Te Tirohanga o Laurie Loper: Ko te mātauranga e mahi ana i te tika o te hāpori
Laurie Loper’s vision: Education serving social justice
Introduction/Whakataki
20 July 2023
Mō tātou, ā, mō kā uri, ā muri ake nei
For us and our children after us
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu
Laurie Loper’s vision: Education serving social justice is a tribute to Ngāi Tahu Kaumatua, the late Laurie Loper. Laurie was an educational psychologist whose experiences fuelled disquiet about cultural inequity in education. Long into his retirement he continued to engage with research evidence about the ways in which common practices in education underserved Māori and other learners. Through many articles published in the Good Teacher Magazine Laurie drew the attention of teachers to the research findings of Professor Graham Nuthall about the harm of ‘ability’ grouping and the ways in which culture and racism influenced teaching and learning in classrooms.
Laurie Loper established the James Stewart Loper Bequest to fund a demonstration of transformative evidence-based culturally responsive change in education. He selected the approach featured in BES Exemplar 1 Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC) for a demonstration in Ōtautahi. The early demonstration is explained in Hangaia te Urupounamu Pāngarau Mō Tātou | Education Counts.
The DMIC professional development work is co-led by Aotearoa/Cook Island experts Professor Roberta Hunter and Professor Jodie Hunter along with the now 45 Massey University mentors they have trained.
Ngāi Tahu Kaumatua, the late Hohepaturanga Briggs, supported Laurie Loper’s vision at each step of the Hangaia Te Urupounamu Pāngarau mō Tātou| Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities journey. This feature honours both the late Laurie Loper and the late Hohepaturanga Briggs.
Ngāi Tahu take a national leadership role on the imperative to end harmful streaming and ‘ability’ grouping in education in Aotearoa through their Māori Futures Collective Tokona Te Raki. See: Kōkirihia: A Plan for Action; the plan Tokona Te Raki, with the support of 78 Iwi, have built with representatives of the education profession.
Laurie Loper’s vision: Education serving social justice provides a window into the evidence of the ‘how’ behind transformative change that can deliver for all students - equity, excellence, belonging and wellbeing. This feature includes background information, links and references to the underpinning evidence.
The feature includes video footage from Laurie Loper’s and Hohepaturanga Briggs’ experience in classrooms when they went to see the Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities approach in action at Ōtumoetai Intermediate School in Tauranga - winner of the Prime Minister's Supreme Award - Takiri ko te Ata in 2014. The video takes viewers into classrooms and schools where change has been happening to counter cultural inequity in education. At the heart of the video are the perspectives of the children – ākonga.
This feature also highlights the Loper Whānau contribution of the annual Laurie Loper Award at Tauranga Boys’ College - Tane-Nui-ā-Rangi. The award was established in 2020 for Māori student leadership, and to honour Laurie’s vision. Read more about the Laurie Loper Award and watch the 2021 ceremony here.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu - Tūhua and Pounamu
Through the support of Te Taurahere o Ngāi Tahu Tauranga Moana, Kaumatua Hohepaturanga Briggs, Victor Manawatu, Tā Mark Solomon and the Mātauranga team of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, Kaumatua Laurie Loper made the James Stewart Loper Bequest to demonstrate best evidence in action in earthquake affected Ōtautahi. The Ngāi Tahu Mātauranga team selected Shirley Primary School in Ōtautahi, for the trial.
This feature reflects the close ties between Te Taurahere o Ngāi Tahu ki Tauranga Moana and Te Wai Pounamu. While the majority of Ngāi Tahu people descended from the Mataatua waka, Ngai Tahu whānau also descended from the Takitimu waka which sailed to Tauranga as well as Te Wai Pounamu.
The video tells of the 2021 Hikoi made by members of Te Taurahere o Ngāi Tahu Tauranga Moana to pay tribute to Laurie Loper’s whānau marae, Waihao Marae in South Canterbury, Te Wai Pounamu.
The relationship is symbolized through the highly prized Tūhua (obsidian rock) of Tauranga Moana and the Pounamu (nephrite jade greenstone) of Te Waipounamu.
Hangaia te Urupounamu Pāngarau Mō Tātou | Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities
The DMIC approach was developed by Cook Island Kiwi experts, Professor Roberta Hunter, and Rutherford Discovery Fellow, Professor Jodie Hunter. DMIC is a high impact evidence-based approach to culturally responsive teaching that supports teachers to build into their practice effective teaching approaches for diverse (heterogeneous) groups. Well-implemented and resourced DMIC supports ākonga wellbeing, belonging, confidence and proficiency in learning competencies and mathematical reasoning and achievement.
In Laurie Loper’s words:
“Bobbie Maths (DMIC) impacts advantageously on education’s responsiveness to the diversity of learners in New Zealand classrooms and to everything they bring to the classroom of their lives and cultures. For Māori and Pasifika students especially, it makes them feel that they are being valued in their own right.”
Loper, L. (2015). Getting better at getting better. Good Teacher Magazine, p. 30.
The full best evidence in action feature of DMIC implementation at Shirley Primary School: Hangaia te Urupounamu Pāngarau Mō Tātou | Education Counts
The change data for the early implementation are explained in Alton-Lee (2017). Walking the talk matters in the use of evidence for transformative education. Invited paper for the International Bureau of Education - UNESCO Project: Rethinking and repositioning curriculum in the 21st century: A global paradigm shift.
The Shirley Primary School community was affected by the Christchurch earthquake so the positive impacts of the pedagogical change on ākonga wellbeing and belonging as well as achievement mattered even more. Evidence of the impact of the Christchurch earthquakes on young children can be found here: Hei Oranga Tika: Wellbeing Matters | Education Counts
A compilation of all of the best evidence in action DMIC features can be found at the following links:
Hangaia te Urupounamu Pāngarau Mō Tātou | Education Counts
Improving outcomes in mathematics education: A best evidence in action exemplar | Education Counts
Evidence about the ‘how’ of a shift away from ‘ability grouping’ in education | Education Counts
Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities | Education Counts
References
Alton-Lee, A. (2017). Walking the talk matters in the use of evidence for transformative education. Invited paper for the International Bureau of Education - UNESCO Project: Rethinking and repositioning curriculum in the 21st century: A global paradigm shift. Evidence, Data and Knowledge, Ministry of Education, Wellington: New Zealand.
Anthony, G. & Hunter, R. (2017). Grouping practices in New Zealand mathematics classrooms: Where are we at and where should we be? New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 52(1), 73–92.
Fitzgerald, L., Hunter, J., & Hunter, R. (2021). Teacher beliefs related to ability grouping: Gap gazing or strengths based approaches. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 23(3), 97–110.
Hunter, J., Hunter, R., & Anthony, G. (2020). Shifting towards equity: Challenging teacher views about student capability in mathematics. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 32(1), 37–55.
Hunter J., Hunter R., Restani R. (2020). Exploring student views and perspectives within a changing classroom context: Developing mathematical inquiry communities with diverse learners. In A. MacDonald, L. Danaia, & S. Murphy (Eds.), STEM Education Across the Learning Continuum. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2821-7_10
Hunter, J., Hunter, R., Tupouniua, J., & Leach, G. (2022). Bringing the home into school: Learning and connecting through mathematics education during the time of a pandemic. Educational Studies in Mathematics Education, 111(2), 207–224. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-022-10157-1
Hunter, J., & Miller, J. (2022). The use of cultural contexts for patterning tasks: Supporting young diverse students to identify structures and generalise. ZDM Mathematics Education, 54, 1349–1362. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-022-01386-y
Hunter, J., & Miller, J. (2020). Using a Culturally Responsive Approach to Develop Early Algebraic Reasoning with Young Diverse Learners. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 20, 111–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-020-10135-0
Hunter R., & Hunter J. (2019). Using culturally embedded problem-solving tasks to promote equity within mathematical inquiry communities. In P. Felmer, P. Liljedahl & B. Koichu (Eds.), Problem solving in mathematics instruction and teacher professional development. Research in mathematics education. Springer.
Hunter, R., & Hunter, J. (2018). Maintaining a cultural identity while constructing mathematical disposition as a Pāsifika learner. In E. A. McKinley & L. Tuhiwai Smith (Eds.), Handbook of Indigenous Education. Springer.
Hunter, R., & Hunter, J. (2017). Opening the space for all students to engage in mathematical talk within collaborative inquiry and argumentation. In R. Hunter, M. Civil, B. Herbel-Eisenmann, N. Planas, & D. Wagner (Eds.), Mathematical discourse that breaks barriers and creates space for marginalized learners. Sense.
Hunter, R., Hunter J., Anthony G., & McChesney, K. (2018). Developing mathematical inquiry communities: Enacting culturally responsive, culturally sustaining, ambitious mathematics teaching. Set, 2, 25–32. https://doi.org/10.18296/set.0106
Hunter, R., Hunter, J. & Bills, T. (2020). Enacting culturally responsive or socially-response-able mathematics education. In C. Nicol, S. Dawson, J. Archibald & F. Glanfield (Eds.), Living culturally responsive mathematics curriculum and pedagogy: Making a difference with/in indigenous communities. Brill.
Loper, L. (2015).Getting better at getting better. Good Teacher MagazineTerm 4 2015. 30-32.
Miller, J., & Hunter, J. (2021). Cultural perspectives on research in mathematics education: The challenge of communicating with an international audience and moving mathematics education research beyond a White space. For the Learning of Mathematics, 41(2), 2–7.
Nuthall, G. (2007). The hidden lives of learners. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research Press.
Nuthall, G. (2001). The cultural myths and the realities of teaching and learning. The Jean Herbison Lecture. Ōtautahi |Christchurch: New Zealand Association for Research in Education.
Nuthall, G. (1999). Learning how to learn: The evolution of students' minds through the social processes and culture of the classroom. International Journal of Educational Research, 31, 1-256.
‘Nuthall (1999)1 sees the issue of cultural match and negotiation to be so critical to classroom learning processes that he suggests 'ability' to be a consequence of cultural mismatches in students' experiences in class, rather than a cause of achievement. Nuthall (1999) reported analyses of 3217 concept files of the pre-test, post-test and interview data, and record of classroom experience relevant to each concept for 22 Pakeha, Māori and Pasifika students aged 9.6 years to 12.10 years. The analysis compared student learning experiences for content learned and content not learned. For 15 of the students, long-term learning outcomes were assessed on the basis of interviews conducted a year after the science and social studies units were taught. Through detailed analysis of evidence of knowledge construction processes Nuthall explained how 'not only are the knowledge acquisition activities/processes incorporated into working memory, but so is the social and cultural context in which they take place.' (p. 189). Nuthall illustrated this process for individual students showing how different students negotiate and participate in classroom activities according to their prior knowledge, self-esteem, ability to sustain relationships and obtain information through social interaction, status and ability to trade. In short, the social, cultural and cognitive are inextricably implicated in student learning.’
[1] Nuthall, G. (1999). Learning how to learn: The evolution of students' minds through the social processes and culture of the classroom. International Journal of Educational Research, 31, 1-256.
Cited in Alton-Lee, A. (2003). Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling: Best evidence synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education. p. 33.
Nuthall, G. (1996). What role does ability play in classroom learning? Paper presented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education. Nelson.
Timperley, H. (2008). Teacher professional learning and development |Educational Practice Series 18. International Academy of Education, International Bureau of Education & UNESCO.
Timperley, H. (2008). Te Kaupapa whakaako, whakapakari kaiako |Te Kete Tikanga Mātauranga 18. International Academy of Education, International Bureau of Education & UNESCO.
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Best evidence synthesis iteration. Ministry of Education.
Tokona Te Raki. (2022). Kōkirihia: The plan for removing streaming from our schools. Tokona Te Raki.
Tokona Te Raki. (2020). Ending streaming in Aotearoa. Tokona Te Raki.