Module 8: Whānau Whanake (Building Stakeholder Relationships): This module explores building positive and collaborative partnerships and networks with parents, teachers, students, and community members to support school improvement.
Due: 11th August
Nau te rourou, naku te rourou, ka ora te manuhiri.
With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.
Module Objectives:
- Understand the importance of strong stakeholder relationships in school improvement.
- Identify your key bicultural stakeholders in the community.
- Develop and implement strategies for effective communication and engagement with stakeholders.
- Build trust and foster collaborative partnerships with parents and whānau.
- Utilise community resources to enhance student learning and well-being.
- Develop and implement a stakeholder engagement plan for the school.
The NZ Education Code of Practice 2021 describes stakeholders as “learners, staff, whānau, local communities, employers, iwi, and others who share a meaningful interest in the wellbeing and safety of learners enrolled with the provider.”(p.10) A key principle for forming stake-holder relationships is mahi tahi and kotahitanga: collective benefits and shared aspirations. This module dives into developing culturally responsive practices and engaging with whanau, hapu and iwi. However, the principles explored can be applied to many stakeholder groups.
We are aware that there is a continuum of experiences and expertise among our delegates so please explore the area(s) most relevant to you below.
Defining Culturally Responsive Leadership
Culturally responsive leadership refers to a leadership approach that recognises, respects, and integrates the diverse cultural backgrounds and identities of students, staff, and the community within the educational environment. This approach prioritises inclusivity, equity, and culturally sensitive practices.
Key Components of Culturally Responsive Leadership:
- Cultural Competence: Culturally responsive leaders demonstrate cultural competence by developing a deep understanding of their own cultural biases and beliefs. They actively seek to learn about the cultures represented in their school community.
- Inclusive Leadership: Inclusive leaders foster an environment where all students and staff feel valued and included, regardless of their cultural background. They promote an atmosphere of respect and acceptance.
- Cultural Awareness: Culturally responsive leaders are attuned to the cultural needs and preferences of their students and staff. They adapt their leadership style to accommodate these differences, making the educational experience more relevant and engaging.
Culture Matters!
Culture significantly shapes our thinking, perception, actions, and communication. Learning is intricately linked to culture, meaning that even when the classroom’s teaching methods, resources, curriculum, and relationships remain the same, students’ experiences may differ due to their cultural perspectives and prior knowledge. Problems arise when educators are unaware of the diverse knowledge and experiences diverse students bring to learning. Even if a teacher shares the same culture as their students, understanding their backgrounds isn’t guaranteed as cultural understandings and behaviours vary within cultural groups, and teachers may miss cultural cues. It’s vital not to ignore these differences or treat all students uniformly, but instead, move from cultural blindness to cultural responsiveness.
Bias, Unconscious Bias and Racism:
Biases in educational leadership can manifest in various ways, often stemming from deep-seated societal prejudices. These biases may result in unequal opportunities, resource allocation, and disciplinary practices for students of different backgrounds. Educational leaders, whether consciously or unconsciously, may favour certain groups while unintentionally disadvantaging others. These biases can hinder the creation of inclusive, equitable learning environments, perpetuating disparities in academic achievement and student well-being. Addressing biases in educational leadership is crucial for fostering fairness and ensuring that every student has an equal opportunity to succeed academically and personally. It requires self-awareness, ongoing education, and a commitment to dismantling discriminatory practices to create a more just and equitable educational system.
In leadership and teaching positions we need to be aware of unconscious biases and how these might affect the way in which we operate in a school setting; towards children, colleagues and whanaū. An unconscious bias is more difficult to overcome and can be defined as such:
“Refers to a bias that we are unaware of and which happens outside of our control. It is a bias that happens automatically and is triggered by our brain making quick judgements and assessments of people and situations, influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal experiences.” – Equality Challenge Unit UK: Unconscious Bias in Higher Education Review 2013.
In New Zealand schools students can also experience outright racism, as explored in this article on Mana College – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/racism-in-schools-calls-for-cultural-competency-in-the-classroom/JNSGWAYUUQI5RH65F3535A7YII/
Our Responsibility as School Leaders in Aotearoa:
School leaders clearly have a responsibility to ensure schools are safe and equitable places for learners and their whanau. We know that culturally responsive pedagogies have the potential to narrow the disparities in our school communities, concurrently elevating the overall levels of achievement. Extensive research indicates that these culturally responsive pedagogical approaches boost student performance across diverse cultural groups, ensuring every student is motivated and has the assistance required to unlock their educational potential, irrespective of their social, economic, cultural background, or individual requirements.
In this video, Professor Mere Berryman explains the need and the opportunity to use evidence to make a difference in education in Aotearoa, and why a Tiriti o Waitangi partnership approach – Mana Ōrite – is foundational to success for diverse Māori learners and for all learners in English-medium education.
Task:
Research tells us that there are some key aspects of culturally responsive pedagogy:
- Reflect on your cultural knowledge and teaching assumptions related to culture
- Learn about your students
- Use students’ cultural knowledge, perspectives and skills as a resource for teaching
- Create a safe and supportive environment and build strong relationships
- Encourage a discursive curriculum and enable student self-determination
- Connect with families
- Connect with communities
Select one or two aspects from the list above and reflect on what your school does well in this regard and what next steps you would take to further develop your school’s cultural responsiveness.
Comment on a fellow delegate’s response, remembering that every school is at a different place in this journey. You might offer support if there is a next step you can help with, reassurance if you have been on a similar journey, help with a resource you have found useful etc.
Optional Resources:
Explore the resources most relevant to you.
Working effectively with iwi and hapū, Melanie Taite-Pitama: https://vimeo.com/242861287
Puketeraki Kāhui Ako: Culturally responsive practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQusPg98GcQ
A website with many useful resources and links: https://elearning.tki.org.nz/Leadership/Culturally-responsive-leadership#js-tabcontainer-1-tab-5
Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (BES): https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/5959
“The real conspiracy is that education is for the rich” L. O’Connell Rapira – https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-08-2020/the-real-conspiracy-is-that-education-is-for-the-rich
“They didn’t care about normal kids like me”: Restructuring a school to fit the kids” A. Milne – https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/6234
“Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools” A. Milne – https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/7868
Assessment:
- Completion of all relevant readings.
- Participation in the online forum discussion.
- Submission of reflection on forum.
6 Responses
I am reflecting on two points; “Create a safe and supportive environment and build strong relationships” and “Connect with families”.
My school has developed solid systems in order to create safe and supportive relationships and to connect with families, that I have been a part of and see the success in. We set up “whānau connect” meetings at the start of each year to get to know the students and their whānau. These meetings are intentionally designed to unpack family values, celebrations, strengths, background, health information, and also to get the parents and students to focus on the strengths of the child and their individual goals.
The focus is on this, rather than how the school or classroom runs, as this part comes later and we have information and communication that goes home following this about the processes and formalities of classroom and school culture. From these meeting we create a “whānau map” which is the students drawing of the family and important people, along with a big chart/brainstorm over the A3 paper to write down all the important details and information that is shared. This happens at year 0/1 and the same “whānau map” is taken to each class each year and added to. This becomes a very important and loved document over the years and helps the teacher of the following year to see the history or what has been changed or added for each student/whānau.
This system has changed and adapted over time as we have seen the need, but has become a solid process for us at Bayview School to really understand the child and their whānau and develop those strong relationships from the get go.
The importance and logistics of these meetings is explicitly taught and unpacked prior to these meetings through whole staff PD, in which SLT and team leaders are a part of and help to support and guide our newer teachers.
I have reflected on Connecting with families. Connecting with communities.
Our school places a strong emphasis on building meaningful connections with families and the wider community. We do this in a number of ways, including student-led conferences twice a year, which allow children to share their learning journeys directly with their whānau. Each week we hold Whānau Friday mornings, where parents are encouraged to visit classrooms and engage in learning. Every class also has a dedicated parent representative to help support communication and coordinate class social events.
On a school-wide level, we maintain regular communication through fortnightly newsletters, parent open mornings, and community events such as the school picnic in Term 1 and Meet the Teacher Day. We also make use of online platforms such as Google Classroom, Hero, and teacher emails, which ensure families are kept up to date and can easily engage with classroom learning and school notices. These opportunities, both in person and online, help families feel welcome, informed, and involved in school life, fostering strong partnerships between home and school.
An area for improvement is in the celebration of cultural days. We are a culturally diverse school with many ESOL students, and at times there can be barriers to engagement for families who are new to English, which can affect their participation in school events. To support this, our school has employed dedicated ESOL teachers who are able to speak a range of languages. They assist teachers by replying to emails, meeting with families, and helping to communicate in families’ home languages. This has strengthened connections, but there is still more we can do to acknowledge and celebrate the cultural richness of our community through school-wide events, celebrations, and opportunities for families to share their culture
1. Learn about your students
Being an intermediate school we only have 2 years in which to get to know our students before they move onto high school. As a result, frameworks and strategies have been put in place to ensure that we know our learners and provide rigorous and culturally relevant academic and wellbeing programs for them.
This starts when they are in Year 6. Senior Leadership meets with each parent for an informal meeting in which the parents can raise any questions they may have and the school can gain some insights into the student’s primary school experiences and home life. The feeder primary school Year 6 teachers complete a spreadsheet with a number of questions to give a good overview of each child. This assists in class placements and creation of Year 7 classes.
At the start of each year, the academic programs are collapsed for the first few weeks so the teachers and students can engage in a range of activities together to start building relations and to gain an understanding of the students in their classes. We have EOTC week early on and these days allow the staff to learn about their students outside the classroom environment – resilience, working as a team, growth mindset etc.
Each year Student Voice Surveys are completed by every child in the school. This valuable survey gives staff insights as to how students feel and their experiences with safety and wellbeing, standards and expectations, teaching and learning relationships, communication and motivation.
The purpose of gathering these voices is to gain insights that can facilitate shifts in our teaching practices if needed. This can make a difference in a student’s learning experience, sense of belonging and even character.
At the moment these responses are anonymous. I’d like to look at how we can keep them anonymous but have the students tick their cultural backgrounds. This would allow us to filter responses to analyse any trends and insights that could help our culturally responsive teaching practices.
2. Connect with Communities
Connecting with communities is part of the school’s strategic plan. The following 4 initiatives have been a school wide focus:
a) Build reciprocal partnerships with whānau, the community and local iwi
b) Promote a sense of belonging, connectedness and relationships with in the community
c)Strong communication of our strategic intent, purpose and values
d)Enhance partnerships and connections with local schools and businesses
These areas in the school have been improved by the student voice surveys and community feedback and surveys. Similar to Melody’s school, where I work has taken this feedback onboard and strengthened communication through the school’s newsletter, Facebook page, weekly parent emails outlining each week’s academic focus, ‘need to knows’ for the week and celebrating student success in the classroom. There is a lot of parental involvement and support for sport through coaching and at external sporting events. Twice a year we have student-led learning conferences, where the student leads their parents through their goals for the term and shares with them key pieces of learning they have been involved in.
More school wide events would be a key strategy for continuing to develop our school wide responsiveness. Having cultural days/evenings that involve the parents would be a good starting point. Language barriers with our non-English speaking parents would be a challenge but celebrating other cultures school wide would encourage further cohesiveness and cultural responsiveness.
Connect with families. Connect with communities.
My school has worked hard to establish and maintain connections with families and communities. This is embedded in the strategic plan:
-Our community is connected and inclusive; our collaborative relationships strengthen the wellbeing of all.
-Develop and maintain positive partnerships with parents, whānau and wider community with the purpose of enriching teaching and learning.
-Acknowledge and embrace community diversity in all aspects of our school.
We currently connect with families through 3 main ways:
-Online platform: parent APP, Google Classrooms, teacher communications via app or email, newsletter.
-Face to face: parent teacher conferences, classroom open door policy, Garden to Table sessions, parent volunteers to support different events.
-School wide events: cultural days, science and technology exhibition, art exhibition, assemblies.
We also have different events for our Maori, Pasifika, Korean, Mandarin speaking whanau with special days, lunchtime clubs, huis, and get togethers.
While it’s multi-leveled communication, there are still barriers: language, cultural, time, effort, and responsiveness from both teachers’ side and the families’ side.
We continue to seek feedback from our communities/families to ensure we provide the best communication to benefit our tamariki by overcoming the listed barriers.
In my answer I am going to reflect on creating a safe and supportive environment and building strong relationships and connecting with families.
I have been lucky enough to work in two very different schools when it comes to this approach, and both schools do things well and do things that I think they can improve on. I’ll talk about my current school while looking back at my previous school.
My current school is in a high-socio economic area of Auckland and so there is a high expectation for students to excel in their learning – which I totally agree with. We hold a Year 9 open evening at the start of the year, and two parent-teacher interview nights across the year which is our only chance for teachers to connect with families.
I feel like there could be ways to incorporate a few more informal, community-led events that make space for relationship building on equal footing as not all families may feel confident or welcome in formal school settings due to their history of schooling.
My current school does seem to just inform families of changes or initiatives that are happening within the school. Instead of simply informing families about these things, families could be brought into early design processes (curriculum choices, event planning, pastoral care strategies), which positions them as true partners in education.
My previous school was very good at removing barriers to education when it came to learners. If they didn’t have the right tools for the job, the school provided it. If there were mental health issues with the child, the school and families worked closely together to find ways to make them feel welcome and supported at school. My current school isn’t as good at doing this, once again, it feels like because a majority of the students come from a high socio-economic background they forget that some students and families do struggle to make ends meet.
It’s a continual work-in-progress though, and it does feel like there is a slow shift happening towards a more community-led approach to how things are done at this school which is exciting to see.
Today, I am going to reflect on the key point about “Learn about your students and connect with families.
This is an area that our school has worked hard on over the last few years. A lot of these efforts happen at the end and beginning of the year. At the end of the year, we work really hard to find the best fit for each student (especially our tiered students who have learning, behaviour, or emotional needs) regarding their next year’s teacher. Once this has been decided on, we hold transition meetings with current and future teachers to share the strengths, strategies, and needs of the students, making it easier for them to form relationships and achieve success in the next year. We also discuss with the children which friends help them learn, ensuring they are placed with at least one or two good friends. At the beginning of the year, we have whānau map days where the students come in with their whānau and talk about themselves, the important people in their lives, their strengths, culture, family values, and the goals or aspirations that they or their parents have for them. We also get to share about ourselves as teachers. We also have a huge focus on developing relationships with our students at the beginning of the year to create safe environments where they can learn. We also refer to the students as all of our students, so in doing this, we keep an eye out for everyone.
I feel like these help to build relationships with the parents and whānau. We can continue to develop the relationships with the families and whānau and celebrate who they are more. We have started to develop a whole school understanding about the cultures and transitions that the families share at the whānau map meeting through cultural celebrations and learning, but this is an area that we could do more in.
We strive to connect with families around learning through our partnership meetings and communicate behaviour with parents through our PB4L policies. However, I believe we can further enhance our positive communication with parents when we, as teachers or students, witness success in academics, emotional growth, sports, cultural, or creative pursuits.