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.
27 Responses
Creating a Safe and Supportive Environment and build strong relationships
At our college, creating a safe and supportive environment is encouraged from the top down. One way we do this is through a transition day for Year 8 students, held in November before they start. On this day, students experience what a lesson looks like in a college classroom and take part in a scavenger hunt to become familiar with the layout of the school. This helps ease their nerves and ensures the college feels like a welcoming, less intimidating place. The event is always popular and well attended.
Once students start, we focus on helping them settle into class routines so they understand what to expect each day. As a restorative school, this approach has been a learning journey for me. I’ve found that using the “mini chat” strategy is a particularly effective tool—it not only supports students but also helps me regulate my own response before situations escalate.
One little thing I will do when I can is to add students names in my classes into questions this often brings a giggle and they are then keen to read on.
Next Steps:
• Ensure this practice is consistently applied across our College.
• Continue to collect student voice on how they are feeling about being at College.
Connecting with Communities
Over the past four years, connecting with our wider community has been a major focus for the college. We work with a number of community partners to support our students—particularly with an emphasis on helping targeted students strengthen their connection to whakapapa and build their mana. We also have partners who provide mental health support for our learners.
I believe these connections have helped the community see the positive work happening at the college and reinforced that we are here to support our students both academically and personally.
We have also encouraged students to be part of many community activities.
Next Steps:
• Continue to strengthen and maintain these community partnerships.
• Monitor how this is impacting our reputation within the community.
That all sounds great Catherine. One idea I particularly liked was that the mini chat gave you time to think through your own response. We can often do things in the spur of the moment which we would later regret so that strategy is very helpful.
Positive relationships are the foundation of everything we do at Mangapapa. At the end of each year we have transition hui where we get to meet our new class for the following year and they have the opportunity to connect with us too. This reduces a lot of anxiety for learners and helps make the first day at school less stressful as they know who their teacher is, where their classroom is and who the learners are in their class. Alongside this, our teachers korero with last year’s teacher about their new class so they can best support and meet the needs of each learner going forward. This is always a fabulous way to learn about our tamariki, their whanau dynamics and any extra learning needs they may have. Across the year our whanau have multiple opportunities to meet kanohi ki te kanohi with us teachers. We also very much have an open door policy where whanau are welcome to pop in at a time that suits them to korero about their child. We pride ourselves on building relationships and connections with whanau. As a school, we are also asked to follow up with any whanau that don’t book or come to whanau korero, again trying to ensure that we can follow up another time that suits them. We also find out from whanau what the best way to contact them is (phone, text, email, messenger etc) as often one form of contact does not suit everyone.
What can we improve in?
Something that as a school we can get better at is the opportunity to learn and embrace other cultures as we have had a rising number of ESOL learners over the last two years. This will allow them to feel more connected within our kura. The only real opportunity we have had for this at present was during our Matariki Celebration where everyone bought a kai from their culture to share together. But we definitely need to make this a priority with the more diverse ethnicities and cultures we now have within our kura.
That sounds like a great transition process Steph. It’s so helpful to get that information from the previous year’s teacher as well. Your school families must feel very valued and included. Incorporating the new cultures is a great new challenge too.
The aspects I have chosen are Use learners’ cultural knowledge, perspectives and skills as a resource for teaching and Connect with families.
At Mangapapa School, we are strong in creating a safe and supportive environment where learners feel connected, valued, and respected. Our culture of Whanaungatanga is lived every day — through whānau kōrero, mihi, awhi, kai evenings, and our Headstart programme, which ensure strong relationships are built from the outset. At the beginning of each year, we also hold transition hui between teachers so they can kōrero about each learner and their whānau. This ensures smooth learning transitions, builds on existing relationships, and helps teachers connect with the cultural knowledge and background each learner brings to their learning.
We demonstrate Manaakitanga by providing opportunities for all to be successful: from leadership, arts, and sporting opportunities, to extracurricular activities that allow every MKid to shine. We celebrate and value the strengths of our MKids through a school culture that is Mangapapa Proud — pride and mana-enhancing experiences, vibrant house competitions, and a high-energy kura where there is always something happening. Our Success Pie philosophy ensures every MKid has opportunities to shine and experience success in ways that matter to them, whether competitive or personal. We uphold Kairangi (excellence) in action, always prepared when competing or performing, and we foster a strong sense of belonging — MKid for life, not just the six years you are here.
Relationships are at the heart of our kura. Teachers genuinely care and G.A.S (Give a S***), creating powerful partnerships with whānau and a culture of acceptance, belonging, and ongoing encouragement. We hold high expectations for all, support learners to rise to challenges, and ensure clear routines and boundaries that help them feel safe and confident. Our strong, collaborative staff team is committed to the success of every learner.
We also recognise the vital need to give mana to Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our school. While our classes may be multicultural, we hold a rich bicultural history, with indigenous Māori learners in our classrooms. Schools are one of the most important spaces where tamariki Māori will spend a large part of their learning and growing years — it is not a privilege but a right for them to see their culture, language, and history reflected authentically in the classroom. Our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is seen in the consistency across our kura — each class starts the day with karakia, pepeha, maramataka, and kai karakia at eating times, ensuring te reo Māori and tikanga are a natural and valued part of daily life.
Next steps:
To strengthen our cultural responsiveness further, we could:
Deepen opportunities for whānau to share cultural knowledge and skills directly in the classroom, ensuring it shapes learning experiences.
Embed more learner-led projects that connect learning to local iwi, hapū, and community contexts, reinforcing the bicultural foundations of our school.
Continue professional learning for staff to grow confidence and capability in delivering culturally responsive and mana-enhancing teaching and learning.
What a great response Kylee. I think that as schools are a microcosm of society for students to have had such a warm, nurturing, uplifting, mana enhancing experience of their primary years augurs well for the future doesn’t it. How fantastic for families to see that you uplift their tamariki in this way. Well done!
Connect with families
Being a very large boarding school connecting with families and whanau is of huge importance in that for two thirds of our students 220 girls, this is not only their school but their home. Also a large amount of our girls come from Gisborne and Taupo so they are often full boarders so stay in at the weekends too. So as educators the boarding component of our students life often transcends into the day school. This can have a positive and negative impact.
One thing we do well is our wrap around care and support. We know our students well and do generally care and fill their needs. But I do think the culturally responsive element for our students in terms of the significance of boarding and ‘place’ could be strengthened.
We have many ways of connecting with our families, boarding bulletins, week ahead newsletters that inform parents. We have added more time and efforts into our integration for new/Year 9 students and parents at the start of the year which has been a positive, also ensuring boarding students have the opportunity to experience boarding prior to Day 1. Parents are often onsite Sundays or Mondays completing drop offs as well as at the end of the week. So they are a familiar part of the environment. Parent-teacher interviews happen prior to ‘exeat weekends’ to allow for boarding families to coincide pick up with interviews.
Some noted changes to our pastoral care system this year where we have moved to year level Deans has allowed for a more streamlined process of who to contact in terms fo pastoral care. As year 10 Dean I have enjoyed this move (although reluctant at first) but the planned system of staying as a specialise Year 10 Dean and NOT moving through with my cohort is something I am grappling with. I would prefer to remain connected with my year level for 2026 and see them graduate and be the Dean on their educational journey..
What we could do better still sits with our Maori students – particularly our boarders and the cultural connection to the place they call home for majority of the year – we could definitely do better here .
Being from Gisborne, I can say particularly in Primary Schools teachers are working hard to embed local curriculum into education and lots have a pepeha gifted by iwi so Māori learners from this region often have strong connections to iwi, hapu, marae etc. Knowing people who have sent their learners away for school to particularly the Hawkes Bay area often speak of the great processes in place that set up learners for success in what could be a interesting transition time so thats awesome work there. I don’t have the silver bullet and I don’t know the practicalities in your environment or what you may have in place already but some ideas to create that cultural connection you would like to improve on for maori students could be:
Making te ao Māori more visible in the boarding house — incorporating karakia, waiata, share pepeha, or follow the maramataka.
Creating spaces that reflect Māori identity, like displays of iwi maps, whakataukī, students own pepeha or a cultural corner.
Giving Māori boarders regular chances to share their culture with others — kapa haka, cultural nights, pūrakau sharing. Inviting whānau to be part of these events when possible.
Having a trusted Māori staff member or kaumātua/kuia check in with them regularly to keep connections strong.
These could help Māori boarders feel their culture is part of everyday life, not something left behind at home.
There are some great ideas in here Kylee – thank you for taking the time to read and reply! Awesome to be able to feed some of these back to boarding too
Thank you for those excellent ideas Kylee.
Yes boarding schools have their own cultural challenges not the least of which is breaking down the barriers between day girls and weekly and full boarders. The transition period is also tricky as being away from home for the first time is huge isn’t it. As a parent yourself you will be full of empathy.
My daughter is a day student at a Girls’ boarding school, much like what you are describing (most of the roll at hers are boarders) – so I’ve seen how the boarding side works and how it often transcends into the day life of the school (I briefly worked at this school nearly 14 years ago too). I agree that the sense of “place” is so important for boarders, especially for those who may not go home till the holidays due to the distance it is to get home. I can see the benefits of having year-level specialists deans, but I completely understand your point about wanting to journey alongside your cohort right through until graduation. There must be something really special about the long-term relationships that system creates – I’ve only been in schools to date that have the year-level deans.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading/working through this module. About four years ago, I was part of our Kāhui Ako, with my focus on Culturally Responsive Pedagogies. Having always taught languages, embedding cultural responsiveness into the classroom felt like a natural extension of my teaching practice. From day one, I acknowledged that our class was made up of many people from different cultures, and that this diversity was a strength to be celebrated. In my Kāhui Ako role, I also became aware that many teachers in other subject areas were finding it challenging to incorporate cultural responsiveness into their classes and programmes, which highlighted for me the importance of sharing practical strategies across disciplines.
My two focus areas I chose for this task:1. Create a safe and supportive environment and build strong relationships
What we do well:
Our school prioritises manaakitanga by ensuring that students feel welcome and valued from the moment they arrive. Our senior prefect students are there to support the new Year 9s in their first few days, before the rest of the school returns (nearly 1900 students/year). A pōwhiri is performed on the first official day of the Year 9s starting and this is led by senior students. Parents/ whānau are invited and encouraged to attend. From day 1 our students are introduced to a PNBHS concept of “brotherhood” which reflects whanaungatanga (relationships, trust, and mutual support) that bind all students together; and Kotahitanga (unity in purpose and action). This is a common thread referred to throughout a student’s journey at PNBHS. Many, by the end of their 5 years, reflect fondly on their “brotherhood” and challenge the younger students to continue to uphold this concept and extend it towards the next intake of students.
The first few lessons are designed to get to know the students in front of you and allow them to share about themselves within the context of the subject. E.g. in Languages it may be a discussion around what other languages students may speak at home.
There are also recordings of how to properly pronounce Māori/Pasifika student names in our classes that teachers and support staff can listen to as many times as necessary to ensure they are pronouncing students’ names correctly from the start.
We have a robust pastoral support system in place also for our students – x2 deans at each year level, x1 Pasifika dean, x1 Māori dean, student support centre + 2 guidance counsellors. In addition to that we also have a Deputy Principal for each year level
Next steps:
To further strengthen this, we could embed more opportunities for students to share their cultural knowledge and personal narratives within the curriculum, not only during special events but as an ongoing practice. Some subject areas do this well while others don’t at all. Providing staff with more targeted PLD on culturally responsive pedagogies would deepen consistency across the school.
2: Connect with families
What we do well:
Our school has multiple communication channels with whānau, including Year 9 &10 meet the teacher evenings, 6 separate opportunities throughout the year for parent–teacher interviews, regular school newsletters, and digital platforms (such as the Parent Portal) for progress updates. We actively invite whānau to key cultural events such as Matariki celebrations, kapa haka performances, music concerts (where everything from Jazz, choir and kapa haka perform), prizegivings, and the pōwhiri for new students. Our pastoral team makes early contact with families when concerns arise, and staff are encouraged to contact home with positive news as well as challenges.
Next steps:
We could strengthen this connection by creating more informal, low-pressure opportunities for whānau to engage with the school as some may find the more formal settings intimidating. For example, open evenings where student work is showcased alongside cultural performances and kai (I know schools with lower rolls than ours do this type of thing – perhaps our greater number makes it more challenging to achieve). It would also be valuable to gather feedback from whānau about how they prefer to be communicated with and what opportunities they would like to see for involvement.
As a PNBHS parent (and teacher) I do wonder how I would cope with keeping up with everything if I wasn’t already in the system and aware of a lot of things going on that would affect my child (e.g. involvement in music competitions and evenings etc). I have found some things to be clearly communicated, while others things not so much. So there’s definitely room for more consistency around this aspect.
I am so envious of the resources having a large roll allows. I work in small inner city full primary school serving a predominaantly lower socio-economic community. We have a rumaki unit which has a more well developed whanau engagement strategy than the mainstream cohort, which I often feel could or should be duplicated across the school. But like you, I feel the shear amount of interactions might be too much. I do agree with you thoughts around making these interactions less formal. Our Rumaki unit’s events always revolve around kai, maing them naturally social and low key.
In regards to the pastural care via the Deans and councilors you have, the dean approach is something that has been discussed in our school but would be very difficult to resource, however using house group teacher leads to provide similar support has been raised. We are very lucky to have what we call Te Poomanawa, a stand alone, charitable trust set up by the school, staffed by a guidance counciler, social worker and lcs/senco. This has been instrumental in providing care normally poorly resourced and accessed via referals to outside agencies.
A very thorough and thoughtful response Christina. Achieving a sense of brotherhood in such a big school is a huge achievement. Your experience as a language teacher cannot help but make you so much more culturally aware.
I love hearing that you still put a focus on getting to know your learners at the Secondary level, especially in the first few lessons. This is obviously much easier for us in primary where we have our kids all day so very quickly build connections with them. I wonder if that relationship building is common practice across all high schools? I certainly had teachers that just delved into curriculum content from day one when I went through school!
I mentioned in my post that we send out a questionnaire at the beginning of the year that asks whanau how they would prefer to be communicated with – we find that works well!
You have so many good ideas Christina. Of course as a languages teacher you grapple with culture every day so it is just what you do. Creating a sense of cohesion in a school community of close to 2000 is quite a challenge but you seem to have nailed it. Well done!
Connect with families
I believe that connecting with families is a big strength of Central Hawke’s Bay College. This begins with the principal meeting with all prospective students and their whānau prior to starting at the college. Whānau are invited to the pōwhiri at the beginning of each year when the new Year 9 students are formally welcomed. Events within school are well publicised through the school newsletter and social media – families are often seen attending sports events, Kapa Haka, the annual music competition and more.
There is a strong sense of community at the college, partly helped by CHB being a community focused place but also due to the willingness of the large majority of staff who are getting involved with extra-curricular activities and forming positive and sustaining relationships with students and their whānau.
A next step for me would be to increase the number of families who attend parent-teacher interviews. There are many reasons why parents may choose not to attend interviews but as highlighted in Mere Berryman’s talk, ‘home, school and community collaborations’ are a huge factor in improving experiences for ākonga.
The solution could be as simple as being more persistent in making phone calls (rather than emails or letters) to whānau. Last year I persisted with a Year 11 parent who had never attended an interview before and was amazed when they turned up!
One more complex option could be to change the format of a traditional parent-teacher interview to one where work is on display and families can walk around seeing what their children have been doing, having conversations with teachers whilst they look.
Encourage a discursive curriculum and enable student self-determination
I liked Mere Berryman’s phrase ‘activation of all brains’. This is something which resonates with me as it has been a focus of my work on the Universal Design for Learning. I believe that as a college we are making progress in activating all the brains in the classroom. One way in which this is being done is by using mini-whiteboards. They are a great tool for starter problems but are most powerful when being used to check if the students have understood the new learning that has just taken place. I recently did a series of podcasts about learning with some primary students and one college student (https://www.chbkahuiako1.co.nz/podcasts). The college student mentioned whiteboards as the number one strategy which has helped with her learning.
A next step would be to add more student voice on feedback of their experiences in their lessons. I would like to interview a greater cross-section of students from the college but also to come up with a way of receiving regular feedback on the lessons the students are encountering. This clearly needs to be done in a way which is useful for both Kaiako and ākonga without opening the door for unnecessary and potentially hurtful criticism.
Great response Sam. You are detailing an exciting journey which your school has been on. It’s always important to establish that positive relationship well before the academic feedback comes along. Students thrive in an environment where they are known and valued and you are working hard to make that a reality.
Lack of parent engagement is something we see often at my kura. While we should, and are, be solutions focused, we can’t but wonder why this is the case. Lack of school engagement across generations would appear to be the case. Appropriate and engaging culturaly responsive pedagogy would likely be at the heart of this problem and knowing this leads to the likely soution for our current akonga. As discussed here and by Christine Belton’s commentary, engaging whanau holisticly via kai, Te ao Maori, and tikanga based approaches will and does increase that engagement.
I have generated an indepth analysis of contemporary research and supporting documents to guide and consolidate my thinking around Cultural Responsive Pedagogy and in particular stakeholder engagement. See document here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t6VhIMd9ZXOovATZUZdkvseDpTEn6_CdI_b2z9VJtaU/edit?tab=t.0
Connecting with families and communities is my focus for this task. The rumaki unit at my kura do this very well. As I have mentioned previously, their community and whanau engagement approach is significantly different to what we might see in mainstream kura. Their approach is anchored in monthy or sometimes twice monthly whanau nights, and whanau wants and needs are incorporated into their programmes. Further to this, the local Hapu is connected with throughout the year and often invited to enjoy or participate in activities and performances. An example of how this is played out is in the design and choreography of their kapa haka performance. Whakairo is part of their programme and is in fact made available across the school. Unpacking the research shows “effective communication and engagement involve robust dialogue (Wānanga) with learners and communities for the benefit of Māori learners’ achievement. This includes being open to exploring diverse perspectives, reflecting on one’s own beliefs, and engaging in co-construction of knowledge, recognizing the expertise of Māori parents, whānau, hapū, and iwi.” (last 2 sentences generated from Gemini ai). I see no reason why this cant be duplicated in mainstream classes. Rather than “Learner conferences” twice a year, monthly or termly family nights, whanau involvement in classroom programmes, wider whanau guidance in teaching programmes and foci could do 2 things; allow genuine parent wants and desires actualised in the classroom programme and might, potentially, if our tamariki see their parents, caregivers and whanau directly engaged with their own learning, their own motivation and engagement might increase.
An alternative or parallel approach is around engaging whanau by providing numeracy and literacy support to them, again demonstrating and modelling to tamariki that learning is a good thing, and also enabling whanau to support their tamariki with any home based learning.
That sounds a wonderfully organic and holistic way of communicating and engaging with parents. Well done to them!
Having just watched the Mere Berryman video, I find myself in somewhat of a conundrum. While the thrust, whero and kaupapa of her koorero and research is around removing the inequities maori have experienced over generations, (and so it should be) one question she asked later in her presentation made me sit up and wonder, and should it even be asked: what are or were the benefits pakeha could reasonably expect from Te Tiriti, where those expectations have not been met? I asked some family members this question and the almost enevitable answer was lets just all get along and forget the politics. I dont agree, yet it did leave me pondering my responce. I then asked my friends Gemini and ChatGPT the same question to get some further perspective. From this I concluded there are potentially 2 answers. One focuses on what is missing from todays society and what maori need to do (or give up) to enable this gap to be filled. The alternative is around what Pakeha need to do to achieve those expectations. This includes: educate themselves about Te Tiriti (especially the Māori text), support Māori self-determination, not just inclusion, challenge misinformation in public and political discourse, push for constitutional reform that embeds Te Tiriti as foundational law, and embrace cultural transformation — recognising it enriches all New Zealanders. I wonder now how pakeha at large would answer, and where the responces sit politicly.
In my opinion the main thing that Pakeha got out of the Treaty was the ability to live here which the Treaty guarantees. My ancestors left England in 1841 and I doubt they would have done that had there been no legal basis for them being able to make their home here. It’s why I’ve always felt a responsibility to be respectful of tikanga, kawa and to improve my language. It’s been a life long journey since my first year of University with Sir Timothy Karetu.
With all due respect to you and your ancestors, treaty or no treaty, the colonisers would have done what they wanted and be buggered to Maori. It’s been the same anywhere colonisors were enboldened by the Discovery Doctrine.
Au contraire. Unlike most other environments, Maori were not a conquered people.
Au contraire indeed. Sorry Geraldine thats BS!