Kia Aroha College

Curriculum and Instruction: Learning at KAC is via an integrated, Indigenised curriculum. While all campuses offer the full New Zealand curriculum from Year 7 - 10, to be Māori or Pasifika at KAC means that cultural identity is embedded in every aspect of the school day, no matter what the subject area, no matter what the activity, no matter what class. Students play an active role in selecting which topics they would like to study, as well as engaging in youth participatory action research. The curriculum integrates students’ lived experiences by enabling them to negotiate and make decisions about topics they want to study either because they are realities they experience in school, their families, their communities, and broader society.

In addition to curriculum, KAC uses a culturally responsive, critical pedagogy. This approach challenges the mindset that academic learning is the only valid form of knowing and instead validates students' home language, cultural identity, ways of being, and more as just as valid and high status as dominant modes of learning. Bilingual learning (dual medium) is the norm on each campus, meaning students will excel at both their native language (Tongan, Samoan, or Māori) and English, and often pick up some degree of proficiency at another language.

KAC aims to "move our young people from a position of unrealized potential, to one where their potential, as active, empowered, contributing members of society, secure in their own cultural identity, and with a wide variety of options for their future, is unlimited." Learning happens through three distinct "Power Lenses": Global Learning, Self Learning and School Learning, which you can see below. Students build critical consciousness by explicitly naming oppressive facets of culture and sharing how they have been impacted at different levels of operation. Young people take this knowledge and regularly engage in activism endeavors, which is modeled explicitly by their leader. A great example of this was when the local government was in talks to sell a parcel of land, very sacred to Indigenous people, to a condominium developer. Students studied related topics like colonization, hegemony, and land confiscation and looked at the complexity of the issue (e.g. some students have parents who work for the developer - how could their lives be impacted?). Then, students took to the streets.

Assessment: Since KAC does not silo academics from other types of learning, they've developed their own tool for assessment, which measures students’ cultural competencies and skills and their relationship with learning and each other. It helps ensure students are on the path to becoming "Warrior-Scholars who are secure in their cultural identity and their learning, and who have the tools to make a difference and to contribute to their families and communities." The assessment tool is aligned to the Power Lenses.

Classes are mixed age, which creates rich opportunities for students to support each other's learning and development. Teachers also loop with students for as many years as possible in order to develop strong and culturally knowledgable relationships. In terms of peer connection, the peer mentoring program, or "tuakana-teina" partners a younger student with an older student of the same gender. Together, structures like these support a “family-based learning” system (this refers to extended family at school) in order to put students at the center. In this approach, learners are assigned a lead teacher who assigns work, but learners choose how to engage in assignments. They can seek help from any adult in the open walled community, or choose to work alone or with peers. Since classes are mixed age, learners can work with students of varied strengths and learn from one another.

Language matters a lot at KAC. In addition to being a school that teaches native languages alongside English, they refer to their students as Warrior Scholars. Furthermore, KAC refers to students usually described as ‘special needs’ or ‘at risk’ as students with unlimited potential. This flips the normative deficit-model on it's head and takes a more asset-based approach. Even seemingly small changes like this have a big impact on student identities.

KAC is dedicated to a learning approach that encourages the development of students’ cultural identity and home languages, which results in the operation of two distinct ‘schools’ within the campus – Te Whānau o Tupuranga (Centre for Māori Education) and Fanau Pasifika (Centre for Pasifika Education). However, this does not mean Māori students are segregated from their peers. Students and their families together decide which area they want to study in for a given amount of time. This is largely because many students have mixed cultural backgrounds and want the ability to learn about the ways of a variety of cultures. It also builds cross-cultural awareness, and it is not at all uncommon to see Samoan students studying in the Māori unit, for example. Two separate campuses enable students to be affirmed by and connected to those within each culture, though there are ample times to come together as a whole KAC community and to do the work together, including morning meetings, afternoon tea, communal lunch, and more.

KAC is intentionally designed to have open spaces. Learning is not kept to four-walled classrooms, which do technically exist, but students are free to learn anywhere on campus, and especially in common areas, outside on the property, and more. A special gathering place, the Kia Aroha Marae, is where communal activities like lunch take place. The marae is etched with culturally relevant and motivating sayings, which remind students that they have a choice in how they show up each day. The marae is often called "the hub of the campus" and it is where community- and relationship-building, cultural activities, and both informal and formal learning take place.

The culturally responsive approach to education enables families to engage. Language and code-switching skills are not necessary here as the school is able to meet the needs of each family. Together with young people, families make decisions about their child's course of study, such as which campus to learn on and for what period of time.

Through the Whānau Centre, community partnerships support student wellbeing. They provide trainings, wraparound supports for families, and more.

KAC also seeks to be a community hub, where the school is intimately connected the larger community. The building is often a place for town hall meetings, artistic performances, and other organizations seeking to find community-based solutions to challenges

See Kia Aroha's report from the Education Review Office, which details how they are doing on improving outcomes from their students, including a disaggregation by ethnicity. It also details their progress over the past years and what they will work on moving forward.