Te Kōtahitanga

Publication Details

This is the homepage for the Te Kōtahitanga publication series. The project sought to investigate how to improve the educational achievement of Māori students in mainstream secondary school classrooms, by talking with Māori students and other participants in their education. It was from these narratives that the rest of the Te Kōtahitanga project developed.

Author(s): Russell Bishop, Mere Berryman, Janice Wearmouth, M. Peter, Sandra Clapham, Tom Cavanagh Lani Teddy, Alison Powell, Sarah-Jane Tiakiwai and Cath Richardson

Date Published: Various Years

An Effective Teaching Profile was developed and forms the basis of a professional development intervention.

Three phases of the project have been completed. The first phase examined the experiences of year 9 and 10 Māori students in mainstream classrooms. Student narratives identified that the quality of relationships and interactions between the teachers and Māori students was a key factor to improving student achievement. The Effective Teaching Profile was developed from student narratives and from interviews with parents, principals and teachers. Phase two builds on the findings of the first report and is explored in more depth in the Phase 3 report.

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  • Evaluation of Te Kotahitanga Phase 5 (2010-2012)

    This report analyses the impact of Te Kotahitanga Phase 5 on Māori student achievement and wellbeing and explores the design and implementation features that enabled such accelerated improvement.

    It has implications for policy makers, teachers, middle and senior leaders, principals, providers of professional learning, communities, Boards of Trustees, Ministry of Education staff and other government agencies.

    "[An] excellent  report", "as New Zealand moves forward with Ka Hikitia, I would hope that ... the data reported in Effectiveness of Te Kotahitanga Phase 5, 2010-12 will be considered  carefully" - Quality Assurance by Christine Sleeter, California State University.

    Author(s): Adrienne Alton-Lee, PhD, Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) Programme, Ministry of Education.

    Date Published: August 2015

  • Te Kōtahitanga: Maintaining, replicating and sustaining change

    The purpose of this report is to document the outcomes of the implementation of Te Kōtahitanga in Phase 3 and 4 secondary schools from 2007 to 2010. During these four years, the Phase 3 schools were in their fourth to seventh year of implementing the project in their schools. Phase 4 schools were in their first to fourth years of the programme. The project will report on whether the Phase 3 schools were able to maintain the gains they had made in teacher practices and student achievement during the first three years of the project. The report will also examine if the Phase 4 schools are following a similar pathway to the earlier group of schools (Phase 3) in their implementation of the project. The research project sought to identify the conditions necessary for the schools to sustain and embed the practices and learnings from Te Kōtahitanga.

    Author(s): Russell Bishop, Mere Berryman, Janice Wearmouth, M. Peter and Sandra Clapham, Te
    Kōtahitanga Research and Professional Development Team, University of Waikato.

    Date Published: February 2012

  • Te Kōtahitanga Phase 3 Whānaungatana: Establishing a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations in mainstream secondary school classrooms

    The overall aim of this project has been to investigate how to improve the educational achievement of Māori students in mainstream secondary school classrooms.

    Author(s): Russell Bishop, Mere Berryman, Tom Cavanagh and Lani Teddy, Māori Education Research Institute (MERI), University of Waikato and Poutama Pounamu Research and Development Centre.

    Date Published: March 2007

  • Te Kōtahitanga Phase 2: Towards a whole school approach

    This research project builds on the Te Kōtahitanga research and professional development project. It examines what happens when the professional development project is implemented in the whole school rather than a small number of teachers in a school.

    Author(s): Russell Bishop, Mere Berryman, Alison Powell and Lani Teddy, Māori Education Reserch Institute (MERI), University of Waikato and Poutama Pounamu Research and Development Centre.

    Date Published: March 2007

  • Te Kōtahitanga Phase 1: The experiences of Year 9 and 10 Māori students in mainstream classrooms

    This research project sought to investigate how Year 9 and 10 Maori student achievement in mainstream schools could be improved.

    Author(s): Russell Bishop, Mere Berryman, Sarah-Jane Tiakiwai and Cath Richardson, Māori Education Research Institute (MERI), University of Waikato and Poutama Pounamu Research and Development Centre.

    Date Published: 2003

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