When do you feel successful?

Success is a broad and varied topic. And, to each one of us in different contexts success means different things. It is different for each kaiako and ākonga however we generalise success and predictably report our success using one-size-fits-all type of measurement. Naturally, this has to occur to create standardisation amongst kura but it doesn’t allow all ākonga to feel success in the classroom. 

We have been thinking about success a lot and how we can ensure ākonga feel success in their learning and throughout the day at school but what makes us as kaiako, mātua, and tangata whenua feel success? The hard-working ISLs have taken a step away from the prescribed measurements of success and thought about what makes them feel success throughout the various layers of roles they play each day; from looking at themselves as an individual, as a classroom teacher, as an ISL, and as all the roles we play in our personal lives. If we can understand how and when we feel success then perhaps we can better understand our ākonga to create opportunities for them to .

Cornwall Park District School

I feel success when I’m sharing resources and hearing feedback from teachers and students who have enjoyed these activities. I feel successful in supporting them as an ISL.

Epsom Normal Primary School

I feel success when I’m achieving goals and when I get positive feedback from people around me and my students.

I feel success when I’m setting achievable goals and being the best possible version of myself to then be able to transfer that to help others 

Meadowbank Primary School 

I feel most successful when I’ve achieved something that felt impossible or particularly daunting at the start. 

I feel success when I hear children say words like ‘fun’, ‘I got it’ or ‘that worked’ in the class. In ISL capacity I feel success when engaging in authentic discussions that aren’t always led by an agenda discussions but in response to needs and key points as they arise

This week, I’ve managed to cook every night. That's a big success during a busy term! - I feel success when I know I am organised - professionally and personally. 

Remuera Primary School

I feel most successful as a teacher when past students and their families have told me what a positive effect I have had on their future. 

As an ISL leader, I feel successful when PLG meetings have led to really useful and thought provoking discussions which lead to teachers’ questioning and challenging their approach in the classroom.  

In my personal life, I feel successful when my daughters experience success and when my running is going well.

So how and when do our tamariki feel success and what do they want to measure to report on their successes? How do we change what we are measuring to show what equals success? Janelle Riki-Waaka gave a thought provoking seminar about Māori achieving success and she spoke to how her tamariki communicated that they should have a choice in what they are successful in instead of what someone chose to measure them on. 

We will always need to measure Reading, Writing, and Maths, but what other success can be chosen, measured, and celebrated? As a group, we will continue to share the success of our ākonga and the stories they have decided to celebrate and share. What are the successes you see in your classroom today? 

Click here if you would like to watch Janelle’s seminar or read the Te oa Māori initiative blog post.

The Teaching Writing Playbook By Brad Kelly

Our Writing Initiative has had a big focus on unpacking what Best Practice in writing looks like.  One of our professional readings was called The Teaching Writing Playbook by Brad Kelly. It was a great read with lots of analogies that were easily relatable. The book is broken down into eight steps, focusing on skills, confidence, and time when teaching writing.

 Below Vicki Brooke and Alix Osbaldiston have summarised the reading highlighting the key points and key takeaways.

Step One: Students write. Teachers teach writing. Big difference.

• Students associate writing with correctness rather than an opportunity to show what they know and understand.

• Teachers need to write- experience being a student and put themselves in their shoes to complete the task you have set for them.

• Writing is a puzzle- ideas come first.

• Writing to show what you understand is a very different approach than merely trying to craft grammatically correct sentences. Not that correctness is not important – it just doesn’t come first.

Step Two: Writing is thinking.

• Students must have enough content knowledge on a given topic/idea to write with confidence - ideas come first.

• In order to write, we need to have something to say 

• Reluctant writers - help generate ideas by brainstorming, providing knowledge and relevant vocab, and have this displayed so it is easily accessible.

• Focus on thinking initially, not the quality of writing. This can come with the editing stage.

Step Three: The Writing Cycle.

• The writing cycle was not initially designed to be systematically worked through.

• Designed as an assessment tool to help understand the next steps.

• The Writing Cycle never stops. It is always spinning. It is likely that there will be at least one student at any time in each part of the cycle.

• “No student is at the same starting place in their writing improvement journey. The Writing Cycle helps you ask better questions about where a student is now and how to get them unstuck.

• The Writing Cycle 

• Affective Domain: Provides a frame for finding out how students feel about the writing task.

• Location: Where they get information from. Teachers need to be intentional about the kinds of sources students have access to. Creating a selection of sources is time-consuming but worth the effort if we want them to write well. Don't just send them off to free search on Google they will get distracted and or lost.

• Understanding: Making connections between the information they are reading. If we accept that writing is the expression of thinking, then the location and understanding of information is a significant part of the writing cycle.

• Organization: Structure. They call it the Architecture of an Argument. We want our students to make strong claims and then challenge or qualify those claims. We want them to organise their ideas into sequences and use logical reasoning to advance an idea.

• Expression: The actual writing - there are two different skill sets, Writing and Teaching Writing. The teacher who writes gains priceless insight into how to use and practice these writing features to express their ideas. But teaching written expression relies on the teacher carrying around a collection of rules in their head to identify and point out features of the writing that appear when the student puts their hand up and says, ‘What do I do next?’.

Step Four: Spring loading the writing.

The quality of student writing is equal to the quality of the sources and the depth of student engagement

with those sources.

• Clear thinking equals clear writing.

• Use a range of resources (multi-model)

• Use Blooms taxonomy question stems

• Write annotate response

          * Choose the key term /concept

          * Find detailed, relevant examples

          *Read the text thoroughly, and take notes about what you want students to take from the source BEFORE                    you

          * Write the questions.

         * Write an answer and annotate using appropriate writing features.

          * Teachers should have a set learning intention before starting a writing lesson or series of lessons.

Step Five: Ten writing features we all want.

    #1 Students who can answer the question

    We should write well-constructed questions that give students the opportunity to show what they know and                  understand our subject.

    How do you know you have a useful question?

    Both the teacher and student have a clear picture of what success looks like.

    #2 Students who can demonstrate their learning

    We must make a distinction between repeating ‘facts’ and demonstrating learning.

    A few ways we can see learning demonstrated in writing is through the order and priority of ideas.

    #3 Students who can write grammatical sentences

    Teachers are encouraged to " eat their vegetables". Write a range of sentence types on a specific topic to                     understand what it is you are expecting of your students.

    #4 Students who can structure their ideas into paragraphs

     PEEL(point, evidence, explain, link). -like programs do have their limits, simply because the structure is just one         slice of the writing pie. There are other forms of structure that we need to take into account such as text types or         subject-specific.

    #5 Students who can use precise and concise vocabulary

    Vocabulary (and not structure) gives the teacher the greatest insight into the development of student thinking. Keep     it simple./ short 

    #6 Subject-specific language

    Students who are able to apply their understanding of concepts in a correct context with concrete examples have         achieved a depth of thinking compared to students who are simply using glossary terms to fill out their responses.

    #7 Linking words and phrases

    sophisticated writing is not long sentences or big words; it is connecting ideas together.

    ‘however’ or ‘therefore’ are useful ways for revealing thinking.

    #8 Evaluative language

    The student’s ability to accurately judge or label events, actions, texts, or stimuli gives the teacher an insight into the     level of student engagement.

    #9 Using evidence

    How students use the evidence is what matters – because that will reveal the quality of the thinking.

    #10 Students who can sustain an argument

    We need to ask better questions about the development of our thinking.

Step Six: Vocabulary that spots thinking.

Without effective use of vocabulary, the writing is clunky and it is possible that the ideas are either absent or very thin.

    Three types of vocabulary to reflect Thinking

1) Spot subject-specific language

 Words have more (or less) meaning depending on the context. i.e. communism is a key concept in modern history, the term does not necessarily mean the same thing to Lenin as it meant to Marx, or Stalin as it meant to Mao, or Castro as it meant to Gorbachev. The word shifts around its meaning according to context. Make sure that concepts are used in context with concrete examples.

2. Spot-linking words and phrases that tie ideas together

It shows how deeply ideas are understood and may have consequences.

3. Spot evaluative language that leads to judgment and labeling of ideas

 It’s the ability to see perspective as well as degree.

• Judgments require a high degree of literacy in reading, writing, and thinking (culture, context, history…).

It is not just putting your understanding on the page. It is equally about what is left off the page. Judgment sorts through ideas and context.

• Ability to label the nature or intent of a source or observation. To say that the text you read, listened to, or viewed is ‘clever’ ‘questionable’ ‘insightful’ or ‘wasteful’ implies a judgment.

 Step Seven: Writing and teaching writing - two separate skills.

• The distinction between writing and teaching writing is important for effective writing teachers:

1. Write - so teachers have inside knowledge of the ‘cognitive aspects of writing

2. Think - writing is an expression of thinking

3. Build Skills - “focus on building their capacity to respond to student writing”

4. Holistic - writing is holistic but teaching writing requires teachers to separate writing into its parts

5. Order - the order of instruction is important.

Brad Kelly uses the analogy of ‘pinning the tail on the donkey. Children often know where it needs to go, but getting there (the order) can be a struggle for them.

Step Eight: Simple ideas in a complex environment.

Teachers need to eat their vegetables. We need to write the activity they have set for our students to get ‘inside the task.’ 

Analogy: the writing program is sheet music and the teachers who use it are the orchestra. A complex program is like handing out Beethoven’s 5th to first-year violin players.

Is the sheet music too difficult?

Music only comes to life when it is played. 

Tuning up = A Long strong note that the other instruments fall behind. When developing our writing programs, that long strong note should be the writing target in your school. 

• pace and transition

• controlling emotional energy in the classroom

• Making room for students to be alone in their thoughts

• Group work

• Lectures and explicit instruction

• A balance between content and technical writing

• Improvisation = flexibility

SIMPLE IDEAS IN A COMPLEX CLASSROOM

 

From decolonisation to re-indigenisation

Embedded from the Education Hub with permission.

From decolonisation to re-indigenisation

Last Tuesday Janelle Riki-Waaka gave a webinar hosted by Nina Hood about Māori achieving success as Māori and what this means from a Māori worldview, and how teachers and schools can consider how well their environments and practices support ākonga Māori to succeed and thrive.

Below is a synthesis of the main ideas, interwoven with notes and thoughts for how what Janelle talks about is pertinent to our ACCoS Kāhui Ako as well as educators and leaders on our way to a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa. 

How could we support leaders to utilise this video with staff? Possibly gauge prior knowledge on the main topics by asking some questions via form, mentimeter etc such as - “What does partnership in Te Tiriti look like to you?” 

Time Stamps

• 00:00 - 07:30 Te Tiriti
• 07:30 - 09:00  Context for schools
• 09:00 - 16:16  Using Te Tiriti as a framework to awhī schools
• 16:16 - 25:50 Schools decolonising their practice by addressing bias
• 25:50 - 41:00 What does MASAM actually mean/School reporting
• 41:00 - 44:00 Success stories for measuring different things
• 44:00 - 49:50 Culturally Empowering Practices- School has to be the place they live in Te Ao Māori
• 49:50 - 59:30 Engaging with Māori whānau and mana whenua

What it means to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi

The Tiriti was written in 1840 rather hurriedly. The essence really was about honourable partnership and an agreement between two people to co-exist peacefully while retaining their language, culture and identity. It was an agreement between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti who initially started off with the crown and British settlers and then the British settlers slowly grew into all kinds of different settlers from all different corners of the world. Essentially when it was written it was an agreement that the rangatira of Aotearoa in New Zealand would continue to have rangatiratanga or the agency and the sovereignty over their hapu, over their tribes and their right to be self-determining.

 The document was an agreement for the crown to come to Aotearoa and establish a governor who would govern over the new settlers, the previous settlers and any new settlers that came. Te Tiriti is the foundational document about New Zealand. It is the history of this country so as educators how might we in our practice continue to live the aspiration of Te Tiriti. The agreement was breached and then we had a process of colonisation particularly of Tangata Whenua and the impacts of that were devastating and continue to be devastating.

 An agreement between 2 peoples to coexist while retaining language and culture. This is the same notion as exists today. 

• A question for educators is do they think this is the case?
• What are the ripple effects of colonisation?

Equitable Partnerships

 “Diversity is a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice at the table and belonging is having that voice heard.” You can be invited to the table and be silenced, you can be invited to the table to have a voice but not be heard, or have that voice acted on.

What we want to do is to engage in Equitable partnership.

Moana Jackson said, “Partnerships can be inequitable because you can have someone in a partnership that has more power than the other person or the other party.”

The way he talks makes us think about the following questions:

• Who is playing the game?
• What role models are we looking up to? 
• What are we watching and why?  
• Who is being celebrated?   

Teachers and leaders in schools: how do they think about Te Tiriti in terms of their school context and what it means for them within the education system.

Teachers work for the government essentially. Teachers are a government employee and that comes with a moral and ethical responsibility to uphold the assertions that the crown made to Māori. In education the way that our employer makes sure that their employees are doing that, is through the teaching code and standards. Woven all the way through the code and standards is a commitment of our responsibility as Tiriti partners with Tangata Whenua.

Self determination, agency, voice etc is a goal for Māori. 

• How as educators can we respect and foster this goal in an authentic manner?
• Where do Tumuaki draw the line for Standard One: Te Tiriti in the Standard Teaching Practices? 
• How do we move beyond static in our Te Ao Māori journey?

As tangata whenua with whakapapa to Ngāi Tahu, this was initially confronting. Having some mamae of my Nana being struck at school for speaking Te Reo, my journey to reindigenise as Māori has been ongoing for many years. After overcoming that wave of realisation that I am a subject of the crown it became incredibly empowering to be on both sides of Te Tiriti partnership. As kaiako we have the mana to decolonise and this has helped my own discovery of identity and whakapapa. (Steve ASL Te Ao Māori Lead )

TeTiriti Framework

Essentially Te Tiriti has four articles and those four articles are meaningful and have so many contexts.

• How could this framework be used from a school governance level down so that Te Tiriti is valued and lived in each kura? 
• What examples or success stories are there that currently exist?

Article one: kāwanatanga or governance or honourable governance from a Māori perspective. We all have roles and governance; essentially that's kind of like being a kaitiaki. Boards have a governance role. But leaders in schools have a governance and this rolls over to staff and then Kaiako and support staff .

Kāwanatanga is ensuring Māori have a seat at the table with ‘Equitable Partnerships’.  “Nothing about us without us”.

Ensure that  discussions are happening about Māori with Maori representations  as part of the co-designing process. That there is genuine engagement with your Māori  community and ensuring they are part of the decision making process at every possible juncture wherever we can. We help them to see that their skills and their knowledge and mātauranga Māori is hugely valuable.

Kāwanatanga  shines through strongly in Poutama Reo which we are in the beginning stages of rolling out in the Te Ao Māori initiative. Particularly in the dimension, “Whānau Hāpu and Iwi.” 

• How can schools work towards Māori being represented laterally within their institution? 
• Board room, staff room and class room and making them part of the decision making process?

Article two: Rangatiratanga or Māori self-determination. That is closely aligned to article one in terms of having discussions about our tamariki. Māori achieving success as Māori most closely aligns in article two.

Rangatiratanga is ensuring everyone is at the same place at the start line (equity). Reimagine consultation (as often decisions have already been made) and move to engagement. Come to the table with blank paper. 

• How do we move from traditional consultation to engagement?

Article 3 is about О̄ritetanga or Equity.

It is about us removing bias from structures and systems that have prevented Māori  from succeeding as Māori. Co-designing for equity.

Janelle mentions the equity image we are all familiar with. The way she talks about this image makes us think about the following questions: 

Link to: 'What is Equality?'

• Who created the boxes and were they codesigned? 
• Who is playing the game? 
• What role models are we looking up to? 
• What are we watching and why? 
• Who is being celebrated?

Engagement is when school leaders come to have a kōrero with Māori and the piece of paper is blank. Consultation is when Māori are asked “What do you think about the plan I've already made?” Māori  have been consulted for a long time and we're pretty weary of it . Schools are to stop consulting and start genuinely engaging with their community, with their Māori  whānau. Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the only framework needed. If we deeply embed that and if we look at those articles as a way of guiding our practice, we are going to be genuinely honoured in our practice within our kura.

•  How do we move from traditional consultation to engagement?
• What opportunities are there for schools to consult with Māori whānau, hapu and iwi? 
• Could the Te Ao Māori Initiative use Kapa Kāhui as a vehicle to community collaboration? 
• For example: What waiata/haka should we be learning and why?

What is the sense of norm in education?

Norm or the sense of norm is when something pushes up against our natural human reaction.

Bias checking and Bias Hunting

How do I then train my eyes to go bias hunting for things that don't impact me. That is why we need diverse conversations and diverse communities and people at the table to support us and that agenda is really important.

Bias hunting is a huge part of decolonization.  Part of the colonisation process was to assimilate Māori  into the dominant culture, the Pākehā culture and that was done by design not by accident. For example with the introduction of the Native Schools Act in 1867.

The fact is the language was banned and people were separated from their cultural norms such as how they brought up children, how they educated people. By assimilating them into a dominant culture and everywhere in Aotearoa is a very dominant culture. Māori  is, although growing,  is still very much a minority culture. It is still a marginalised group of people.

How do we get people to acknowledge that they may have a bias and discover what that is and how it impacts their practice?

Activities as a staff to do bias checking could include things such as, a towel folding contest. The idea is to understand that we see the world through different lenses and to hunt for those differences and challenge our own ways of thinking.

Decolonising practice

What would it look like if schools were to actually decolonize their practice? 

Decolonistation should be led by non Māori as those impacted should not lead their “own rehabilitation”. There is still grief and focus for Māori is on the need reindiginise.

This struck a chord with Steve as in what instance is it the victim's job to right the wrong. For example: My daughter was attacked by a dog and it was our job to report the attack and follow through with any prosecution, even though our whānau was working through mamae. For Māori, who are working through multiple generations of hurt, Janelle suggests that their focus should be on reindiginising as opposed to decolonising. That should be done by Pākehā

How to begin decolonization

• Placing a value on the other world view
• Place a value on Te Reo
• Place a value on Tikanga
• Place a value on Mātauranga

This happens when checking the bias at the door.

The decolonisation journey towards equity starts off with ‘Kia ora’ in emails and ends with ‘Ngā mihi’. It  is a journey and the first step can be uncomfortable. Education was used to weaponize and  to colonise using a variety of different ways. There's a famous quote:

“We've got a system that wasn't set up for Māori  to be successful. The system was designed to assimilate Māori children.”

In our mahi as Across School Leaders and experience as educators in Aotearoa, a common theme among colleagues is the apprehension of embracing and using Te Ao Māori due to fear of being tokenistic. Janelle sums this up perfectly by saying "What is tokenistic is living in the current space without moving forward." 

We need to keep the waka moving on our Te Ao Journey.

One way we are highlighting the value of Te Reo is for all our year 4-8 students within our schools to carry out the Taku Reo survey. Our first step has been to gather student voice on how they perceive Te Reo Māori through the Taku Reo Survey. We have asked our ISL to analyse and reflect on the findings and together we will discuss this. 

What does Māori achieving success as Māori actually means? What does it mean in practice in schools?

When we talk about success at schools we're actually talking about academic achievement and and all the other aspects of success become secondary to academic achievement; I would like to think a school's job is to grow good humans. 

You walk into school Halls all over this country and you see honours boards for academic achievement. Go into end of year  assemblies and there's accolades that celebrate academic achievement. But it's not the only part of success.

We need to start thinking about what an ‘honour board’ in Te Ao Māori looks like?

School Reports are antiquated:

For example page one of most schools reports is Reading, Writing and Maths and how nice you are and the school values are on page three. Schools generally place a value on reports in that format. Are they an accurate way of celebrating the success of our children? What about the rest?

 

Tell success stories and that are individual in nature

Success stories should not just involve what happens at schools.

How do we change the script on reporting and tell success stories?

Be an advocate for children  telling their own success stories and being part of writing that success story that goes home to their whānau, so success must have a wider lens. Education success has been too narrow with what we consider success in schools.That means certain children get it and certain children don't. Yet if we widen the lens beyond academic achievement maybe more children will get to experience school success.

 Māori  achieving success as Māori 

Schools present their Māori achievement data and label it whether as name or a narrative as their Māori achieving success as Māori data. Yet when you look at it, it will be the Reading, Writing and Maths data. The academic achievement data of Māori children is still important but call it what it is please.

Do not label it Māori  achieving success as Māori. But call it the academic achievement of Māori  students. For Māori, that academic achievement data has often used Non-Māori tools to measure non-Māori Kaupapa and how well our children did academically in those spaces. Another way of saying it is, “How well did we colonise our Māori children data?”

Tell me how my child is doing in relation to their wellness, in terms of their identity, how strong their connection is to their language and culture and identity. Tell me how you supported that reconnection through school. Re-empower our education to re-indigenous our children.

How do we empower the education system to re-indigenise our children with Māori succeeding as Māori?

Every single time my children strengthen their connection to their identity and every time my children succeed in their Māori Tanga.

•  Learning a karakia
• Standing on the haka stage.
•  Learning a whaikōrero or a karanga
•  Learning about Matariki
• Learning about beautiful mātauranga

Every time they reclaim their identity and they re-indigenise then that is Māori  achieving success as Māori. Academic success is important. But  the re-indigenisation of our Māori children should be our focus. Shift the focus to re-indigenising and watch their academics grow. Watch their confidence in Te Ao Pākehā grow the more strongly they are able to walk in Te Ao Māori .

Changes need to happen at the system level and the school and or Kura Level. It is mandated that we share with our whānau the success of their children. But it is not mandated to share Reading, Writing and Maths. Our current system is completely damaging to some children and some of it is irreversible.  For some of our children the trajectory of their life at the end of school never recovers. Their self-esteem and self-worth never recover. Some of our children believe every word we tell them in those reports and these words can’t be taken back once they're gone. Times change in education. There were things that we said years ago that we would never say now.

Kick over some of those education posts and innovate some of our systems

Find the opportunities for  innovation in education. We discuss how reports used to be with how they are now and how in the future we would probably report. That's when we assemble the ‘Avengers’ around the table and we make sure everybody is present and we go okay. We've got to tell our parents about the achievement of their children and the success of their children. That's a given and has to take place twice a year.

However, outside of that- innovate:

• What could it look like?
• How could we do that?
• What could we change?
• Where's the space for Innovation?
• How do we get the right people on board to co-design that with us so that it will meet the needs of our learners?

Reporting on Reading, Writing and Maths is what Janelle refers to is ‘immovable pou’. As innovative educators, we need to be able to flex these pou to meet report on how well we really know our tamariki. 

• How is data collected and reported on connection to identity and whakapapa?
• What do we consider success and what should be considered as success?
• Should children be a part of writing their own reports?
• What else could we report on? 

“Our system was weaponised to colonise how about we empower it to reindigenise?”

Academics is only a small part of learning.

• Why don't we measure and capture data around our children’s connection to identity and whakapapa?
• Why don't we measure our children’s understanding of mātauranga Māori concepts?
• How do we change the list of things that we're measuring in terms of equal success?
• What would children’s success stories look like if they wrote them themselves?
• Then cocreate a framework for measuring that. Children know how good they are at what they have strengths in. They can articulate what they still need to do to be better.

Identify examples of culturally empowering practices and what these can look like in a school context.

For Māori children: It’s like my pieces fit together. Actually for many of us we don't realise how apart our pieces are until we get to sit a little while in Te Ao Māori. You just have to watch a Māori  child singing a waiata in their eyes and their face light up or when meeting Māori role models.

However there is a degree to which Māori people have walked in Te Ao Māori. Some people have seen it from afar and know it exists but have never even dipped a toe in it. Some have gone in and out and in and out and depending on where they are and who they're with. We are beginning to see children that are born in Te Ao Māori which is so exciting.

Supporting our children to re-indigenise is going to go such a long way for their wellness and such a long way for their success in life. Their ability to navigate both worlds.

However, at a bare minimum, the places where we educate people should reflect our bicultural society. The place where our Māori  children get to see their world and get to learn how to traverse in both worlds.

Some Tips

One of the mistakes that schools often make when engaging Māori  whānau is they'll say right we'll have a whānau hui and it's going to be Tuesday the 8th of August at 7:30pm in the school hall and they'll send out a pānui and say this is what its about and when it is.

Then the whānau will come along to the Hui. There will be a little bit of an agenda. Some people have a formal one and some people have an informal one.

Here's all the things we're going to talk about and they will say, “Right we'll have some whānaungatanga and we'll do this. Next the principal will say, “I want to ask them about this and I want to ask them about our strategic plan and I want to ask them about curriculum and a list of things they, the principal. wants to talk about.

Yet there's very little mana motuhake at all. You've told me when the meeting is, you've told me what time it is and now you've told me what we're going to talk about There's not a lot of agency for me. That doesn't feel like Equitable partnership. Genuine engagement is removing the power and allow Māori to have some Mana in that space and feel part of the process. Someone has more power and it's not me and so really honestly my recommendation is the very first questions you should ask your whānau Māori are these:

•  Ask Māori how often they want to meet? 
• Ask them what do you want to talk about?
• What's important to you?
• Who do you want at the hui?
•  What are your aspirations for your tamariki as Māori ?
• The usual response is (I really want them to have Reo, I really want them to know Tikanga.

Engagement begins like a whānau member that wants to sit alongside.

I want you to just realise that between some of our whānau and the staff room or wherever you want to have your Hui is a whole lot of trauma about schools. For me to traverse from my car to that staff room means that I have to walk through some mud. That's a bit mamae  and there's some memories. There's some stuff so actually asking: How do you want me to engage with you? How do you want to have a relationship with your school? We really want to work alongside you. These can help with avoiding walking through that mud.  

They might respond with: Actually we want to meet over at a different venue and we want to do it at this time.

With “Māori everything moves at the speed of trust.”

• Co-design the agenda if it has to have an agenda
• Always have kai
• Always follow tikanga.
• Always have harakia and whakawhānaungatanga.
• Don't plan for it because whakawhānaungatanga could take over the whole time and that's because it's needed. Your Māori  whānau want to know each other.
• Focus on a positive relationship with whānau.

Māori  whānau come to the whānau and look for their children's teacher. They want to see a message that you're here because you care about my child as Māori . Principals must apologise if staff are not present.

Know who your kura is. Your kura is being sheltered by a tribe. It has always been sheltered by a tribe.  Our kura  lives on a piece of whenua so know what that whenua is, where it's from, do some learning. Your first interaction with manawhenua shouldn't be knocking on the door and asking for a cup of sugar.

Mistakes schools make on their very first interaction with manawhenua is:

• Can I have……
•  Can you open the classroom?
• Can you give us a name?
• Can you come and do our powhiri?
• Can you come and do our blessing?

Manawhenua are volunteers. They are mums and dads and working whānau and manawhenua by whakapapa only.  But also they volunteer most of their time as manawhenua. So if you are not known to them. Their first response will be, 'Who are you?'

A school’s first conversation with manawhenua should be “Kia ora this is who we are, how can we serve you?”

Teatowel Tanga and Service

If we want them to turn up to our Hui then we should turn up to theirs. We should turn up, roll our sleeves and take on the Tea towel Tanga as it is known. Pick up the tea towel. You don't walk in the front door of the Marae and ask to sit in the paepae.  Most of us have to go through the back door and dry dishes sometimes for years. We live in service.

Engaging with manawhenua?  My return serve question is what can you do for them and give a lot of thought to that. Start with establishing relationships and thinking about how you can serve them and their aspirations and their whenua.

Conclusion

As educators re-indigenous our children through the promotion of Te Ao Māori. Use  our Teaching Codes and standards to help with decolonisation and guide our work. Encourage the schools to place a value on the other world view & actively recommit to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Identify and reaffirm school values to help grow good humans. Embrace programmes that develop Mana such as Mitey. Actively seek pathways to serve manawhenua. Revisit the NELPS to seek ways to incorporate te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into everyday activities.

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Links to support schools on their Te Ao Māori Journey

• The Treaty in Brief
• Unteach Racism : Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand
• Standards for the Teaching Profession | Ngā Paerewa
• Taku Reo Survey
• ERO: Poutama Reo
• National Education Learning Priorities