Huntly College, Ruawaro Combined School, Huntly Primary and Taupiri School (TLIF 5-013) - The revitalisation of Te Reo rich learning environments Publications
Publication Details
Project Reference: Huntly College, Ruawaro Combined School, Huntly Primary and Taupiri School (TLIF 5-013) - While the vast majority of ākonga attending schools in the Huntly District are Māori and whakapapa to Waikato-Tainui, most of their teachers are not. The vision of the local Kāhui Ako is to ensure ākonga stay in school, enjoy learning, and positively shape their futures.
Author(s): (Inquiry Team) led by Sharon Moller and Kandy Pohatu from Huntly College
Date Published: May 2021
Overview
Teachers knew that realising that vision required them to ensure that ākonga have a strong sense of personal and cultural identity and believe in themselves as learners. Language and identity are entwined, and so teachers wanted to make te reo Māori a part of business-as-usual at school. How would this be possible when most of them were not fluent in te reo or confident to test its use in the classroom?
I am getting better with my te reo. I am continuously learning more and more through conversation with ākonga and colleagues. I am able to use small phrases in and outside of the classroom but would not consider myself confident in Te Reo.
Teacher reflection at the end of Cycle 1
The answer lay in taking advantage of the superior linguistic competency of some ākonga and having them lead the teaching and help in the revitalisation of te reo. Getting there required partnering with iwi and whānau to develop targets, evaluation tools, and teaching and learning approaches that would work. In classrooms, teachers needed to learn how to create an environment that would enable the ākonga leaders to be successful in implementing the planned approaches, while maintaining warm relationships with their peers. The teachers needed to do this while also ceding some power and modelling their own identities as learners.
Despite the need to change approach when the second cycle of inquiry coincided with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the project was successful in ceding greater agency for teaching and learning to ākonga, and in improving the te reo Māori fluency of ākonga and teachers. There was even evidence of impact on the use of te reo beyond classrooms directly involved. The project also enabled the identification of seven teaching practices that impact positively on ākonga leadership of te reo learning. Of these, three were key, working in unison: negotiating learning, linking learning to real life, and creating emotionally safe learning environments.
The inquiry story
This inquiry initially involved seven teachers from four schools, ten ākonga leaders, and 50 ākonga, along with their whānau. It also involved the hapū and iwi of the ākonga leaders. Two schools continued with the second cycle, which involved all 70 ākonga at Taupiri School, the cultural advisor at Huntly College, 50 ākonga, and the college’s Puna Ako (year 9-13) class.
What was the focus?
Teachers in Huntly District’s Kāhui Ako value te reo Māori and wish it to be incorporated in classroom talk. However, while most ākonga are Māori and descendants of Waikato-Tainui, most staff are not Māori and do not speak of te reo. While many had attended classes in te reo as part of their professional learning, most still lacked the confidence and fluency to transfer their learning to the classroom. Responsibility for making te reo me ona tikanga Māori part of school life rested mainly with Māori teachers.
On the other hand, the teachers who led this project knew that among their ākonga, there were many whose competence in te reo far exceeded their own. They recognised that these ākonga could be a valuable learning resource for both their teachers and their peers, helping to making te reo a natural part of classroom talk.
The inquiry team also realised that an important part of “stepping up” to realise the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi was partnering with Waikato-Tainui. This partnership began before the project commenced, resulting in the realisation that it would not be enough to focus on language acquisition alone. If the process of normalising te reo was to be embedded and sustained, it would be necessary to address the whole classroom environment. The team would need to find ways of sharing power and giving both teachers and ākonga leaders agency over the teaching and learning process.
A search of the literature by advisor Jean Annan had led to the identification of seven effective teaching and learning practices that were foundational to the inquiry team’s approach. These practices were:
- Negotiating learning
- Linking learning to real life
- Creating and supporting learning connection
- Nurturing positive and optimistic attitudes
- Supporting reflection on learning
- Creating emotionally secure climates for learning
- Teacher agency
The partnership with iwi also included development of a tool to evaluate shifts in te reo fluency. This was based upon the level 1 achievement objectives in the Curriculum guidelines for teaching and learning te reo Māori in English-medium schools (Ministry of Education, 2009), but modified to ensure it aligned with the local dialect. Together, they also decided which of the achievement objectives they would focus on, choosing five that seemed likely to have the greatest impact on classroom talk.
The team refined their inquiry focus as follows: “We want to know whether the development, implementation, and refinement of seven selected teaching and learning practices designed to increase ākonga leader agency could have an impact on the ākonga leadership of te reo Māori and, in turn positively impact on the te reo learning of ākonga and teachers.”
What did the teachers try?
The intention was to work through two cycles of inquiry, with ākonga leaders working with their whanau and teachers to plan programmes of learning and analyse and learn from progress. This happened as intended in the first cycle of the inquiry. Ākonga who had volunteered to lead te reo learning in their classrooms took part in a series of six hui, along with their whānau and teachers. The hui included people from all four schools, so that the knowledge-building was shared and relationships were constructed across the different groups.
In classrooms, teachers sought to create space for the ākonga leaders to take up their peer tutoring role. They did this deliberately, testing their implementation of the seven teaching practices they had identified as critical, and gradually refining their understandings about these practices as they explored how they could work to foster ākonga agency and te reo Māori. A lot of thought was put into relationships – power-sharing relationships between teachers and ākonga leaders and the quality of relationships between ākonga leaders and their peers.
As the first cycle of inquiry progressed, teachers scaffolded the ākonga leaders into their role as peer tutors, helping them to employ teaching practices that would be interesting, engaging, and memorable. The ākonga leaders began to offer real-world experiences, with opportunities to practice by playing games, singing songs, and having competitions. Teachers modelled their attempts to learn te reo and use it in day-to-day interactions.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, this process was unable to be continued, and so the project regrouped Two of the schools were unable to proceed, but Huntly College and Taupiri School both decided to persevere, adapting their plans to the changed context.
At Huntly College, hui were conducted online, and an opportunity was discovered for a new group of ākonga to lead the learning. These were a class of 15 ākonga at Huntly College, who were already in the role of cultural advisors. Supported by their teacher, they developed five-minute videos. In each video, the ākonga leaders set a clear learning intention, used a teaching strategy they had learned to introduce the target kupu (vocabulary), and issued a wero (challenge) to encourage use of the kupu in the classroom. The videos were used with all ākonga at Taupiri School and with the Puna Ako class at Huntly College.
At Taupiri School, the whole school had been involved in Cycle 1, and this continued. Te reo Māori earning was progressively integrated into the programme. For example, paepae were used to teach and practice karakia, waiata, seasons, and telling the time. In keeping with the school’s philosophy, tuakana-teina relationships were fostered within classrooms and across the school and whānau were encouraged to participate in the learning.
What happened as a result of this innovation?
Cycle 1 saw increased use of te reo in classrooms. Both teachers and ākonga had become more fluent in their use of te reo and felt more confident to use it. Ākonga leaders became more confident to teach, and the approach to teaching and learning te reo became more coherent. The team’s data indicated an improvement trajectory – language taught later was better retained as the competence of both ākonga leaders and teachers increased. Highlights included:
- A 13.4 per cent increase in the number of ākonga who said they were good or very good at introducing themselves in te reo Māori.
- A 16.4 per cent increase in the number of ākonga who said they could ask and reply to where something is in te reo Māori.
All the teachers had moved from “I’m just getting started to either “I can do this” or “I am really good at this” in all five of the target achievement objectives.
Feedback and reflections from both teachers and ākonga enabled the refinement of the seven teaching practices. What became most clear was the importance of really knowing each ākonga and considering how they wanted to learn. Three of the teaching practices appeared to have the most impact on te reo learning: negotiating learning, linking learning to real life, and creating emotionally safe learning environments. Consequently, these three were selected as the focus for teacher learning in Cycle 2. However, the disruption of Covid meant that less attention could be given to emotional safety.
The need to shift suddenly to online learning was disruptive, but had advantages, in terms of making it easier to make the learning relevant to home and community life. On the other hand, the lack of face-to face interaction made it more difficult to build relationships with the students and negotiate learning. This was especially difficult for ākonga at Taupiri School, who tended to have less access to digital opportunities to learn than their older peers at Huntly College. The videos worked well, enabling the learning to be experienced by more ākonga than was previously possible and growing the skills and confidence of a whole new team of ākonga leaders.
At the end of Cycle 2, inquiry participants reported that teachers had grown in their confidence and fluency in te reo, and that students felt that their teachers supported them in this learning. There was some evidence of spread, with teachers at Huntly College who were not directly involved in the project seeking to increase the use of te reo in their classrooms and with it being used in school documentation, such as lesson plan templates. The creation of the videos was not a burden for the ākonga leaders, but instead consolidated their learning.
What did they learn?
The use of ākonga leaders to foster te reo Māori learning and teaching works. It enables both ākonga and teachers to become more competent and confident to see te reo in their interactions. It requires a combination of expertise from teachers, ākonga, whānau, and iwi.
The three teaching practices that have the most impact on te reo learning work are negotiating learning, linking learning to real life, and creating emotionally safe learning environments. They work as a set, with emotionally safe learning environments the most important. To create such an environment and link learning to real life, learning has to be negotiated. Ākonga value teachers working with them in learning design, really listening to them, learning together with them, and helping with reflection.
The team emerged with the strong belief that learning te reo should be mana-enhancing for both teachers and ākonga. Teachers can model themselves as learners while being deliberate about ensuring ākonga leaders of learning have the knowledge and skills they need to be effective teachers. The approach works and has signs of spreading and being sustainable across school communities.
Inquiry team
This project was led by Sharon Moller and Kandy Pohatu from Huntly College.
Critical friendship was provided by Huirama Matatahi (Waahi Whaanui Trust) and Kimai Huirama Hairu Roa (Waikato – Tainui Education Team)
External expertise was provided by Jean Annan (Positively Psychology) and Marama Reweti-Martin (University of Waikato).
For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leaders, Kandy Pohatu at Kandyp@huntlycollege.school.nz or Sharon Moller, at sgkmoller@gmail.com
Reference list
Annan, J. (2018). Student and teacher inter-agency: Negotiated learning environments. Proceedings of the International Academic Forum (IAFOR) International Conference on Education, Hawaii, 73–82.
Berryman, M., Eley, E., & Copeland, D. (2017). Listening and learning from rangatahi Māori: the voices of Māori youth. Critical Questions in Education, 8(4), 476-494.
Cozolino, L. (2013). Norton books in education. The social neuroscience of education: Optimizing attachment and learning in the classroom. W.W. Norton & Co.
Education Counts. Rolls by funding year level, gender, and ethnic group, as at 1 July 2018.
Ministry of Education. (2009). Ka Hikitia – Managing for Success 2008–2012, Updated 2009. Wellington, New Zealand.
Ministry of Education. (2009). Curriculum guidelines for teaching and learning te reo Māori in English-medium schools: Years 1–13. Wellington: Learning Media.
Proctor, C. (2014). Enhancing well-being in youth. Positive psychology interventions for education in Britain. In M. J. Furlong, R. Gilman, & E. S. Huebner. (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools (pp. 416–432). New York, NY: Routledge.
Radio New Zealand. (2019). Plan to have 1 million people speaking Te Reo Māori by 2040.
Rossouw, P. J. (2014). Neuropsychotherapy: An integrated model. In P. J. Rossouw (Ed), Neuropsychotherapy. Theoretical underpinnings and clinical applications (pp. 43–69). St Lucia, QLD; Mediros PTY Ltd.
Statistics New Zealand. (2013). lwi grouping profile. Waikato-Tainui.
Statistics New Zealand. (2014). Measuring te reo Māori speakers. A guide to different data sources.
Waikato-Tainui. (2015). Ko te Mana Maatauranga – Education Strategy 2015–2020. Hamilton: WaikatoTainui.
Webber, M. (2015). Diversity and the secondary years: Ngā pūmanawa e waru: Identifying the characteristics of successful intelligence from a Maori perspective. In A. Macfarlane, S. Macfarlane, & M. Webber (Eds.), Socio-cultural realities. Exploring new horizons. Christchurch: Canterbury University Press.
Yoon, B. (2015). Cultural capital, agency, and voice. Literary practices of middle school English Language Learners. Middle Grades Review, 1(2), 2–13.
Navigation
Contact TLIF
If you have any questions about TLIF projects, please contact us at:
Email: TLIF Mailbox