Summary

The NANP was entrusted to assure the consistent and high quality of those accomplished educators appointed to Leader and Across School Teacher (AST) roles.

We were stimulated to prepare this first of three reports in response to:

• the absence of a systematic and longitudinal monitoring and evaluation plan, or authoritative research, of the impact or progress of the IES policy, the operation and evolution of Kāhui Ako, and of the shifts in the pedagogy and andragogy shown by the Leaders, ASTs and Within School Teachers (WSTs);
• in our view, uninformed public statements about the virtue, value and impact of IES from people not possessing the Panel’s close observations and knowledge gained from attending 3044 interviews, or from our monitoring and reflecting, collectively, on the growth of some 220 Kāhui Ako; and in response to
• a lack of wider sector awareness of  the significant cultural change that has been developing in Kāhui Ako schools for the past six years. That shift has seen schools actively and deliberately collaborating, teachers leading and learning from each other, good practice being deprivatised willingly, educational pathways being established across the sectors from Early Childhood to tertiary, and the entering into authentic engagement and partnerships with iwi around the construction of a local curriculum to preserve and tell the stories of mana whenua and their places.

Each  Panel member used thematic analysis to examine the documentation for the Leader and Across School Teacher assessments they had undertaken. We then identified common themes, topics, ideas and patterns of meaning and synthesised these into the ten emerging trends described in our report. The supporting quotes in italics are drawn from a survey of reappointed Leaders and Across School Teachers undertaken by the panel early in 2021.

A second report is being prepared. If this first report is the voice of the Panel, then our next report will be the voices of those leaders and ASTs who participated in our survey of experienced Leaders and ASTs.