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1. What comes first? - Culture comes first.
1. What comes first? - Culture comes first.
"If we accept that Māori are no less intelligent than Pākehā - why are we not able to teach them?"
Dr Ann Milne presents at the CORE Education's ULearn Conference in 2017.
In this presentation, Dr Ann Milne challenges the typical narrative of reporting on Māori and Pacific students according to achievement statistics alone.
According to Dr Milne, educators need to have a fundamental understanding of what "as Māori" means.
....that is, Māori are able to embody their cultural identity first and foremost - "everyday and everywhere" .
A key role of school is to sustain and revitalise culture - "not negate it. "
Milne reports that at her previous school Kia Aroha, when nurturing cultural identity is the first goal, then academics follow, not the other way around.
Key sections of this video:
33.32 - 34.58 - Definition of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
36:00 - 40:31 Explanation of Whānau - the basic organisational structure of the school.
Read more about Māori achieving success "as Māori" and the process of re-indigenisation - on the following page (click the blue button)
2. ‘He Awa Whiria’ Braided Rivers - complementary research approaches are used.
2. ‘He Awa Whiria’ Braided Rivers - complementary research approaches are used.
From the summary:
" It is consistently being recommended by Māori for the need for researchers to broaden and deepen their awareness and respect for knowledge that flows from different, yet potentially complementary, streams—in this case, the Māori and Western knowledge streams."
This is referred to as a Braided rivers approach, where both Western and Te Ao Māori form separate knowledge streams and have their own mana, but they combine and merge, much as the branches of a braided river do. These are separate yet complementary.
Note that in a braided river system, the braid is not the river, but forms part of the whole river. Therefore I have taken themes and ideas present in both knowledge streams and attempted to highlight the intersections. That is, where the two knowledge streams flow together and merge, where we can find practices and areas in common, that both adhere to a Māori way of knowing and a Western way of knowing.
This publication is now available as a free download book PDF
3. The focus is on Equity; achieved through Teacher practice
3. The focus is on Equity; achieved through Teacher practice
When following the NZ Curriculum, Te Mātaiaho, in English medium settings, the language of learning is in English. Yet we have a variety of students in classrooms in Aotearoa; some are born here, some come to live here. Many students have another language background that is not English. Whether Māori, a Pacific language, or from another language background altogether, these students are being now taught English according to a structured literacy approach (see definition below), in English, if in an English medium setting.
Alton-Lee in her article: Using Best Evidence Syntheses to Assist in Making a Bigger Difference for Diverse Learners (Accessed from https://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/content/download/558/4641/alton_lee.pdf) acknowledges this challenge for teachers.
"The best evidence about quality teaching comes from accounts of the work of teachers who are particularly effective in facilitating the learning of diverse students - at the same time - in the challenging worlds of everyday classroom life in English and Māori-medium. The fundamental challenge is that teachers simultaneously manage the learning of groups of diverse learners. The term ‘diverse’ is important because it recognises that the intersections of ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status of family and dis/ability including giftedness, and other characteristics that make up complex learner identities, shape what each learner brings to classroom learning."
Alton-Lee crucially notes however, that in New Zealand, we have the biggest variance between student scores on PISA data (see below) AND that the predominant variability occurs within schools (between teachers) rather than between schools.
The inset graph depicts the Programme for International Student Achievement [PISA] mean results for 15-year-old achievement in reading literacy across OECD countries on quality and equity scales. New Zealand has high mean achievement, but our achievement disparities are second widest out of 30 countries – a pattern of disparity that recurs in New Zealand educational achievement across international studies.
Unlike other countries, we have really high scores and really low scores; pointing to evidence of some high quality teaching and learning but also low equity for those students with low scores. This pinpoints teacher practice as the area to focus on. If effective teaching practices are identified (through results), and there is a sustainable way to ensure teaching practice fidelity, through schooling systems, then this will result in reduced variability and increased equity.
See The State of the Nation Page (click blue button) for more detail about the variability of student data across New Zealand scores and also more about the increasing disparity between student scores over recent years.
Russell Bishop (2023) in Leading to the North-East, brings the two worlds of culture and schooling together. He asserts that we need BOTH culturally sustaining pedagogies or practices (relationship-based approaches) AND high quality teaching. This is how within and across school variability is reduced and EQUITY is attained. Additionally, Alton-Lee asserts that teachers need to establish pro-active and strong (but not time-consuming) school–home links, AND focus on quality teaching.
With both these influences, Alton-Lee states that "far greater impacts on student achievement (including social outcomes) are possible than those possible through either families or schools or each working independently of the other."
This is explored in much more depth on the Effective Teaching Practice Actions Page (click blue button) but is worth mentioning here as a key focus.
4. Understanding Language development is crucial.
4. Understanding Language development is crucial.
While oral language acquisition appears to be effortless, on closer examination, it is "taught" as well as "caught". Understanding more about how first and then second or subsequent languages are taught and caught will help teachers understand better how they can support diverse language learners in their classrooms.
Read more about this on the How any language is developed Page (click blue button)
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