Te Takanga o Te Wā’, (Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories) Hui.

 Friday 3rd June 2022

Introduction

The implementation of the ‘Te Takanga o Te Wā’, (Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories) aspect of the Social Sciences curriculum in 2023, was the kaupapa for an across Schools hui. This was an opportunity to implement the ACCoS whakataukī  Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa, Let us keep close together,  through learning about the curriculum and what is means for Schools in our Kāhui Ako.        

Epsom Girls Grammar took the lead in organising and hosting this hui.   It was the first event for the ACCoS Kāhui Ako, that was open to all teachers and Schools with about 400 teachers attending.

But, due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19  in our kura (schools), the decision was made to move the event online. Schools stayed in bubbles on their school sites and staff joined from various locations.   Credit to the organising Staff and their support at EGG’s who were able to implement this change so quickly and effectively.

The day commenced with a pōwhiri. The Epsom Staff with the Support of Whaea Jacqs Carter and Matua Richard Maihi welcomed the guest speaker, Graeme Ball who was ably supported by  Whaea Corlene Greenwood who was the kaiwhakautu (supporting caller for a pōwhiri), and a group from Epsom Girls Grammar.

 After a short break for Kai (nourishment), the hui recommenced with a welcome from ACCoS Kāhui Ako lead Principal Jill Farquharson.

This was followed by mihi and a setting the scene for the day by the Principal of Epsom Girls Grammar,  Lorraine Pound.  She introduced Graeme Ball,  the presenter for the hui.  Graeme is the Chair and Kaiārahi of NZ History Teachers’ Association,  part of the Curriculum Writing Group and Head of Faculty (Social Sciences), Northcote College, Auckland

                

The pairing of Zoom and the Slide Show worked effectively for participants across the rohe (district), with participants being able to view the documentation and slides on personal devices as they listened and viewed Graeme presenting.

 

Graeme Ball’s plenary

Graeme, set the scene with a journey through NZ history.

“The Māori are our largest purveyors of foodstuffs; so large indeed as nearly to monopolise the market and to exclude Europeans from competition.”

“Māori were described as the ‘life blood’ of the Auckland settlement, with a newspaper noting that ‘it is likely that but for the Māori trade Auckland business would have collapsed during these years.’”

Graeme's  presentation outlined events and key factors that contributed to the changes: the waves of migration, changes in political influences and control, wars and land confiscation. The data presented demonstrated the impact of colonisation and marginalisation of Māori on social, economic and health outcomes in the 21st century.

After this historical journey Graeme presented a Challenge: 

Te Wero

Before we get into the Histories’ curriculum overview presentation, there are a few important points to keep in mind:

●        Properly done, the goal of History is to explain/interpret the evidence, not to blame or shame. It’s not about identifying ‘heroes’ or ‘villains’ and it is not about a recitation of names and dates!

●        We may well make ethical judgments about what people did in the past, but we must do so based on a wide range of evidence and with an awareness of the context of times. 

●        History can be challenging as we learn new and uncomfortable things; as kaiako we need to be aware of the potential impacts on our ākonga.

 

 

In presenting the  overview of  the new curriculum development process, Graeme explained how the ANZH  is the first of the new curriculums and templates the organisational structure for the rest of the Social Science and other curriculum areas, presently being reviewed.

 Over the next 20 minutes Graeme outlined the organisation and structures of the document. He demonstrated how it wove the connections between Understand, Know and Do with examples from past and present and Global, National, Rohe and local events and knowledge.

 

The examples provided, demonstrated how the contexts are underpinned by Mātauranga Māori, critical literacy and thinking skills.  This  reiterated how the relevance of this learning is enhanced from being integrated across the  Curriculum and being grounded from  the stories and knowledge of the local rohe, whenua and Community.

Collaborating across Schools and Learning Disciplines

Teachers from Epsom Girls Grammar split in groups based on their learning areas and dug deeper into how the curriculum may apply in their subject area and for the students they teach.  Their focus was ‘Think about learner experience and Mātauranga Māori in your subject area’.

Kaiako (teachers) from year 1-8 moved into Curriculum level and specialist teacher groups on zoom. These groups were hosted by an Across School Leader and provided opportunities to share the aspects of the History Curriculum presently happening in schools in our Kāhui Ako and to discuss what next.

Teachers in these groups split into breakout rooms. The groups of people, from a number of schools, discussed the questions and added their contributions to Jam boards.

 

The visibility and sharing of ideas, questions and actions across schools was another  highlight of the day, and evidence of the Kāhui Ako whakataukī, Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa,  Let us keep close together not far apart,  in action.

Kura korero (Schools discussion groups)

Teachers then moved into school discussion groups,  some on site others on zoom. The discussion in school ropu were facilitated by principals and school leaders.

Poroporoaki (Farewell, conclusion of a hui)

The poroporoaki brought the focus back to the hall at Epsom Girls Grammar. The Principals shared their key take outs from their school discussions through zoom and Graeme Ball addressed the group with observations and some suggestions for next steps.

 

Kupu Whakamutunga (Final words)

Kaumatua Richard Maihi rounded off the day, drawing together observations on the curriculum, the acknowledgement of mana whenua  and the process of the day, before concluding with karakia.

Where to now

This was a successful and highly engaging morning of learning and collaboration both on site and on zoom.   Although the move to an on-line and in school settings was a disappointment to the anticipation of being kanohi ki te kanohi as a Kāhui Ako, the day achieved the kaupapa.  The negative of not being  together, was off set by the efficiencies of being line and in smaller groups on sites across the motu. The organisational format was easy to follow and successfully allowed people to log into the different zoom sessions, talk with others from across the Kāhui Ako and share knowledge and ideas.  The organising group have collated the contributions and discussion boards and will use this information to feedback to  Principals and Across School Leaders. 

With the uncertainty of Covid-19 still in the Community, this model for learning was an effective way to run professional development and collaborate across a large group of schools and kaiako.  Thank you to  Graeme Ball, the kaumatua  Richard Mahi, the organising committee and support from staff at Epsom Girls Grammar for your foresight and work to bring this day to fruition

 Resources from the Day

ACCoS, (2022) Launching the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum. Auckland June 2022

Why local curriculum is so important for fostering complex systems thinking.

On Wednesday 29th of June, our ACCoS Local Curriculum Initiative were privileged to host Rose Hipkins in a virtual session speaking to the school leaders in our Kāhui Ako about ‘Why Local Curriculum is so important for fostering Complex Systems Thinking.’

Complex systems are found everywhere and impact daily lives whether we realise this or not. Highly visible examples include the coordinated flocking (murmuration) of starlings and the shoaling of fish. Less visible are the complex dynamics of what we know as climate change, or the complex interactions between our genes and the cellular environment in which they work. Pandemics are also highly complex, involving both physical and social factors in their dynamics.

Rose covered a number of reasons why complex systems thinking (CTS) is important.For example, complex systems don’t behave predictably and every citizen needs at least a basic understanding of their dynamics.

Local Curriculum is also important because it is the way that you bring the curricula to life at your early learning service, kōhanga reo, school, or kura. It’s a way of strengthening our people & celebrating our places. In Rose’s view, the K strand of the UDK framework embeds an emphasis on local curriculum:

●     U - Deeper understanding

●     K - Know contextual aspects

●     D- Do (thinking critically from different perspectives)

Complex systems thinking works in well with the UKD framework - the current framework being used by our Kāhui Ako. Bringing both together supports:

●     tapping into community resources and expertise, through fostering a sense of place and belonging

●     making learning more memorable/relatable

●     ensuring learning is not left to chance

●     showing us that learning about our ways of being in the world should not be overlooked by focusing only on our knowing about our world 

Today’s session served as a reminder to learn about Indigenous knowledge respectfully as this encodes ways of being in complexity such as an ethical concern for the natural world, sustainability, social justice etc.

How to bring them together

Children are born as natural systems thinkers but they typically unlearn this way of thinking at school through the use of closed questions and limited learning experiences.To combat this schools are encouraged to provide more open-ended learning experiences and build knowledge of concepts that open up opportunities for  complex systems thinking. Even young children relish opportunities to explore the dynamics and hidden connections between things in their world. Rose showed an example of writing from a 7 year old, who was learning about the complex causes of water shortages in the place where he lived. 

Place-based learning fosters CST. Students need to see themselves as being inside the systems they are learning about. More usually they learn about systems from the perspective of being outside looking in.

There are lots of adaptations to favourite teaching strategies that teachers can make in order to foster Complex Thinking Systems when designing local curriculum. There are also lots of simple visual tools. Rose talked about a recent example where she had used the thinking routine ‘I See, I Think, I Wonder’ from Project Zero (developed at Harvard). Another example can be found on TKI among the resources to support the science capability of Gathering and Interpreting Data.

Teachers are very good at breaking learning down to make things simple for students. But it’s also really important to bring those parts back together. Luckily there are lots of visual tools to support part/whole thinking. A number of philanthropic organisations have created free on-line resources for this purpose.

We all need to develop habits of ‘both/and’ thinking. This is hard because binary – either/or - thinking is deeply entrenched in knowledge systems of Western origin.

Complex Thinking is an opportunity to ask whose voices can we hear and whose can we not hear?

Check out Rose’s book for activities and resources for fostering Complex Systems Thinking,

Hipkins, R. (2021). Teaching for complex systems thinking. NZCER Press.

As a Kāhui Ako we purchased the Rich Task Planning Cards for each of our schools and we used the cards to help develop our understanding of Local Curriculum design. Here is the link if you wish to check these out.

Hipkins, R. (2019). Classroom resource: Rich tasks planning cards.  

NZCER Press.

At the end of our session with Rose there was positive feedback from our school leaders about the session.

She kindly allowed access to her slides and here they are.