Te Kotahitanga Research Articles

Ēhara tāku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini: the power of a collective

ABSTRACT Transmission of skills and knowledge is a core message in dominant discourses surrounding early verbal and non-verbal communication of babies. Narrow conceptualisations fail to place adequate emphasis on sociocultural elements of language and children’s sophisticated non-verbal communication. Utilising Kaupapa Māori research methods, this study describes a critical reflective narrative of a community-led parenting programme that makes space for whānau to re-centre Indigenous linguistic and cultural practices. ‘He Awa Whiria/The Braided Rivers’ metaphor is used to illustrate three themes derived from the analysis: Ma te kotahitanga e whai kaha ai mātau/In unity we have strength, reciprocity/whakaututu, whānau ki te whānau and manaakitanga/love and compassion for others. Data sources included focus groups; interviews; and reflective researcher memos. The evolution of the collective-agentive approach is illustrated within each theme with selected critical episodes. This study describes the parent-coaches-researchers journey to illustrate how a community’s rangatiratanga/sovereignty led to system transformation. The whānau collective journey represents an organic response of one ‘targeted’ community to lead the way in responding to deficit assumptions of parents and their children held by educators in the realm of early oral language. Indigeneous knowledge, ways of being and languaging are central and valid for the success of all tamariki/children.

The Impact of Teacher Professional Development to Reposition Pedagogy for Indigenous Students in Mainstream Schools

There is a dearth of empirical evidence that examines the impact of teacher professional development for culturally responsive pedagogies, particularly on Indigenous student achievement and teacher practices. Te Kotahitanga was a large-scale professional development initiative for culturally responsive practices for secondary teachers in New Zealand. To study its impact, we used a mixed-methods research approach to gather and analyze data on student achievement outcomes, classroom practices, and perceptions of teachers and students. While results suggested positive changes associated with the program, findings also highlighted ongoing challenges associated with transforming practice for Indigenous Māori students. Specific challenges of analysis are highlighted, along with recommendations for further research and development work in secondary schools.

The Te Kotahitanga observation tool: Development, use, reliability and validity

The Te Kotahitanga observation tool: Development, use, reliability and validity

“Because they want to teach you about their culture”: Analyzing effective mentoring conversations between culturally responsible mentors and secondary science teachers of indigenous students in mainstream schools

Te Kotahitanga is an educational reform project in Aotearoa/New Zealand demonstrated to have significantly impacted the participation, achievement, and retention of indigenous Māori students in secondary schools. In this paper, I share results from a study of culturally responsible mentoring at 4 different schools participating in the Te Kotahitanga reform project. Specifically, I investigated how Te Kotahitanga facilitators (i.e., site-based mentors/instructional coaches) engage novice and experienced science teachers in reflective conversations around culturally sustaining science instruction for indigenous students. I identify four key themes from these mentoring conversations that can serve as a useful framework for culturally responsible mentoring in science. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 1325–1361, 2015.

Russell Bishop, Mere Berryman, and Janice Wearmouth: Te Kotahitanga: Towards Effective Education Reform for Indigenous and Other Minoritised Students

Russell Bishop, Mere Berryman, and Janice Wearmouth: Te Kotahitanga: Towards Effective Education Reform for Indigenous and Other Minoritised Students

Te Kotahitanga: The Effective Teaching Profile and its Impact on Māori Student Achievement.

Te Kotahitanga is a Kaupapa Maori research and development programme that aims at improving Maori student achievement. Through interviews with students, teachers and whanau, the characteristics of teachers who made a difference were identified. These characteristics were drawn together to form the Effective Teaching Profile (ETP). This literature review provides a brief background on the Te Kotahitanga programme with an emphasis on the ETP, and its impact on Maori students’ achievement in secondary schools. The educational disparities that exist and perpetuate for indigenous (Maori) learners in Aotearoa/New Zealand are discussed as a rationale for implementing Te Kotahitanga in schools. This literature review explores the principles of the ETP and how these impact on Maori achievement. The ETP is also considered from a Resource Teacher: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) viewpoint.

The Centrality of Relationships for Pedagogy

Te Kotahitanga is a research and professional development project that seeks to reduce educational disparities between indigenous Māori students and their non-Māori peers in New Zealand secondary schools. While evidence of the impact of the project on teachers’ practice and the associated gains made by Māori students has been published previously, in order for the work of Te Kotahitanga to contribute to the broader educational research community, its pedagogical premises require empirical verification. To do so, we must first establish the validity of the pedagogical data by addressing two questions: (a) To what degree can the data gathered in the collaborative processes of Te Kotahitanga be used as a measure of pedagogical quality? and (b) Do these data support the foundational hypothesis of the project, that “extended family” relationships, as understood by Māori people when using the Māori term, whanaungatanga, are a central necessary component of overall pedagogical quality? This article provides an account of the context of this work then presents an analysis directed to these questions in turn. First, our analysis of the observational data gathered during the Te Kotahitanga professional development process is presented, followed by the measures that were developed for each of the main dimensions of pedagogy addressed in this work. Second, using these measures we present our analysis of the inter-relation among these dimensions of pedagogy to test the Whanaungatanga pedagogical thesis.

Discursive repositioning: The impact a group of Te Kotahitanga teachers within a mainstream secondary school had on one student

Discursive repositioning: The impact a group of Te Kotahitanga teachers within a mainstream secondary school had on one student

Across the Colonial Divide

This essay engages questions of evaluator role and indigenous peoples participation in evaluation within colonial and decolonization contexts. Specifically, I critique the Western emphasis on cultural competence and contrast the utility of ‘mainstream’ evaluation approaches alongside three indigenous inquiry models (Te Kotahitanga, Whakawhanaungatanga, and He Taniko) as utilized by/with indigenous Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Using practical examples of evaluation projects conducted with and by Maori, the article highlights the very different ‘evaluation conversations’ happening amongst ‘mainstream’ practitioners—where the focus is on difference, competency, and issues of access—relative to those occurring amongst indigenous evaluators and communities—where evaluation praxis is framed within broader struggles for sovereignty and self-determination. By placing these paradigms in conversation with each other, I highlight the ways in which evaluation approaches that engage indigenous people and places are always representative of particular standpoints. This is because evaluation is unavoidably and simultaneous in dialog with the prevailing contexts of colonization and decolonization vis-a-vis the location and moment in which it occurs. The essay foregrounds the ways in which `mainstream' evaluation's preoccupation with issues of cultural competency fails to fully address the needs and aspirations of indigenous peoples. In contrast, the realization of Maori capacity to meet our evaluation needs as Maori, and as represented in the ongoing development and use of our own approaches and models, not only facilitates a more culturally meaningful evaluation process but also concurrently constitutes an expression of our sovereignty and agency.

My House Burned Down

This article, originally presented in the context of and following a dance performance, discusses how the author, also the choreographer/performer and a dance therapist, works with movement and meaning as part of the therapeutic journey. Following some discussion about dance, the language of dance, and dance therapy, the article presents the view that the concept of relinquishment, as represented by the title of the paper, is intrinsically linked to the concept of home, and that, without recognising the significance of relinquishment, we cannot fully know or understand the concept of “home”. Both the dance work, represented in pictures in the text, and the paper itself explicate this link between home and relinquishment: presenting the idea that by recognising and embracing relinquishment we come closer to knowing wholeness and wellness. The article also describes how the performed dance My House Burned Down can be interpreted as a therapeutic process and, as such, can be seen to move through struggle to a new perspective on presently held ideas about ‘home,’ ‘self’ and the capacity and potential of one’s self.
 Ko tēnei tuhinga, taketake ake i whakaatuhia i roto i te horopaki whakaari kanikani, ā, whai muri mai i matapakihia i pēhea tā te kaituhi, me te kaiwhakarite/kaikanikani me tētahi kaiwhakaora kaikanikani, whakamahi i ngā oreorehanga me ngā tikanga hai haerenga whakaora. I muri i tētahi matapakinga kanikani, ko te reo kanikani, me te whakaoranga kanikani, ka whakaatuhia e te tuhinga te aroro tuku, e ai ki tā te ingoa o te pepa, e mau pū ana ki te aroro mō kāinga , ā, inā kore e mōhio i te takenui o te tuku, kāre tātou e mōhio whānui, e mātau rānei ki te aroro o “kāinga”. Takirua ko te mahi kanikani whakaahuahia nei i roto i ngā whakaata kei roto i te kupu, me te tuhinga tonu e whakamārama ana i tē hononga o te kāinga me te tuku: he whakaaturanga i te ariā mā te kitenga, tauawhinga tukunga ka tata atu tātou ki te mōhiotanga o te kotahitanga me te oranga. Ka whakaahuahia anō hoki e te tuhinga me pēhea te whakaaritanga kanikani I Wera Taku Whare e taea ai te kī he takinga oranga ā, ka kitea te wheta ki tētahi tirohanga hou tae atu hoki te tētahi whakaarohanga hurihanga.

Integrating culturally responsive teaching and learning pedagogy in line with Ka Hikitia

I'd like to provide some insights into culturally responsive teaching and learning pedagogy in line with Ka Hikitia - Managing for Success: The Maori Education Strategy 2008 - 2012 (Ministry of Education, 2009), along with some practical examples. Three projects will be looked at: Jill Bevan-Brown's The Cultural Self-Review (2003); Russell Bishop et al, Te Kotahitanga: Culturally responsive pedagogy of relations (2007); and a more recent work entitled Tataiako: Cultural competencies for teachers and Maori learners (Ministry of Education, 2011).

Professional development, changes in teacher practice and improvements in Indigenous students’ educational performance: A case study from New Zealand

This paper considers the relationship between a professional development programme designed to bring about changes in teacher practice through iterative cycles of implementation and evaluation and associated changes in Indigenous students’ educational performance. The paper does this by documenting the outcomes of the implementation of the Te Kotahitanga research and development project between 2007 and 2009 in schools in the third and fourth phases of the project. Evidence shows that the professional development programme of Te Kotahitanga has been implemented consistently in Phase 3 schools since 2004 and in Phase 4 schools since 2007. Changes in teacher practice and associated improvements in Māori student outcomes were seen in Phase 3 schools between 2004 and 2006. The first question is, therefore, have these changes been maintained during the period 2007–9, that is, during the fourth to seventh years of the project’s implementation in these schools. If so, then what implications does this maintenance of practice have for sustainability? The second question is, have the changes that were seen in the Phase 3 schools in the first three years of the project’s implementation, 2004–2006, been replicated in the Phase 4 schools in their first three years of the project. If so, what implications does this have for determining the strength of the association between improved student performance and the implementation of the professional development programme. In other words does a repeated measure over two different groups of schools at different times indicate that changes in Māori student outcomes are strongly associated with changes in teacher practice, even if we cannot demonstrate a direct cause–effect relationship.There are also other areas of significance. These include the indications as to what constitutes a pedagogy that improves Maori students’ experiences of schooling and achievement along with the more general interest in educational improvement for Indigenous students in other countries. In addition, while these findings in themselves are not sufficient to indicate that the changes in teacher practice and student outcomes that are associated with the professional development programme will be sustained, it is suggested that the conditions of maintenance and replication are necessary to form the basis of long-term sustainability.11While the term sustainability in common usage would refer to Maori student achievement being able to be maintained at a certain level, in this paper we also use the term in a more inclusive sense to mean the provision of a means whereby the reform is able to be deepened and extended by teachers, school leaders, and policy makers in response to changing student curriculum, and contextual matters over time and circumstance. In other words, the creation of conditions, including pedagogic reform, supported by changes in school vision and goals, institutions and policies, leadership practices, inclusion, use of evidence and ownership of the goals of the reform, that will mean that schools will continue to be able to improve Maori achievement levels until they reach that of their non-Maori peers.

Developing an effective education reform model for indigenous and other minoritized students

Educational disparities between indigenous Maori students and those of the majority continue to be a major issue in New Zealand. Te Kotahitanga, an iterative research and development programme, which commenced in 2001, supports teachers to implement a relationship-based pedagogy in their classrooms in order to improve Maori students' achievement in mainstream secondary schools. This article addresses the question of how gains in Maori students' achievement can be sustained and expanded. Schools, from an earlier phase of the project, in their 6th and 7th year of the programme were examined, using a theory-based model designed to evaluate and promote dimensions necessary for effective institutional support of the teaching innovation. This article demonstrates that schools that have been the most effective implementers of the intervention have seen the greatest gains made by Maori students in the 1st year of national assessments. This article then discusses effective leadership for addressing problems schools encountered while implementing the pedagogic reform.

Te Kotahitanga: a case study of a repositioning approach to teacher professional development for culturally responsive pedagogies

This article presents a case study of a unique New Zealand professional development programme, Te Kotahitanga, for mainstream secondary school teachers. Findings discussed are drawn from an independent evaluation of the programme across 22 secondary schools. The professional development approach attempted to reposition the relationship between teachers and Indigenous Māori students, and enhance Māori student outcomes. Interviews with 150 teachers across participating schools investigated teacher perceptions of impact on classroom practice and student outcomes across subjects. The professional development programme was associated with shifts in teachers' understandings of their positioning within classrooms and relationships with and expectations for Māori students. Results also highlight ongoing challenges in teachers' repositioning and the development of new relationship-based approaches. The implications for teaching practice and professional learning programmes and recommendations for further research are discussed.

"What can I do about Māori underachievement?" Critical reflections from a non-Māori participant in Te Kotahitanga

"What can I do about Māori underachievement?" Critical reflections from a non-Māori participant in Te Kotahitanga

The schooling experiences of Pasifika students

The growing diversity of students in mainstream schools in Aotearoa New Zealand is challenging for educators and policy makers alike. Educational researchers in the 21st century have shown that listening to what students have to say about what works best for them is more important than ever. This article discusses the narratives of schooling experiences of two generations of Pasifika students, comparing the experiences of Pasifika students from Auckland secondary schools involved in the Te Kotahitanga project in 2009 with the author's schooling experiences in the mid-1970s to the early 1980s.

The Te Kotahitanga Observation Tool: Development, use, reliability and validity

Te Kotahitanga is a New Zealand school reform project aimed at improving the pedagogical contexts in mainstream classrooms in which the indigenous Māori students have traditionally been marginalised. It does this by assisting teachers to implement an Effective Teaching Profile. Part of this process uses an observation tool to monitor the degree to which participating teachers are incorporating the interactions and relationships described in the Effective Teaching Profile into their day-to-day teaching. Given the central importance of these tasks, the Te Kotahitanga team undertook to test the observation tool for measurement reliability and validity. In order to undertake this study, the team conducted synchronous observations amongst trainers (the Professional Development Coordinator and Regional Coordinators) to ascertain their level of consistency when using the tool. The team then conducted synchronous observations between trainers and 38 in-school facilitators in the 12 schools involved in Phase 3 of the project. In total 41 teachers were observed and over 200 Māori students were involved in these observations. This study suggests that the tool can produce consistent and reliable results when observers have been effectively trained.

Te Kotahitanga: culturally responsive professional development for teachers

Te Kotahitanga is a research and professional development project that aims to support teachers to raise the achievement of New Zealand’s indigenous Māori students in public/mainstream classrooms. An Effective Teaching Profile, developed from the voices of Māori students, their families, principals and some of their teachers, provides direction and focus for both the classroom pedagogy and the professional development. While the authors understand that there are many institutional changes necessary at the school level, this paper focuses on the professional learning opportunities developed for classroom teachers within this project to support the development of more effective classroom relationships and interactions with Māori students. This has resulted in Māori students attending school more regularly, engaging as learners and achieving to levels where they begin to realise their true potential.

Effective Teaching for Indigenous and Minoritized Students

Te Kotahitanga is a kaupapa Māori research and professional development project currently operating in 33 mainstream secondary schools. This project was developed in response to the ongoing problem of educational disparities for Māori students, one of New Zealand's most pressing educational issues. From initial conversations with Maori students, their families, their principals and their teachers about what constituted effective teaching understandings and practice for Maori students, we developed an Effective Teaching Profile. This Profile is central to the professional development work that has been implemented in Te Kotahitanga schools with notable increases in a range of outcomes for Maori students.

The Te Kotahitanga Effective Teaching Profile

The Te Kotahitanga Effective Teaching Profile