Working together

Simultaneous Success Trajectories

Kia Eke Panuku epitomises the building on required by schools to form culturally responsive and relational contexts for learning.

This relationship begins with mihimihi (introduce yourself) and whanaungatanga (make connections) as first steps toward mahi tahi (working together as one)

Mahi tahi seeks to address the aspirations of Māori communities and support Māori students to pursue their potential.

This kaupapa of Kia Eke Panuku and the Simultaneous Success Trajectories promote ‘a new way of being’ for schools and their Māori students. As schools work across the dimensions we are seeing positive change for leaders, teachers, students and their communities.

Ako: Critical Cycle of Learning

Mahi tahi operates at two levels, working with senior and middle leaders and working with teachers, all engaged with the Ako: Critical Cycle of Learning.

The term institution describes the structures, processes and procedures that schools create to monitor their performance and institutionise innovation and improvement.

Kia Eke Panuku does not seek to impose new institutions on schools but invites them to build on existing institutions and re-imagine their use for teachers.

The Ako: Critical Cycle of Learning involves three institutions:

• Observation to Shadow Coaching
• Evidence to Accelerate
• Reflect, Review and Act.

For senior and middle leaders, the cycle involves three institutions:

• Profiling and Planning for Coherency
• Evidence to Accelerate
• Reflect, Review and Act.

Facilitated by in-school Strategic Change Leaders, these cycles occur in an iterative and dialogic manner.

Critical Theories

The Ako: Critical Cycle of Learning is informed by Kaupapa Māori and Critical Theories.

To promote equity for Māori students mahi tahi requires us to understand how the fabric of New Zealand society continues to disproportionately advantage the advantaged.

Kaupapa Māori theories and Critical Theories provide a framework to understand how this happens and what we individually and collectively can do about it.

Mātauranga Māori

Kaupapa Māori involves theories of both resistance and self-determination.

These theories emerge from a Māori world view and are maintained within Mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge).

In Activating Critical Theories we are honouring the partnership mandated through the Treaty of Waitangi.

These theories and knowledge are available to benefit both Māori and Pākehā in the promotion of equity and social justice.

Schools that are serious about giving life to Ka Hikitia must be committed to Engaging with Māori more effectively.

Critical Questioning

A feature of the Kia Eke Panuku mahi tahi is the critical questioning individuals engage in, either internally but increasingly with others.

This ‘critical cycle’ requires becoming more consciously aware (conscientisation) of the implications of our current practice, deciding what we need to change (resistance) and implementing theory-based practices that will lead to accelerated outcomes for Māori students (transformative praxis).

This occurs over time in an iterative and spiralling manner. By engaging with the discourses through which critical reflection occurs, a deeper understanding of how evidence can be used to promote school reform for equity can emerge.

The explicit challenge for Strategic Change Leadership Teams is to own and spread these understandings coherently across the school and into the community.

Strategic Change Leaders

The Kia Eke Panuku team provides support to the Strategic Change Leaders to effectively re-imagine their environment to effect the institutions of Kia Eke Panuku and realise the potential of their Action Plans to impact on Māori students' success.

The team develops tools and resources to support Strategic Change Leaders to implement Kia Eke Panuku within each school community.

This involves in-school, digital and community support, as well as the coming together of Strategic Change Leadership Teams at Wānanga. A feature of Wānanga is the opportunity to learn within Māori cultural settings and to engage directly with Māori communities.

Rongohia te Hau - Action Plans - Intensity Model

Schools begin their mahi in Kia Eke Panuku through a process of profiling that provides information for beginning their iterative Action Plan.

Rongohia te Hau (surveys and walk-through observations) contribute a sample of school-wide classroom pedagogy. The Intensity Model uses evidence from these tools and from across the school to define the professional development support required.

In this way Kia Eke Panuku can deliver an individualised professional development response for each school.