga beyond the four walls. We worked with the staff to refine rubrics for our values that will be used for self assessment and goals setting for our ākonga moving forward into 2021 and 2022.
Here are the rubrics.
Ākonga are going to be evidencing against this over time, so that when they leave our Kura, they leave with an excellence kete of the school values alongside their academic achievement. We are using HERO from Linc ed as the SMS that will allow this collation of evidence over time. This is a screenshot of HERO.
Here are a few screen shots of how goal setting around these rubrics will. look…
We are on a journey around this and this will be rolled out slowly over the next year. In doing so we want to help create a sustainable change that will truly allow our ākonga and their whānau to see success in different ways to just their pathway journey including NCEA. For values and the vision to be at the fore and Moral Purpose to shift things and make a difference for our ākonga. In doing so to ensure we enable Māori to achieve success as Māori. Our next step is to start the year as a whole staff with a Noho Marae, where whakawhānaungatanga is the main outcome. Where more experience with Tikanga in context will allow our leaders and kaiako to continue our growth and the Kura to continue to try shifting the status quo. I hope that sharing our journey will help others to question what more they can do too.
Barber, M., & Fullan, M. (2005). TriLevel Development: It’s the system.
Retrieved May 11, 2007 from http://ww.michaelfullan.ca/Articles_05/TriLevel%20Dev’t.htm
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press.
sallyhart72 