Learning in an environment where a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations is the norm significantly improves valued outcomes for Mäori.
Berryman advises leaders and teachers to look at the learning environment in their school and ask themselves to what extent:
The evaluation indicators framework gives prominence to the concepts of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, ako and mahi tahi because they collectively provide the foundation for an approach to education that is culturally responsive and challenges educationally limiting deficit theorising. These concepts provide a lens through which we can examine how effectively our current school processes, practices and activities are promoting equitable outcomes for all students.
Manaaki embodies the concepts of mana (authority) and aki (to encourage and acknowledge). Manaakitanga describes the immediate obligation and authority of the host to care for their visitor’s emotional, spiritual, physical and mental wellbeing. Within this type of interaction there is a responsibility to provide reciprocal support.
In the school context, these understandings point to the need to care for children and young people as culturally located human beings by providing a safe, nurturing environment. This will include developing and sustaining the language, culture and identity of every student to ensure that they have the best opportunity to learn and experience educational success. The reciprocal nature of manaakitanga also encourages students and their whänau to actively contribute to this success.
Whakawhanaungatanga describes the process of establishing links, making connections, and relating to the people one meets by identifying in culturally appropriate ways, whakapapa linkages, past heritages, points of engagement, and other relationships. Establishing whänau connections involves recognising kinship in its widest sense.
Whanaungatanga affirms the centrality of extended family-like relationships, along with all the “rights and responsibilities, commitments and obligations, and supports that are fundamental to the collectivity”.
Whanaungatanga also reaches beyond actual whakapapa relationships to include people who, through shared experiences, feel and act as kin. Whanaungatanga relationships are reciprocal:
Applied to the school context, whanaungatanga demands quality teaching-learning relationships and interactions and that the teacher take agency in establishing a whänau-based environment that supports engagement and learning.
The evidence suggests that whanaungatanga, while not sufficient, is “foundational and necessary for effectively teaching Mäori students ... As whanaungatanga increases, the probability of high cognitive demand increases. When the level of whanaungatanga was mid-range or higher, the lowest levels of engagement disappeared.”
Ako
Ako describes a reciprocal teaching and learning relationship “where the child is both teacher and learner” and the teacher also learns from the child. Ako recognises that the student’s whänau is inseparably part of learning and teaching.
It is the acquisition of knowledge as well as the imparting of knowledge ... Ako as a process does not assume any power relationship between teacher and student but instead it serves to validate dual learning or reciprocal learning experiences that in turn promulgate shared learning.
Mahi tahi (or mahi ngätahi) describes the unity of a group of people working towards a specific goal or on a specific task, often in a hands-on fashion. The solidarity that mahi tahi engenders is powerful; it builds relationships that can continue well after the goal has been fulfilled or the project completed.
In the school context, mahi tahi describes the business of working together collaboratively in the pursuit of learner-centred education goals. This is an important aspect of all six domains in the indicators framework.