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.