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The thick grey skies blanketing Bastion Point wept a soft shower as the six coaches carrying this year’s conference delegates ascended the distinguished hill. On reaching the summit, principals spilled from the packed buses to be welcomed onto the history-rich Ōrākei marae. The marae takes in spectacular views of the Waitematā Harbour, in the middle of which Rangitoto Island stretches in quiescent pose, concealing all signs of its ferocious volcanic history. Principals travelled from across the country to stand on the lands of Ngāti Whātua, to feel the anguish and hear the stories of
Entering the marae
Sealed with a hongi
colonial exploitation, contempt of iwi and of land confiscation. Bastion Point overlooks the bustling city of Auckland, established in October 1840, as the country’s capital city. It was the Ngāti Whātua Chief, Ᾱpihai Te Kawau, who gifted 3,000 acres of his peoples’ land to develop the city. In return, he believed that the iwi’s remaining lands would be protected. Within a few short years of this generous bequest, only one small pocket of land was still in iwi hands. The rest had been confiscated. These stories drew tears from some – as if in deference to the soft shower that sprinkled the land on their arrival.
Telling the stories of Ngāti Whātua
The Ngāti Whātua orators explained that some of the Bastion Point land was acquired for defence purposes. It was understood that it would be returned when no longer required. Instead, the Crown resolved to sell it as expensive real estate, having evicted the iwi residents and relocated them to nearby state houses. That was the turning point for Ngāti Whātua, who undertook an extraordinary 506-day occupation of Bastion Point from 1977-78. It was one of the most famed protest actions in New Zealand’s history and led to the iwi’s Waitangi Tribunal claim, which was settled ten years later. This action paved the way for
Ngāti Whātua welcome the manuhiri (delegates)
many more iwi to air their grievances and settle their claims. Attending the conference powhiri were NZPF guests, The Secretary for Education, Iona Holsted, President of the International Confederation of Principals (ICP), Alta van Heerden from South Africa and several leaders from the Australian contingent. Nobody left Ōrākei marae unaffected or uneducated about these remarkable historical events. The Ngāti Whātua stories reverberated throughout the conference. Following the powhiri, delegates were addressed by musician, activist, documentary and film maker and longtime advocate of revitalising te reo and Tikanga Māori, Moana Maniapoto. Maniapoto, leader of the band, Moana and the Tribe had a novel approach to explaining the coming of the Pākehā to Aotearoa. Imagine, she said, you have a lovely place to live in and these visitors turn up. You welcome them, then more and more arrive until there’s more of them than you! Next thing, you find you have been driven to the basement and the visitors have taken over the house and the land. You’re now left to wallow in the grot – in the back shed of your own house! It was an apt analogy which resonated with the audience. It set the scene to illustrate why Māori are at the bottom of the pile in housing, health, education, welfare and crime statistics, ‘whilst the squattocracy are given benefits that are denied the colonised.’ Moving quickly to the present she described her tenyear old daughter as a refugee. ‘We make a 75-kilometre Moana Maniapoto entertained and trip for her to go to a school where she can speak provoked the delegates in equal her own language,’ said Maniapoto. Although there measure
ssance – Not Reformation are two perfectly good schools close by, neither of them can accommodate Māori speaking children, she said. Unafraid to provoke her audience, she suggested that all principals needed a warrant of fitness in te reo! For herself, growing up as a musician, she said she wanted to be Black. ‘Māori were invisible,’ she said. ‘I connected with AfroAmericans and ecumenical singing groups!’ she also connected to activists like Syd Jackson and Deidre Nehua. Her growing awareness that past injustices should be righted and Māori’s place restored have driven much of her music and activism in recent times. ICP President, Alta van Heerden from South Africa, NZPF The Ngāti Whātua stories of land confiscation prompted President, Whetu Cormick and Secretary for Education, one of her own. Of Ngati Raukawa descent, she said while her Iona Holstead were special guests at the conference powhiri people were at church it was invaded by colonists and the 300 worshippers were shot at. The church was set on fire and the congratulated the people of Ngati Whatua Ōrakei for showing Raukawa people found themselves at war. ‘They were shooting such outstanding leadership and ‘navigating a pathway for others against an army with the latest sophisticated weapons, yet they to follow’. ‘Colonisation made Māori second-class citizens – to be held them for four days. In the end, only seven survived.’ ‘Their exploited; their culture and language were disrespected and only sin was that they refused to sell their land,’ she said. Her family came from a proud line of Chiefs going back 700 expectations of their capabilities and potential were underyears. That mana has been diminished now, she said sadly, with valued,’ he said. Cormick told the story of his own Māori mother who grew up the grandson of one of those Chief ’s currently in prison. ‘That’s how much fortunes have changed for Māori,’ she said, ‘and it’s at a time during which assimilation had become the dominant not getting better.’ She referred to the lack of Māori in powerful practice and all things Māori were suppressed. Fortunately for positions saying, ‘We don’t just need a seat at the table, we need her, te reo and Tikanga Māori continued to be practised in the home and the family maintained strong connections to iwi, hapu to tip that table and change the menu too.’ She explained that while Pākehā hold all the power, Māori are and their marae. ‘That ability to treasure and advance our cultural knowledge ‘kept in their place’. She called this, institutional racism saying, and our taonga, to live our ‘The way to change was to tikanga and value everything transform society.’ Part of that is spiritually, intellectually that was telling our stories, and environmentally precious she said, including colonial to us as Māori, enabled my histor y. She questioned family to operate in two worlds who designs the PLD for – not assimilate one into the teachers and who decides other, but to walk two separate the measures of learning parallel pathways,’ he said. success. She suggested the ‘Those Tamariki Māori who Ministry might let Māori feel strong in their Māori set the agenda so tamariki ancestry and are confident can then grow as Māori. ‘In amongst te reo speakers the Arctic, they are using and tikanga, are succeeding. the Kohanga Reo model to They are proud to identify as recover the Sami language,’ NZPF President Whetu Cormick gives his views on how to change Māori. Tamariki in our full she said. ‘Here in New school culture to allow Tamariki Māori to succeed immersion Kura are having Zealand, we need to make very high success rates. It is the other 96 per cent in mainstream every day a Waitangi Day, then we can fly together!’ schools that are struggling. We know that until we grow the NZPF President, Whetu Cormick number of tamariki who are fluent at least to level one te reo, NZPF President, Whetu Cormick, also drew on the Ngāti the success rate for Tamariki Māori will not change,’ he said. Whātua stories as a springboard for his opening speech to Cormick stressed the importance of returning power the conference. He emphasised the way in which colonisers and agency to Māori and re-visioning schools as bicultural were ‘dismissive of Māori language, values and culture’, and environments where a Māori world view is both valued and
MC Glenn Capelli kept the sessions moving seamlessly throughout the conference
Minister of Education Hon Chris Hipkins was generous in taking time to answer questions from the delegates
validated. Only then, he said, will our Tamariki Māori experience success as they are capable. He had high praise for the Te Hurihanganui initiative, recently launched by Associate Minister for Education, Kelvin Davis. Te Hurihanganui supports educational achievement for Māori learners by addressing cultural bias and racism in the education system. It is a blueprint for transformative system shift. ‘It will help us understand how teaching and learning are culturally situated activities; that parents and whānau are partners in their children’s education; and how important it is to include resources that reflect Te Ao Māori perspectives,’ said Cormick. He then moved his focus to leadership of schools in Aotearoa New Zealand, saying that without strong and sustainable school leadership we cannot achieve the aspirations we have set for Tamariki Māori. He called on the Minister of Education to address the issues affecting school leadership including high stress levels, excessive workloads, underfunding and insufficient specialist, advisory and learning support for highly challenged students. The status of the profession has slumped, he said, and until we address these critical issues, we cannot expect our deputy and assistant principals to step up into principalship. This was Cormick’s last conference as President of the Federation and he was generous in his accolades for the membership who had supported him and invited him to address their events in the regions throughout his tenure; the NZPF executive members who had advised and guided him in his
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NZPF Kaumatua opens the conference with a Karakia
Dr Karen Edge gave an insightful address about the affects of generational characteristics on implementing change
work; the Ministers who had listened and responded positively to suggestions for change and improvement; the Ministry staff who had welcomed his advocacy for school leadership; and his family who had never faltered in their support throughout. He also acknowledged his international colleagues and the opportunities he has had to participate in several international forums. All of these relationships are of huge importance, he said, and will continue into the next phase of his career. Minister of Education, Hon Chris Hipkins The Minister opened his address acknowledging the conference theme of renaissance as renewal and rejuvenation; of new beginnings and dawning of new ideas. In describing his Government’s approach, he said ‘Conversations are intertwined in all we do.’ He explained the importance of keeping up with societal changes and above all, ‘mutual trust is the secret,’ he said. Developing strong relationships between the Government, the sector and schools would be key because ‘No one can achieve for our country on their own.’ Refreshingly, he called for a partnership with the teaching profession which extended deeper than renewing the collective agreement every three years. ‘We are not about tweaking the edges but taking the long-term view. We’ve listened and committed to co-design a better system in collaboration with you,’ he said, ‘and that will take time.’ Internationally, he noted, the OECD talks us up. ‘We are our own worst critics’, he said, ‘and that can affect our morale.’ He told his audience that when his Government was elected in 2017 they decided to put wellbeing at the heart of everything. ‘Budgets are more than numbers,’ he said. He explained that many parents reported meeting the cost of school donations was a barrier, so his Government would forego donations. They also removed fees for NCEA exams, ‘ . . . to relieve that financial pressure on parents, and put the ‘free’ back in ‘free education’.’ In response to President Whetu Cormick’s comments he said the Government recognises that success is associated with emotional, social and cultural wellbeing hence the Government’s support of $44 million for Te Hurihanganui. He also acknowledged the growth in learning support needs and to assist, his Government has injected 600 Learning Support Coordinators for schools. Beyond these two initiatives he noted
that the Government’s 2019 Budget also included new money for mental health, and additional funds for reducing poverty and domestic violence. The Budget also recognised that school property required an immediate injection to address the ageing school stock as well as population growth. ‘We allocated the biggest ever property funding increase of $1.2 billion in a single Budget,’ said Minister Hipkins. ‘This allows us to take a strategic approach to manage growth out to 2030 and give certainty to schools,’ he said. The workforce strategy and the Auckland regional growth plan were also big Budget items because ‘We want to overcome the boom and bust cycle and grow our own teachers and that takes time,’ said the Minister. Meanwhile staffing help was provided through recruiting teachers from abroad, increasing the number of Teach NZ scholarships and funding 800 beginning teachers. The Minister addressed questions from delegates, except those concerning the collective bargaining issues. Answers included: 1. There are now changes to simplify the way you apply for PLD 2. Compliance is being reduced 3. Appraisal will no longer be about audits and compliance 4. We have listened to your comments on the Tomorrow’s Schools Review and changes will reflect your comments 5. Better pay and conditions for Teacher Aides 6. Government has money for [special needs] specialists but not the personnel so working with Minister of Health, David Clark, to develop a joint approach 7. Minister explained that the rules for schools accepting $150 per student in lieu of donations are not yet settled and he will consider EOTC. He assured principals that school camps
The delegates are further entertained by the excellently led action songs of the local KapaHaka group
would be exempted 8. Pleased to see agreement on leadership strategy with Leadership College coming and leadership advisors will continue to be funded 9. More money to be applied to school practicum support for those undertaking ITE. Need better selection process for ITE and guaranteed placement for the first two years after graduation
Dr Karen Edge A reader in educational leadership at UCL Institute of Education and Pro-Vice Provost (International) at University College, continued on page 21
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London, UK, Dr Karen Edge shared her research on Baby Boomer, Generation X and Generation Y school leaders from London, New York City and Toronto. Her personable approach warmed the audience as she quickly drew them in with her delightfully humorous stories, cleverly linked to important aspects of leadership theory. Edge focussed her address on her latest research. She distinguished the three different age-groupings of leaders explaining that leaders from the same generation do have some characteristics in common. These characteristics influence the way in which they approach teaching and leadership. She described the chronological order of the generations as Boomers (born 1945–1965), Generation X (1965–1980) and Generation Y (1980–2000). Her research team located these three generations in the wider context of the influence that generational behaviour and attitudes have on school-level improvements in teaching and learning. Generation Y she described as optimistic, confident, social, street-smart and motivated by a sense of civic duty. Their peers are part of a diverse cohort and they expect to be teaching with a similarly diverse workforce. They are self-directed, tech savvy, well-networked and committed to their school. They are ambitious, they seek out PLD opportunities and are on the lookout to take on further responsibilities. They can be intimidated by colleagues and like structure, personalised learning and mentoring. Large-group collaboration is their preference under strong supportive leaders. Generation X, she said, are comfortable with people from different backgrounds and are global-minded. They are selfreliant and have an informal approach to relationships. Task oriented, time and place is not important to them although they value work-life balance. They are adaptable, creative and unintimidated by authority. Weaknesses can include being low on people skills and harbouring cynicism. Boomers are optimistic, personable and relationship oriented. They are team players and want to please colleagues. They can be workaholics getting involved in any cross-school initiatives. Weaknesses include avoiding conflict and being sensitive to feedback. They can also be reluctant to challenge peers. They are strong on process and weary of accountability structures that are driven by outcomes. They are also prone to think their way is the only way. These three approaches are clearly very different. Dr Edge wasted no time in demonstrating how the generational differences can work against principals leading change in their schools. If ‘my way is the highway (Boomers)’, teachers favouring collaborative decision making (Generation X) will quickly disengage. It could be a short distance between a well- managed, high performing school, and ‘Fawlty Towers’, simply by applying the expectations of one generation to another. She gave examples of how unintended resistance and conflict can occur, because the leader has failed to take account of the differences in approach and attitude. She pointed put that once you understand the differences, it is possible to use the strengths of each to build an even stronger school culture. She referred to the notion of ‘generational awareness’ to describe how leaders can acquire another strategy for understanding how teachers and leaders approach their work, how they see collaboration and what work-life balance means to each of them. She suggested that all principals might think about the following three questions:
The girls’ vocals impressed with their sophistication and style
Are there generational patterns at play within your school? ■■ Do you make the most of generational patterns to bring about school-level change and improvement? ■■ Do you need (or have) a different skill and strategy set to recruit, retain, motivate and support colleagues from each generation? ■■
Exploring these questions, she said, will assist principals to adapt better when dealing with staff of different generational types. She concluded with an invitation to principals to contact her at: k.edge@ucl.ac.uk for more information on this issue or with observations from their own experiences. Professor Yong Zhao Professor Yong Zhao opened h is a d d re ss s ay i ng t hat ‘Over the past few decades, e du c at i on has b e e n l e d astray.’ Bureaucracy, he said has greatly increased while teaching has been mechanised and trivialised. Determined to pour all the bad news out at once, he then attacked education policies imposed by governments saying, we have too many policies and they are destroying education because they destroy the humanity of it. If this wasn’t enough for Keynote Speaker Professor the opening minutes he then Yong Zhao begins his provoked his audience saying compelling address to show the delegates the importance that globally, education has in of celebrating diversity and many ways been a failure. individualism He asked the audience to consider what we have been counting as a measure of success and followed that question with ‘Are we getting along better as human beings? Has it [the teaching and the learning and the testing] taught us to be more human?’ I don’t think we are doing very well, he said. We’ve worked so hard and invested so much to lift our PISA scores and our international rankings in literacy and numeracy, but we are not getting better as a human race. He then made a surprising statement saying, ‘Donald Trump is a necessary evil because he reminds us how bad we can get!’ He added BREXIT into the mix explaining that these two have split
our societies but, ‘We put them there – our education systems put them there!’ The problem with the standardised systems, he said, is that we have a ‘standard’ that every child should look like. Children are different, he said, and that’s the challenge. We want the same product out of the school but the input (the children) are all different. We want all children to learn the same thing at the same time. Unfortunately, he said, this standardised regime continues in many countries of the world, when what is really required are competencies like critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity or entrepreneurship. We have pretended to be scientific in creating statistical predictions and we end up with ‘facts’ like ‘If you have a red car you are more likely to be pulled over by a traffic policeman.’ ‘What
Children also have different motivators and interests which might include power, knowledge or physical movement. As a society we place value on certain practices and attributes too and this can help or hinder the developing child. Some cultures, he said, do not admire curious people because they want to know too much. Having a sense of vengeance may be great to have on a sports field but not so useful for a truck driver. Classes of people have different sets of values too. Schools value reading writing and maths, being extroverted and conscientious. These are also the values of the middle classes who also value those who will follow orders and arrive at work on time. Our school curricula tend to be dominated therefore by one class of our society. In this way we promote those who fit the school values. He used an analogy to describe this state saying that
The NZPF executive committee gathers behind Vice President, Perry Rush, who acknowledges President Whetu Cormick’s last conference and three years’ service to the Federation
The conference stands to honour president Whetu Cormick with a waiata
we forget is that no child is a statistical probability.’ The mistake, Zhao said, is that we think we can predict the future from the past and that is incorrect. He applied the analogy of a bird saying, ‘You can throw a dead bird and predict its trajectory accurately. Then try that experiment with a live bird! We have kids who are live birds and cannot be forced into a trajectory,’ he said. Not every child wants to play the game and some play the game but don’t believe in it or think it is worth playing. When children don’t meet our expectations or don’t move fast enough, we invent ‘achievement gaps’, said Zhao, but we have failed to turn all kids into homogenous machines. For the industrial age, homogeneity was useful because the workforce was all about the same factory jobs and assembly lines. We needed workers with the same set of skills. What is required now, is that our children be more human than mechanical, he said. Importantly we must focus on humanity and human nature, he said, and welcome the differences, not treat them as deficits according to some arbitrary standard. We are genetically and cognitively different and have multiple intelligences. We also come from different environments. Take music for example, he said. You need the natural talent and the environment and musical experience to develop your talent. If you are born into a musical family, you will be ensconced in music and get the necessary experience and opportunities. If you have no access to music, you won’t have that opportunity to develop your talent. Valuing children’s talents is critical to their success, he said. Schools are discriminating against those who are not talented in reading writing and maths because these are the subjects that schools value, not the knowledge areas that all children might value.
schools take the divided garden approach, where everything is neatly sectioned into clearly defined parameters of containment. What we need to do is to think of school as a natural reserve, he said, where everyone is vulnerable, where all talents are valued, where everyone is useful in their own right and everyone contributes to a sustainable ecosystem. To demonstrate how a singular talent can be undervalued he used the story of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. In the republic of reindeer, he said, the standard is that all noses are black. Rudolph would be sent to remediation to fix his deficit because he is out of line with the standard nose. But Santa Claus used him to guide his sled making redness valuable. In preparing our children for the future, schools must consider the changes in life- style and importance of uniqueness. ‘We have shifted from the factory age to the age of abundance,’ he said. Technology now produces so many more things and so we find ourselves with leisure and disposable income. We don’t have to spend all our income on survivables. We have choice and are susceptible to aesthetics. For example, we have dozens of different choices of hair shampoo, he said. ‘I could not buy shampoo in the USA because I did not know what of the 70 different sorts of hair I had,’ he quipped. To be great, he said, you need talent, time and teaching. We cannot be great at everything and that is where collaboration comes in. You outsource your weakness to someone else for whom it is a strength. We complement each other with our skills and knowledge and are interdependent. Your value is realised through others shining. Machines, on the other hand, he said, cannot identify problems to solve, they just solve them. And how do you know if a problem is worth solving? You ask is it ethical, moral and will solving it create value for other people?
The future is about personalised education for all children. Children will be co-owners of their environment, of their banks and of their grocery stores. They will not be passive recipients of learning, but active participants in what to learn. New Zealand, he said, is well placed because it has moved away from the Global Education Reform Movement, but we are not ‘out of the garden and into the nature reserve just yet,’ he said. In concluding, he encouraged all principals in the room to nevertheless keep moving in that direction. Dr Keri Milne-Ihimaera Like her predecessors Moana Maniapoto and Whetu Cormick, Dr Milne-Ihimaera drew on the Bastion Point experience to launch her conference address. She referred to the power of the collective to overcome racism and bias and to empower the next generation of Tamariki Māori. Like Yong Zhao, she challenged the audience to consider what it means to succeed, in this case, as Māori. The main thrust of her address however was based on her own Doctoral thesis which explored the story of racial bias in Ministry practices as applied to Moerewa school in Northland New Zealand. ‘It is a cautionary story,’ said Milne-Ihimaera, ‘which pits a small Māori community against the might and power of the Ministry. But first, she acknowledged the courage and bravery of Ngāti Whatua for their land occupation which resulted in the return of Bastion Point to their people. She then shared the story of her own upbringing. Dr MilneIhimaera said she was influenced by very strong women throughout her life, who made her aware that society did not always accept Māori or respect their Tikanga practices. Indeed, she noted that it was not unusual to experience mocking behaviour during the Karanga when welcoming a group onto the marae. Even more disturbing was to realise that within the school system, Māori kids were not expected to succeed. Later, activities like Kapa Haka were introduced, as an add on, rather than as valued activities, central to Māori kids’ learning. As a teacher and later principal herself, she became aware that the biggest Ministry battles were about why we can’t do something not how we can. Response to initiatives that might enhance the learning and success of Tamariki Māori were largely ignored or subverted. For her own immediate family, there is no time to lose. In our own whānau bubble, she said, mainstream won’t fit. We will not engage in that system any longer, she said. We cannot wait any longer. Today, her own mokopuna are fluent Te Reo speakers and comfortable in their understanding of their own cultural identities. Her own story as Principal of Moerewa Primary School however, was of a different kind. ‘I learned the mana of the struggle,’ she told her audience, ‘and had to walk my talk.’ In the face of closures of Northland schools, Moerewa stood firm and stayed open. ‘It was a great community,’ said Keri, ‘a supportive community.’ Certainly there was poverty and aside from the local Freezing Works there was little to employ the people. What Dr Milne-Ihimaera could not have imagined was that her school would become a target for Ministry intervention, for no apparent reason. She was leading the very best education for her largely Māori population of young people. Statutory interventions were not unusual in Northland. Between 2012 and 2017, there were more interventions in the North than any other area of the country. Coincidentally, there
is a greater proportion of Māori in this region too. The school had been through four principals in as many years before Milne-Ihimaera was appointed to lead the school. She built it up and engaged the community and ERO reports were clear about the excellent progress being made. The young people of Moewera felt strong affiliation to their school and when it came to secondary school, they and their parents were reluctant to send them away to High School. In response, Milne-Ihimaera set up a satellite class affiliated to an appropriate secondary school in Auckland, so that her senior students could remain at Moewera to continue their education. The now thriving student population and local community were therefore stunned when the NCEA results of the satellite class came under scrutiny and the school was placed under statutory
Dr Keri Milne-Ihimaera delivered a powerful message on how racism can break a school and its community
intervention. It is usual for the NZQA to moderate about 10 per cent of a school’s NCEA results, but in the case of Moewera it was 80 per cent. The process was drawn out as students waited patiently for their results. The level of scrutiny was previously unheard of. As the audit process continued into the following year, students were left not knowing whether they had qualified for the next level or not. They were in limbo. When the NZQA investigation eventually concluded, the results were made public before the school or students were informed. Many of the students had their qualifications taken away and the satellite class was closed down. These results were appealed and ultimately the school was vindicated. So how do we explain the intervention and excessive audit in the first place? Dr Milne-Ihimaera is quite clear on the answer. It comes down to racism. As one student expressed during the process, ‘ . . . if you do anything different that they don’t like, this is what happens. Colour has a lot to do with it, it’s colonisation again.’ The students were forced to leave Moewera and attend a different secondary school to continue their studies. The hurt, the disappointment and the frustration was devastating for them. They had been publicly humiliated but they had a principal who would stand up and say ‘enough is enough’. By now she had the support not only of her local community but of the entire Northland region. They understood her battle and were right alongside her to give her the strength to fight it. The Ministry would not be easily persuaded however and left the Commissioner in the school for the next two years. The Moewera story is emblematic of the struggle that continues throughout Aotearoa New Zealand to this day. Until embedded racism is addressed and understood for what it is; until Te Reo is normalised as a language with equal status; and until we are all educated in the history of the colonisation of our country, little will change.
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