Inclusiveness

Another feature of interactive professionalism is that it is inclusive. If educators are to develop inclusive professional relationships that honour diversity, they need to address patterns of dominance and subordination that are embedded in New Zealand’s educational system. A number of researchers have explored these issues and made proposals that may help educators to develop an inclusive pedagogy that will foster such relationships.

A literature review conducted by Gorinski and Fraser (2006) reports findings that families are key to children’s academic success and identifies the paramount importance of schools building strong reciprocal relationships with Pasifika families and communities. Gorinski and Fraser argue that a move to a more inclusive education system requires “a fundamental change in thinking and practice in schools, from a monocultural to a multicultural lens” (page 25). They call for “an alternative paradigm: a multicultural pedagogy concerned with equity, bicultural/multicultural perspectives, spirituality and an holistic approach” (page 12).

The Pacific Islands School Community Parent Liaison (PISCPL) project aims to “foster and encourage a closer relationship between school and Pacific Islands communities, and improve and increase Pacific Islands student achievement across the curriculum” (Ministry of Education, 2004) in the ways suggested by Gorinski and Fraser. Gorinksi (2005) presents a case study of several schools involved in the project. She reports that each school took part in a range of initiatives that were contextually relevant and specific to its needs and that combined to:

• increase the participation of Pasifika parents
• enhance the capability of the staff to engage in culturally inclusive teaching, communicate with Pasifika students and families, and network with other schools
• achieve improved student participation, learning, and achievement.

Gorinksi’s findings are consistent with the research of others that concludes that the development of trusting and respectful cross-cultural relationships between school communities and Pasifika parents and communities can enhance teaching and learning and empower families.

Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai, and Richardson (2003) investigated the experiences of year 9 and 10 Māori students in mainstream classrooms. They found that teachers’ deficit theorising about these students had created a downward spiralling, self-fulfilling prophecy of Māori student under-achievement and failure. The research team developed a professional development intervention called Te Kōtahitanga. The team showed that when classroom relationships and interactions are attended to, Māori students achieve improved learning, behaviour, and attendance outcomes and schools’ relationships with parents, whānau, and community improve.

This study has shown that the key to improving Māori students’ achievement is professional development that places teachers in non-confrontational situations where, by means of authentic yet vicarious experiences, they can critically reflect upon their own theorising and the impact such theorising has upon Māori students’ educational achievement. In addition, the professional development must provide situations where teachers are shown and are able to practise in an on-going supportive manner, strategies that will change classroom interactions.

page 2

Bishop et al. suggest that “solutions to issues of power and control; initiation, benefits, representation, legitimisation and accountability can be addressed in mainstream classrooms by reference to Māori culture in ways that will eventually benefit all students” (page 11). In developing a new pedagogical model, they draw on Smith’s discussion of kaupapa Māori theory and practice. Smith (1997) identified a series of fundamental principles or metaphors that can be extrapolated from Māori-medium schooling into mainstream educational settings, including settings for adults’ professional learning:

• Tino rangatiratanga (relative autonomy/self-determination): Literally, this means “chiefly control” and figuratively, it means self-determination. When parents and students feel that they are able to take part in decision making, they gain a sense of ownership that supports learning.

• Taonga tuku iho (cultural aspirations): Literally “the treasures from the ancestors”, this refers to the cultural aspirations Māori hold for their children, including those messages that provide guidelines for relationships and interaction patterns. It implies that educators must create contexts in which Māori language, knowledge, culture, and values are treated as normal, valid, and legitimate. Bishop et al. (2003) warn, though, that educators must be careful to leave room for Māori learners to express their own complex and multiple personal and group identities by developing pedagogy that is “holistic, flexible and complex” (page 13).

• Ako (reciprocal learning): This principle means to teach and to learn and emphasises reciprocal learning. “Teachers and students can take turns in storying and re-storying their realities, either as individual learners or within a group context” (Bishop et al., 2003, page 13). The participants in learning share and value each other’s sense-making processes.

• Kia piki ake i ngā raruraru o te kāinga (mediation of socio-economic and home difficulties): The principle of participation “reaches into Māori homes and brings parents and families into the activities of the school” (Bishop et al., 2003, page 13). The aim is to align the experiences that children have at home and those they have at school more closely.

• Whānau (extended family): “Whānau is a primary concept (a cultural preference) that contains both values (cultural aspirations) and social processes (cultural practices) ... [W]here the establishment of whānau type relationships in the classroom is primary, then a pattern of interactions will develop where commitment and connectedness are paramount, and where responsibility for the learning of others is fostered” (Bishop et al., 2003, page 14). Rather than transmitting learning from one person to another, learning takes place in a “spiral discourse” – a series of conversations in which the participants collaborate in telling and retelling stories.

• Kaupapa (collective vision, philosophy): “[S]tudents achieve better when there is a close relationship between home and school in terms of aspirations, languages, and cultures. These understandings can be extrapolated to mainstream learning environments to suggest the need to develop a common set of goals and principles and practices, which seek to ensure that all children will benefit from education” (Bishop et al., 2003, page 14).

Fundamentally, kaupapa Māori is about sharing power and control in such a manner that “culture counts” (Bishop and Glynn, 1999). The professional development approach developed in Te Kōtahitanga was based on these principles, especially the concept of “ako”: the concept of teacher as learner. (See page 141 for a brief discussion of the collaborative storying technique that the research team used.)

Bishop et al. (2003) identify the following characteristics of effective partnerships:

1. Acknowledging the mana or expertise of each partner in the sense of the tino rangatiratanga that was guaranteed to Māori people in the Treaty of Waitangi.
2. Working collaboratively with their partner in culturally competent ways that allow the partners to define what culture means to them.
3. Learning from the partner and changing their own behaviour accordingly.

page 202

Return to top