Te Kura Kaupapa o Māori Manawatu
Debbie Marshall-Lobb discusses how relationships are everything and how the principal plays a really powerful role in terms of shaping culture.
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Clip duration: 4:27
Open up dialogue
The motto at that time for us as a staff was 'Me Mahi Tahi Tātou - Come One, Come All'. That's indicative of where we felt we were heading in terms of trying to create the culture within the kura, that we were all on the same pathway.
Staff identified the fact that we were spending a lot of time in our staff meetings doing the administration type stuff. We were spending sometimes two, possibly three hours going over the housekeeping bits and pieces rather than focusing on the core business of teaching and learning.
And so I presented what QLCs were all about and why I thought that they would be useful in our kura, specifically to get professional colleagues to enter into dialogue and put greater focus on the learning and teaching. The QLC concept fits in with the Māori medium framework of sharing ideas and being open and transparent about what we think.
The staff agreed that the QLCs could provide a forum where we could really sit down and discuss important issues, so we decided to go ahead with the idea. We decided to do housekeeping one week and our QLCs the next. The concept worked exceptionally well and our QLCs led to dialogue that was open and honest, and exposed a variety of perspectives on issues. This led to staff consensus on fundamental issues and to teachers going into one another's classrooms to see what was happening.
After six months, staff were wanting more opportunities to dialogue through the QLCs. We had just commenced our ICT contract so we decided to drop the administration staff meetings and make them all QLCs, and use our computers instead for the housekeeping stuff.
One of the great spin-offs was that it got people using the computers and modelling that use for the children. It also allowed us to up-skill our teachers and work towards learning how to integrate ICT within the curriculum. I think that the road was hot in terms of the ICT - emails going everywhere and people were reading them. They were going on to check emails in the morning and in the afternoon.
Review performance
From the QLC discussions it became evident that we really needed to do a self-review across the school, particularly with regards to curriculum development and implementation. It was heartening because the data indicated that we were particular good in te reo and pāngarau (maths), but not necessarily in the other curriculum areas. We asked ourselves, "What can we do to ensure that our students are getting quality opportunities?"
There were a whole lot of variables, too, that impacted on our ability to deliver the curriculum well in a Māori-centred educational environment. There was a paucity of resources, particularly for the middle and senior kura. The curriculum documents in te reo Māori were released after the English ones. I suppose we were critical of the fact that the professional learning opportunities weren't perhaps as coordinated as they were for the English medium ones, impacting on our ability to come to terms with the new documents.
Focus curriculum
The rotations came about because our data showed us that we weren't doing as well as we wanted to do. The other thing was the teachers were awfully tired, delivering seven curriculum areas and doing their very best, as I believe all teachers do, but just getting really exhausted.
We decided that we would do a little well, and, instead of teaching across the seven essential learning areas, we would concentrate on just three. We knew that te reo and numeracy were pivotal, and that the third curriculum area would be a specialist area.
Staff wanted to improve not only themselves, but improve on what we were offering the children. Hence we said, "Right, yeah, if we reduce it from seven to three, how would this work?" We decided that each teacher would have their home class where they would teach te reo and numeracy, and then rotate around the school teaching their specialist subject.
We surveyed our students and our whānau. Our whānau said, "Yes, trial it for two terms and we'll put a support group in place to help monitor it." And we've never looked back.
Build relationships
While this was happening, we had been discussing a book called Māori Pedagogies (PDF) by Wharehuia Hemara as part of our QLC support material. It was affirming for us as a kura that's promoting Māori values and attitudes. There were things in there that were really pertinent, particularly about relationships, so we thought, "Where do the rotations stand with supporting the relationships that we had with our tamariki, our children?" If it enhances the relationships that we have, then it's a goer. If it doesn't fit within our Māori framework, then we can't go there. Of course it was wonderful. It was very compatible to where we were heading.
Suddenly the rotations meant that everyone had a genuine relationship with every child across the kura, from the new entrants to the year 8 pupils. Teachers enhanced their relationships, not only with those students, but also with fellow colleagues.
We could be sitting in the staffroom and someone would say, "Do you know so-and-so's not working particularly well today?" And another teacher might say, "That's funny, I had him earlier and he was fine." And then they'd say, "Well, I found this really works." Teachers were suddenly advocates for the pupils. And we felt that was pretty powerful. Everyone was informed about where the children were at, and that had to be good.
We also noted that things within the playground were better. There was less reporting of incidents and a calmness about the playground. Teachers were engaging in discussions and activities with students that they wouldn't normally do because they wouldn't know them, but suddenly they did.
There was more cohesion. People weren't being protective of just their own class. Suddenly there was the sense of, "I'm responsible for everyone. I'm caring for everyone. I want to see what the bigger picture is and where we're heading."
Staff started working on the curriculum area of speciality that they elected to take, so there was some sort of choice for them. They had a strength in their curriculum area that often they'd majored in, in their pre-teacher service training programme or they had a passion for it that had evolved over their teaching career.
Staff have had quality professional development, hence they've put that alongside their own practice and it's strengthened their position. They're happier to deliver that curriculum. They're very knowledgeable about the subject, very confident about where they're going, and the students, I think, sense that. The classes are more relaxed. They're well prepared because the teachers have a far more intimate knowledge of that curriculum area.
We're in our fourth year of doing it but we have made refinements every year. One change we made was that we decided that the new entrants and year 1 and 2 students would not do the rotations because we felt that they needed time to consolidate the relationship with their teacher, and have a greater emphasis on literacy and numeracy as part of their transition from kohanga reo to kura.
Empower expert teachers
One of the wonderful things about the teacher having the opportunity to specialise in one curriculum area, is that they get to plan for that curriculum area from level 1 right through to level 4 or 5 and they have a really good understanding of multi-level needs and requirements.
Whereas before the students used to think, "Oh yeah, the teacher's a jack-of-all-trades," they now recognise those teachers as being knowledgeable within that area so they afford them that respect, which is interesting.
I think it's a very Māori way of looking at things because in traditional times, of course, you had your tohunga, those who were experts in toi, in the arts, in certain knowledge code areas.
We know that achievement is certainly a lot more heartening than what it was at the beginning. We've made huge strides, for example, in putaiao (science). We weren't performing very well at all four or five years ago. And last year we had students who won the indigenous science award at the Genesis Science Fair and came second overall in the material world for their presentation. They were up there with English medium and got put forward to go to the national show. So we're thinking, "Wow, I don't think that would have happened if we hadn't had a teacher who was a specialist in that area."
Share experience
We had the good fortune about two years ago to have Professor Muiris O'Laoire, a language specialist in Ireland, come and visit us through his relationship with the Māori Studies Department at Massey University. He was interested in Māori medium education, given that he had been one of the leading personnel with the revitalisation of the Gaelic language in Ireland.
Three months later, my husband and I had an opportunity to go over to Ireland and when Muiris heard that we were coming, he said he'd like to take us to some Irish kaupapa schools there. We travelled to Tralee and visited pre-schools which would be the equivalent of our kohanga reo, primary schools similar to our kura kaupapa, and to secondary schools like our whare kura.
It was absolutely wonderful. We developed relationships with two of the schools and explored how we can share the strategies we have developed for teaching using our indigenous languages.
After our return to New Zealand, we thought about how we could use ICT to share information with indigenous children of another country, and decided to develop iMovies around what children wanted to tell other children. And the kids came up with some really cool ideas. They said they wanted to introduce themselves, where they go to kura, what they do during the day.
Anthony, our ICT specialist teacher, worked with the children and they created these iMovies in te reo Māori. And rather than have English sub-titles like you often see on TV, we put in Gaelic subtitles for the students in Ireland. The challenge for the schools back in Ireland is now for them to produce their iMovies in Gaelic but with Māori subtitles.
If I look at the children I taught as 5 year olds, several of them are at university now and doing very well. And in fact though they went to different high schools, they've followed a similar path in being successful in those high schools, which was a challenge, because those high schools are English medium. And so those children, once they left us, were still succeeding even in a very foreign type educational environment. One of the most common things they tell me is that they said they really loved going to high school, as for them it was exciting, almost like being an exchange student in your own country.
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