Te Kura o Te Kao (TLIF 5-011) - Ngā Kura Taiao o Te Hiku Publications
Publication Details
Project Reference: Te Kura o Te Kao, with Ngātaki School and Te Hapua School (TLIF 5-011) Ngā Kura Taiao o Te Hiku - Three kura in the very Far North (Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Kuri) had all been on a learning journey over several years, with one working to integrate the teaching of te reo Māori within a curriculum focused upon the taiao (environment) and Te Aupōuritanga and the others exploring the elements of a localised curriculum, which incorporated the pepeha of Ngāti Kuri as its foundation and was built upon the principles of “languaging the learning”.
Author(s): (Inquiry Team) led by Hemi Takawe (Te Kura o Te Kao) and Tracey Ashby (Ngataki and Te Hapua Schools)
Date Published: July 2021
Overview
In this project, they united to construct a shared localised curriculum that was unique to their rohe. The project was founded upon whanaungatanga and what happens when there is collaboration between different kinds of experts in schools, the community, and in literacy education and science.
The teachers developed a curriculum framework around the metaphor of a kahikatea – strong and sustaining. It included a set of pou that represent desirable learner outcomes around agency, engagement, confidence, and capability.
The project achieved great success for all involved, with learning for teachers, students, and community. Localising the curriculum, connecting to the place and the people, and languaging the learning combine to create authentic, meaningful learning opportunities that are also highly enjoyable.
We have learned that the integrated way of teaching literacy produces very good results because it delivers the key components in a way that is interlinked and integrated. It can be adapted to and for the purpose of the inquiry. For example, our students are empowered by the way in which they interact with language whether it be from whānau, teachers or peers. Our job is to foster and explore the ways in which their experiences of the world / Te Ao Māori can be expressed to enable them to engage and participate fully at all levels. The method is relevant for oral language situations and teaching.
Teacher reflection
The inquiry story
This collaborative project involved the teachers and students belonging to three kura in the Far North, Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Kuri. It involved whānau and iwi, and drew on the expertise of kaumātua, scientific experts, and an expert in language-focused teaching and learning.
What was the focus?
The fundamental purpose of this project was for kura in the Far North to grow their learners as knowledgeable, committed, expressive, and proactive Far North Māori citizens and tangata whenua, whose learning would be strongly connected to who they are and where they come from. The teachers sought to achieve their purpose through developing an integrated, supportive community of kura that would collaborate to co-construct a rich local curriculum. The question they addressed was, “Can a collaborative localised curriculum achieve optimal learner outcomes?”
The inquiry built upon work that had already been done to establish authentic localised curricula. Ngātaki and Te Hapua schools had worked collaboratively to explore the nexus of “far, distant and isolated”, “unique, rich, and historically significant”, and “being modern and global participants”. Te Kura o Te Kao had been on a journey to develop students’ cultural identity and language in their Te Aupōuritanga and to extend their expressive capabilities through learning opportunities connected to their taiao (environment). Through these experiences, teachers at all three schools had learned a great deal about the extent of their students’ capabilities and seen their engagement and agency grow.
The schools believed it was time to be more intentional about sharing and combining their strengths. Their concept was to co-design a framework of what effective learning and teaching looks like through the lens of a shared local curriculum framework. Their TLIF project provided an opportunity to find out what this might look like for educators, whānau, and community members — all their people as tangata whenua.
What did the teachers try?
Teachers from the three schools came together to co-construct a shared vision and collaboratively plan learning opportunities that were localised within their rohe. They shared their knowledge of places and stories that could contribute to developing meaningful, relevant, and purposeful pathways of learning, within and across their schools. They also shared their expertise in mātauranga Māori, science, and effective pedagogy and reached out to experts working in the field to do science investigations.
The project’s critical friend provided professional learning support and guidance around “languaging the learning” pedagogy. This rests on the belief that language is central to learning and that effective teachers create a language rich environment that expands the opportunities for interaction and self-expression. The underlying principles of language learning pedagogy include:
- The selection of relevant contexts
- Effortful and purposeful engagement and interactions
- Paying attention to language, noticing people’s contributions, and ‘massaging’ the kōrero
- Opportunities to trigger connections between what is known and what is new
- Active participation in learning
- ‘Stretching’ learners’ current language repertories (spoken and written, in English and te reo Māori)
- Multiple encounters with learning content
- The use of engaging mediating tools – people, tasks, activities, and resources.
The schools came together for collaborative activities that provided the basis for further literacy, language, and science learning activities in individual schools. The cross-school activities included:
- a week-long wānanga at Te Awapoka and Houhora where learners, teachers, and scientific and local experts worked to identify freshwater species, conduct species abundance transect surveys, and assess the health of the awa
- an investigation into tuatua abundance and the impact of trucks driving over tuatua beds at Te Oneroa a Tōhē (Ninety Mile beach)
- wānanga (shared learning days) attended where kaumatua, whānau, and other local experts joined with the teachers and students to share knowledge and stories
- combined learning spaces at Te Kura o Te Kao and Te Kura o Ngātaki, including large-circle conversations where learners could share their ideas.
The teachers identified common threads to construct a curriculum framework that was:
- founded upon whananaungatanga;
- deeply connected to the schools’ kāinga, iwi, and histories;
- directed towards a shared vision;
- shaped by the teachers’ learning about effective practice for students in their rohe.
The framework includes three pou that represent the community’s intended outcomes for students. These are:
- Kaitiakitanga: confidence and capabilities to think deeply and creatively, linked to the key competencies and Kia Marama values;
- Angitū: learning engagement, motivation, and involvement – conversational participation at the heart of their engagement;
- lho Pūmanawa: learner agency – learners proactive in shaping their own learning and collaboratively with their teachers and peers to shape their learning spaces and foci.
The framework also includes:
- seven values, collectively called Kia Marama: arohanui, manawanui, manaakitanga, rangatiratanga, Aupouritanga / Ngāti Kuritanga, Angitū, lho Pūmanawa, and Aumarietanga;
- the principles of language learning pedagogy and the intention of enhancing students’ literacy and language capabilities in both te reo Pākehā and te reo Māori;
- learning activities and contexts that are designed to foster student engagement, motivation, and participation.
The teachers constructed a visual to represent their new framework, appending a set of resources they had developed together. They adopted the metaphor of a kahikatea to communicate the construction of an integrated, supportive community of learning communities, buttressed and sustained by each of the three schools.
What happened?
Despite disruptions caused by Covid-19, teacher turnover, illness, and tangihanga, teacher knowledge, practice and pedagogy strengthened within and across the three schools, with staff collaborating and networking ever more fluidly and strongly. Solutions were found, such as using Skype when face-to-face contact was not possible. Staff are now comfortable to share and work with each other to strengthen their practice, with a collective focus on lifting student achievement and progress.
Teachers have identified the following shifts in their practice:
- The quantity and quality of learner-teacher and in-school and cross-school teacher-teacher learning conversations have improved
- Teachers are engaging with whānau to shape an effective interface between school and whānau contexts and learning
- Teachers are scaffolding learning around the three pou
- Teachers are collaborating with iwi and whānau to design and implement curriculum learning that is beneficial for everyone involved.
The project resulted in accelerated growth for students in relationship to each of the three pou (see above), and in literacy and language learning. Students are highly engaged in their learning and have a deep understanding of the importance of their own local curriculum and its relevance to them now and in and the futures. Behavioural issues have lessened. The teachers were amazed to see how well their students were able to manage themselves and get on with the learning when the schools came together.
There were also positive outcomes for whānau, who now actively contribute to all aspects of quality teaching and learning at school – academic, cultural, social, hauora, tikanga Māori, te reo Māori, and te reo Pākehā. They are sharing their capabilities and knowledge to help expand the learning opportunities for their tamariki.
What did they learn?
The project reinforced the fact that relationships are the foundation of any purposeful and wide-reaching project and of the importance of integrating whānau involvement and tikanga Māori. It was necessary to focus on building whanaungatanga across their collective of schools before the teachers could focus on pedagogical change.
The teachers learned that when students are connected to their learning and can take part in activities that are authentic and meaningful, they are highly engaged and motivated. Behavioural issues lessen and students can manage themselves and learning, even when working with large groups of unfamiliar people.
Collaboration can achieve a lot, while being highly enjoyable for everyone involved. Localising the curriculum offers students meaningful learning opportunities connected to issues that matter for the nation and the wider world. “Languaging the learning” across a range of contexts stretches student cognition and their ability to learn with and from others.
Inquiry team
This inquiry was led by Hemi Takawe (Te Kura o Te Kao) and Tracey Ashby (Ngataki and Te Hapua Schools). The rest of the team consisted of Millie Matiu (Te Kura o Te Kao), Kyle Sucich, and Riria Maaka (Te Hapua School) Yani Ferens, (Ngataki School).
The inquiry’s critical friend was Jannie van Hees (Languaging minds).
Additional expertise was accessed from Nina Pivac (Whitebait Connection), Kaumatua, Kuia, whanau, and community from Te Kao, Ngataki and Te Hapua.
For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader, Hemi Takawe, at principal@tekao.school.nz
Reference list
Conteh, J. (2015). ‘Funds of Knowledge’ for achievement and success: Multilingual pedagogies for mainstream primary classrooms in England. In Jenks, C.J., & Seedhouse, P. (eds) International perspectives on ELT classroom interaction (pp. 49–63). International Perspectives on English Language Teaching. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Garcia, 0. (2014). The translanguaging turn and its impact. In Garcia, O. & Li, W. (eds). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education (pp. 19–44). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https//doi:10.1057/9781137385765
van Hees, J. (2015). Conversational classrooms: Cognitively and expressively engaged learners. Education Aotearoa, Oct 2015.
van Hees, J. (2015). Oral language — To think, shape, convey ideas. Education Aotearoa.
van Hees, J. (2011). Oral expression of five- and six-year-olds in low-socio economic schools. The University of Auckland. ResearchSpace@Auckland
Ministry of Education (2019). Leading local curriculum guide: Local curriculum. TKI: https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Strengthening-local-curriculum/Leading-local-curriculum-guide-series
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