The Genesis of Te Kotahitanga

2001: The Scoping Exercise

Research initiated by Professor Russell Bishop and Dr Mere Berryman with support from kuia and kaumatua

2001: The Scoping Exercise

Researchers sought to understand more about what was behind the ongoing discrepancies in Māori students’ educational achievement compared with their non-Māori peers.

2001: The Scoping Exercise

In order to do so they:

• interviewed a selection of Māori students and some of their educators from a range of secondary schools using a Kaupapa Māori research approach

• examined national and international literature

Findings of The Scoping Exercise

•Participants could clearly theorise their education experiences.

•There was a clear mismatch between the descriptions and explanations of the students and their teachers.

• Teacher - student relationships and interactions, together with structural issues, impeded and limited the progress of Māori students.

• Findings clearly revealed the value of a Kaupapa Māori research approach for identifying and talking about solutions.

Findings of The Scoping Exercise

2001 – 2002: Te Kotahitanga Phase I

Researchers sought to:

• understand more about what was behind the ongoing discrepancies in Māori students’ educational achievement compared with their non-Māori peers

• identify how to raise Māori student achievement

2001 – 2002: Te Kotahitanga Phase I

Research undertaken in five secondary schools by talking with:

• Year 9 and 10 Māori students

(engaged and non-engaged)

• Their whānau

• Principals

• Teachers

2001 - 2002: Te Kotahitanga Phase 1

• Each group provided rich narratives of experience from which the basis for the Te Kotahitanga professional development and pedagogical intervention emerged.

• The pedagogical intervention worked well for Māori students with a few trained teachers in these schools, but traditional relationships and interactions outside of these contexts, and within the wider school, proved to be counterproductive.

2002 - 2003: Te Kotahitanga Phase 2

• The collection and use of evidence of student learning outcomes to monitor and inform new learning was not commonly applied by the teachers.

• Professional communities, rather than professional learning communities emerged.

2003 - 2009: Te Kotahitanga Phase 3

• In-school facilitators in 12 schools were trained to implement the professional development cycle in their schools with cohorts of teachers.

• Evidence based professional development for teachers was provided by in-school facilitators.

• There was a greater emphasis on the effective use of student learning outcomes to monitor and inform new learning.

2003 - 2009: Te Kotahitanga Phase 3

Development of:•Review of Practice and Development (RP & D) for in-school facilitators around the elements of the in-school PD cycle for both formative and summative purposes.•GPILSEO: a model for sustainable school wide implementation of Te Kotahitanga, widening the focus from a pedagogical intervention to a school reform

2006 - 2012: Te Kotahitanga Phase 4

Facilitation teams and principals from 21 schools (October 2006)

Development of:•ETP Descriptors – a facilitated self reflection tool focussed on the level of implementation of a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations•Rongohia te Hau – a school wide ‘slice of time’ evidence collection process involving student and teacher surveys alongside evidence of classroom pedagogy collected through 20 minute classroom walk-through observations

Beginning 2009: Te Kotahitanga Phase 5

• Facilitation teams and principals from 17 schools (October 2009)

• GEPRISP + GPILSEO• 5 year plan including co-construction meeting at

three levels: classrooms, senior leadership and middle leadership

• R&D team working alongside facilitators and school leaders - shadow-coaching and RP & D of Leadership co-construction meetings

• Shift of focus from facilitation team to ‘school team’ in Year 4

Māori students Non-MāoriMāori

University of Waikato

Ministry of Education