Ko Tainui te waka Ko Ngāti Raukawa ki Wharepūhunga te iwi Whetu Cormick
National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation
I have just returned from Toronto, after attending the World This desire to improve education levels does not always come Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education (WIPCE). It was at with helpful support mechanisms or appropriate funding many levels an awe-inspiring experience to be present amongst to pursue solutions. Indigenous leaders must often bear the some three thousand delegates from burden of this work unsupported all over the world. The ‘First Nations’ One thing that made me feel and underfunded. Delegates came from countries that One thing that made me feel had once been colonised and all were proud to be Māori was to proud to be Māori was to hear other aware of the powerful effect historic excitedly talking about hear other nations excitedly nations events have had on generations of implementing the Te Kotahitanga their people. Commonalities included talking about implementing programme, developed here in loss of native language and customary Aotearoa by our own Russell Bishop, practices. They included various forms the Te Kotahitanga Professor of Māori Education at of assimilation, alienation, racism and Waikato University. Te Kotahitanga programme . . . discrimination. Most now found that was first implemented in our their people sat in the lower classes of the societies they came secondary schools and was designed to support teachers to from. They suffered poorer health and lower achievement levels improve Māori students’ learning and achievement. It enables in education. They were engaged in lower status jobs and overrepresented in the country’s crime and poverty statistics. None of this greatly surprised me because the stories of indigenous groups from across the globe exactly mirrored the situation for Māori at home. It is important to acknowledge why this is the case if we are ever to address institutionalised racism and discrimination which continue to fuel inequities. That is why I firmly believe that here in Aotearoa we need to teach the history of colonisation, from a Māori perspective, to all our rangatahi (young people). By making the history of colonisation compulsory in our schools and teaching all of our young people the ways in which colonisation practices have oppressed and disenfranchised our Māori people, we can start to develop a shared understanding about the roots of racism and what led to Māori feeling alienated and disengaged. • Unique program with regular testing and rewards The common motivation that had drawn the delegates together • Fun, Disciplined environment which keeps Gymnasts engaged: was to debate and share ideas, initiatives and stories through learning vital sports and life skills which they might discover a better way forward for all indigenous GYM club take care of everything including: program, peoples. All agree that the vehicle for progress is education. registrations, gymnastics fees, specialist training for school competitions, health and safety, management, and coaches. It was heartening to listen to such high quality, thoughtful Add a quality gymnastics program for your students without and intelligent presentations from so many presenters on a wide impacting your staff’s time or school budgets. variety of indigenous related topics that at their core reflected a Contact GYM club today to find out more about our: lunchtime/ theme of ‘resilience’. Taking on the challenge of achieving equity after school, whole school PE, and staff training programmes. for indigenous peoples requires steadfast focus, determination and commitment. In so many cases the speakers highlighted the References Available lack of support they have for this struggle. Expectations that their www.GYMclub.co.nz Ph 0800 273 368 own people place on them as leaders are at times intolerable. On the other hand further pressure is coming from politicians and educational leaders of the dominant cultures to improve educational statistics for indigenous groups because they know that they will be reliant on them for their future workforce.
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teachers to create a culturally responsive context for learning. Through a culturally appropriate and authentic context, Māori students felt a sense of belonging and became more willing to engage in their learning. The results came with higher numbers of Māori students achieving NCEA level 2 in the schools implementing the programme. One of the reasons for the resounding success of Te Kotahitanga was that it facilitated a pathway for school leaders to focus on changing the culture of their schools so that structures and organisational factors aligned with this new way of working. The success of Te Kotahitanga was a motivating factor in Te Akatea and NZPF embarking on a journey together to find a solution for Māori rangatahi underachievement in our primary schools. We knew that if we could lift the engagement and success rates of our Māori ragatahi at the lower level, they would be more likely to remain at school and succeed at higher levels. The outcome was the Māori Achievement Collaboratives (MACs). The ultimate goal of the MACs is to establish a critical mass of effective principals and leadership practices which challenge strategies that have resulted in inequitable educational outcomes for Māori. Some three years on we are seeing unprecedented numbers of school leaders providing culturally responsive environments within their schools and Māori rangatahi are making transformational gains in their academic achievement. The PLD targets leaders of schools who are taken on a journey of cultural discovery. First, they examine their own culture and secondly they are led to accept and understand an alternative Māori world view, all within a
supportive, collaborative group of willing participants. I acknowledge the outstanding work of our Te Pītau Mātauranga (national coordinator) Hoana Pearson who resigned as principal of her own Newton School in Auckland to commit herself to this kaupapa. In three years the programme has grown from 47 participants in 6 regions to 156 participants in 8 regions and the total number of Māori students impacted by the programme has risen from 6,111 to 12,873 (31 per cent). The focus is cultural change in schools and so successful has this been in engaging Māori students that this year an evaluation of the participating schools has shown a rise in national standards scores. In MACs schools between 2013 and 2015 there was an 11 per cent growth in the number of students achieving at and above the national standards in writing. In Reading and Maths MACs schools were achieving 3 per cent ahead of the rest of the country. These results are unintended consequences of the MAC programme. Currently I am in negotiation with the Minister and Ministry to secure funding for a further three years to keep this outstanding programme going. We know that principals are lining up to participate. My hope is to return to the WIPCE conference next year to celebrate the MAC success on the world stage. We are fortunate that Minister Kaye recognises the importance and success of this programme and I expect positive results from our funding talks.
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