Activity Three: Contemporary issues in NZ

One of the major concerns I believe we have in education today is the discrepancy between Maori students’ achievement levels and that of other students.  Over the years programmes such Te Kotahitanga programme, derived by Mere Berryman and Russell Bishop, brought this variation to the forefront for many educationalists.  The Ministry of Education’s drive to “narrow the gap” between Maori and non Maori,  is specifically expressed in NEG 9 of the National Educational Guidelines (Ministry of Education, 2015) and NAG 2 of the National Administration Guidelines (Ministry of Education, 2015).  However, just because their are guidelines does not make the process of lessening the gap any easier, so when the Te Kotahitanga programme was adopted by many schools, it created a toolkit of strategies that would enable educators to address the learning needs and styles of Maori students and help with Maori achievement.  Since Te Kotahitanga there have many different initiatives that have been established to address Maori Achievement, the latest being Kia Eke Panuku.

The central concept for all of these programmes is RELATIONSHIPS, when students feel valued and respected they feel more comfortable with their learning environment and as a result connect more with the learning. To help foster that RGHS developed their own framework, a framework that interwove the charter, the concept of Mana Mokopuna (student at the heart), the PB4L values of TEAO, and Culturally Responsive and Relational Pedagogy.  It is through this that as a staff we follow a process to increase Maori student achievement, however, though the percentage of Maori Achieving is increasing the gap between non-Maori and Maori achievement is still apparent.  

The question then becomes that do these programmes change the pedagogy of educationalist enough to mark a markable change in closing the gap between Maori and non-Maori.  These programmes do enable staff to identify where they may need to grow in their own professional development in relation to changing pedagogy to raise Maori achievement. However, what do we need to establish in relation to professional development that will help close this gap.  There needs to be something more than professional reflections.  We need active programmes that initiate a change in education for the betterment of all students, but with deliberate strategies that can help educators make a true difference to the teaching and learning for all student but in particularly Maori.