Inspiring Māori Leadership in Education.

He aha te kai ō te rangatira? He Kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero.

(What is the food of the leader. It is knowledge. It is communication.)

Last week Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou hosted an inaugural seminar called Inspiring Māori Leadership in Education.  Never before in our region has a gathering occurred. Iwi representatives, education providers from all levels, health agencies, local industries and even a member of the council came together to share knowledge, insights and resources with the purpose of developing māori leadership in our regions education system.
The first point I am will make is that this meeting was insightful and inspiring. Insightful for providing a glimpse towards the aspirations our iwi leaders have for our rangatahi. Inspiring because in my opinion most where not asking for more of the same. Mark Ngata from Ngati Porou Seafoods Ltd completed his presentation by saying..."We cannot solve the problems we face today with the same consciousness that we used to create the problem."

Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi.

(The old net is cast aside, while the new net goes a-catching.)

I entered this hui with the hope that the aspirations shared with provide us educators with a clearer understanding of the type of dispositions and knowledge our iwi wanted our graduates to have. Although no-one explicitly said these are the skills we want, as the hui progressed a common theme formed. This list was emphasised by Hayden Swann from Makaraka primary.

• Te Reo,
• Whanau,  
• Whakapapa,
• Whanaungatanga. 

I'm putting it out to any readers to explore and share as a comment the dispositions that you feel capture these aspects best.

Students needing a sense of identity was often discussed. Knowledge & use of te reo in learning was identified as essential for the Ss identity to be explored as a māori. A sense of belonging through whakapapa and whanaungatanga was also emphasised. This was emphasised powerfully through the korero delivered by Tahua Pihema. Her sense of identity was challenged throughout her life because of misinformation and misunderstanding of the Turanga-nui a Kiwa land wars. Her new learning provided her with insight, empathy and healing and as a result she has developed an action to promote that these land wars become part of our regional curriculum. 

Laurayne Tafa from Cognition Education emphasised several points that provided significant links to criteria that I can use when planning and evaluating my practices.
These were; 
                                                  Recognise distractors (physical or non)

Stay connected and relevant- Apply what works in your context.

Interrogate the conditions for success

Talk from evidence and demonstrate impact.

Laurayne Tafa

Each of these messages demand time, effort and reflection to develop them into our teaching practices effectively. I see them as essential criteria to ensure that the new pedagogies that i am attempting are as effective as they can be for the learners. These are in my opinion the best critical thinking prompts I have found so far. Talk from evidence and demonstrate impact in particular is a succinct yet powerful message that I feel i must focus on in my teaching. Its the kind of statement that I could easily refer bak to in my reflections, when I'm planning and my personal favourite..even have it written on a t-shirt.

Additional messages shared in Tafa's presentation made me reflect on my own practices.

• Effective pedagogies...Stop the doing the things that make no difference. Begin focusing on the things that make a difference.
• No more disempowerment by design. 

To find out more about whanaungatanga  I found  a blog by Tahu Paki (Core Education). Both these statements appeared clearly relevant to the insights that I gained from the hui.

‘Me hui kanohi ki te kanohi kia rongo i te mauri o te tangata!’ It is important to meet face to face, eye to eye, breath to breath to get a full understanding of the people we are working with.

Learning is a human experience... the dynamics that occur when people interact kanohi ki te kanohi is exciting Stories can be shared in a way that best captures the learners message and genuine connections are formed.

‘He mauri tō te tangata, he whakapapa tōna, he mana motuhake.’ Everyone has mana. Everyone has a whakapapa, a genealogy, heritage and identity that makes that person no more and no less important than the next person. When we learn to treat everyone with care and respect,  there are fewer barriers to establishing and maintaining relationships. Address the issues and not the tangata.

Honour the journey each learner has.. they all have a taonga to share..(something they are proud of.) I was captured by a performance from Te Puna Reo o Puni Kaiti. 

How many of these tamariki will hold onto this experience as a foundation for their on going learning success? And how many teachers in the future will take time to learn about these amazing achievements to further support their learning success? This must be our focus when planning our practice.. the standards and other administrative requirements must fit in around this as a secondary priority.  The key is to ensure that the planning allows you to capture the criteria identified by Laurayne Tafa and talk from evidence and demonstrate impact. 

Who will be tomorrows misfits?

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Alvin Toffler

Recently I read this article regarding education and meeting the needs of our rangatahi, (Frances Valentine speaks to the Herald about bravery, business and education.) It got me thinking...

By neglecting to truly value competencies for learning over content in schools are we turning todays conformists into tomorrows misfits?

Lidia Yuknavitch gave a great Tedtalk on misfits. In it she defines a misfit as a person that missed fitting in or a person that is poorly adapted to new situations.

Ive always enjoyed the stories of yesterdays rebel (misfit) becoming an innovative problem solver and leader because of their ability to challenge the status quo found in society. But what does that say about a society that is expected to increasingly need innovative leaders and problem solvers? 

• Will the Ss that are great at conforming to expectations and rules be ill prepared for tomorrows challenges? Will they be innovative enough?
• Will conformists be the most vulnerable towards new technology entering the work place? 

This reframing of Toffler's insight gives me the shivers. These conformists are often the Ss that teachers see as good people, deserving of a life that rewards their self-control and amicability. I think of the line in the educational documentary "Most likely to Succeed," that says..

"In the past these people were likely to live a perfectly average life all the way to the perfectly average funeral...These assurances no longer exist."

This idea really affects me. I feel an urgency...This urgency needs to be expressed. Perhaps in doing so we will see how failing to explicitly raise the value of effective lifelong learning skills as of more importance than subject based content we will not place todays good Ss into such a vulnerable place in the near future. As I read this I so grateful of the NZ curriculum and its vision, principles and values and especially of the statement that emphasises prioritising depth of understanding over content coverage. (see providing sufficient opportunities to learn) I feel that teachers are not to date truly grasping the importance of these wonderful future focused features yet.

This sense of urgency is significant... it is what I will use to ensure that I am prioritising research based effective learning practices into my daily pedagogies. Its funny how sometimes it just a rephrasing of a statement to attain that "oh shit" sense of urgency.

Why TairāwitiED?

Why TairāwhitiED?

The following is an introductory statement from our recently established TairāwhitiED facebook page.

In recent years educationally focused groups have begun forming around Aotearoa with the purpose of increasing high quality, collaboration between teachers,schools and communities. One such group is called WellyED. 

A group of people passionate about education in Tairāwhiti have spoken about the need for a group like this being created. So here it is..at the very early stages..Its really exciting to get #tairāwhitiED up and running and based on recent discussions there is plenty to look forward to.

It is essential that our community knows that this is an open group for any people that are interested in our education system here in Tairāwhiti. So please share with others that are truly interested in our rangatahi and their education here in Tairāwhiti. The more diverse our members are (in terms of culture, experience and background) the more valuable our contribution towards improving our youths learning experience will be.

As part of our launch we were able to screen the educational documentary "Most Likely to Succeed." MLTS was a chance to initiate a discussion regarding the need to how challenge the status quo in our education system. Under this TairāwhitiED aims to invite dialogue across all our community, professionals, entrepreneurs, home makers, and learners both young and old.

Reflection on the screening...The turn out for this screening was far more than we anticipated totalling 80! It was exciting to see so many people curious about how education needs to change and how this might look like here in for our rangatahi in Tairāwhiti.  

The following points are a list I made while watching MLTS. 

• Structure for High Tech High projects appered to be focused around Plan>>Process>>Presentation 
• Schools are all actioning personalised learning in different ways
• Requires faith in this new pedagogy
• Accountability promoted through exhibition
• Project based learning was the key towards authenticity and engagement.
• Team teaching allowed for integrated curriculum and expertise was supported 
• Learner evaluation included Qs asking Ss to reflect on learning skills/muscles
• Curriculum coverage is likely to be reduced even as much as by 50% but Ss develop understanding and skill sets to a deeper level.

I am of the mindset that Most likely to succeed was a great way to share the interest we all have in education, as it was for us as students and how it is now.  It provided an exciting example of how education can be shaped to meet the needs of our learners in ways that were previously impossible. We emphasised how this isn't a case of modelling what High tech high have done, but to see this as an example of what might be possible when we choose to re-vision our education system and act upon our vision. 
The following week we ran our very first TairāwhitiED workshop. We explored the groups aspirations and expectations relating to education here. We achieved this through using a design thinking process, (expertly facilitated by Mindlab Gisborne educator Tim Gander.) This process enabled us to both introduce ourselves and work alongside community members to explore this amazing topic. There was a real overarching theme through the group. Relationship building and personalised learning programs was often communicated as the key aim for engagement. One member spoke about connecting with learners in a way that sparks their innate talents and passions. As a teacher I felt the discussions I have only just begun are going to continue and develop in ways I could never have predicted prior. It is truly exciting to see TairāwhitiED up and running and feel that much will be gained through this wonderful group of people.