Education Experience

HUI TAUMATA MATAURANGA 2003“Learning at the heart of the future of our mokopuna.” Louisa WallNgati Tutemohuta, Ngati Hineuru nga Hapu oNgati Tuwharetoa8 March 2003 lwall@hrc.govt.nz

Education Experience • Personal History • Environment – exception not the rule • Access to quality teachers – distribution within schools • Pathway to Tertiary participation – secondary priority • Current role • Current activities • Te Rapunga o Poutama Work and Educational Trust; a PTE established as a Charitable Trust who provides second-chance educational opportunities to at-risk Rangatahi in central Auckland

Te Rapunga o Poutama • Kaupapa • Self-esteem and pride, cultural practice and positive reinforcement as a pre-requisite to educational achievement • Meet all the needs of the student • Service Maori (55%), Pasifika, people with disabilities, immigrants; students that other providers do not target • Contract – 65% into further education or employment • AUT provides 4 Maori scholarships and we are negotiating a pathway from Graphics to an Auckland based art school

Whanau/Hapu Development • Needs Assessments being undertaken • I read a report last week where the the first priority of whanau/Hapu was to affirm their cultural values and practices • This whanau/Hapu numbered 570 within their rohe and were 50% of that community • 68% had no formal qualification and 50% were unemployed

Evidence Based Practice • Evaluate the effectiveness of Maori specific and generic education contexts in equipping Maori students with skills and knowledge that enable life choices • Research is required to evaluate the effectiveness of current education purchase strategies • Research focusing on Maori student use and whanau/Hapu experience of education services to determine policy and to inform the purchasing of appropriate services for Maori

Evidence Based Practice • Research that moves beyond identifying the barriers to achievement to interventions that implement solutions • Identify conflicts of interest in the provision of education • Determine education providers motivation • Charitable Trusts • Businesses that are EFT’s driven • State provision of primary and secondary education needs to be more accountable to Maori educational outcomes

Context • Close to 3000 schools • 50,000 teachers (4,190 are Maori, 8%) • Maori teacher recruitment strategies • 748,084 school students • 152,556 are Maori (20.4%)

Maori student distribution Primary Secondary Total % Decile 1-3 58,279 16,703 74,982 49 Decile 4-7 32,241 18,846 51,087 34 Decile 8-10 10,155 5,524 15,679 10 Other Education 10,808 7 Kura Kaupapa Maori 5,401 3.5

Current Research Professor Dame Anne Salmond and Professor John Hattie, University of Auckland CHALLENGE What is the purpose of education? • The transfer of core sociological and practical competencies to equip New Zealanders with the skills to fully participate regionally, nationally and internationally as functional members of communities. • How do we decide these core competencies as reflected in the primary and secondary school curriculum?

Core Competencies • What are the core competencies for engagement with Maori? • Basic Te Reo and Tikanga? • Primary and Intermediate curricula • Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand History? • Secondary School curricula • Migrant realities – Maori, Pakeha, Tauiwi; particularly Chinese, Pasifika and contemporary immigration given globalization and humanitarian discourses • This will contribute to identity formation and nation building

Research Themes • THEME ONE • 20% un-engaged (context of Maori as 15% and Pasifika Peoples 7% of the total population) • 20% Maori • 15% Pasifika Peoples • THEME TWO • The influence of Teachers

Theme One • How do we facilitate engagement? • What core competencies do teachers require to engage with Maori students? • How do we teach teachers to teach Maori students? • How do we meet the current teacher knowledge gap? • Is this teacher core competency requirement education specific or is this a generic core competency issue across the public and private sector? What is the relevance to health and disability service provision to Maori? • We need solutions to facilitate engagement to ensure we harness the intellectual potential of Maori and to ensure we have Maori specific and generic buy-in.

Theme Two • The influence of teachers • Achievement Variance • Students – 50%; the correlation between achievement and ability is high and bright students have steeper trajectories of learning • Home – 5-10%; as most variance accounted for in the student prior achievement effect • Schools – 5-10%; Principals who create an environment of high expectations have greater influence • Peer effects – 5-10%; potential as co-teachers • Teachers – 30%; what teachers know, do, and care about which is very powerful in the learning equation

Teacher Quality • Indicators of Quality • What? eg mutual respect, knowing what motivates students to become and remain engaged • Performance measures for teachers • Evaluation by students • Self and peer review • Audit of teacher resources within the system • How do we encourage trained teachers back into teaching? • Reward those who have core competencies and provide incentives to encourage the acquisition of core competencies to engage with Maori

Distribution of Teacher Quality • Within schools • Who do the best teachers teach? • Between schools • Where do the quality teachers teach? • Resource shifting; best teachers to lowest Decile schools framed around a social justice ethos • Resource sharing; Buddy Decile 1 with Decile 10 schools and resource share (teacher exchanges or co-teaching of some classes)

Distribution of A or B bursaries across Auckland Schools (Source: MSE Taskforce, UoA)

Distribution of Teacher Quality • Globally • Appropriate induction of teachers recruited from the global market • Encouraging Kiwi’s to come home • How do we increase the quantum of quality teachers to improve Maori educational outcomes?

Strategies • Hapu/Iwi set workforce targets across all sectors • Develop a comprehensive database of whanau, Hapu and Iwi • Ensure participation levels at all educational levels starting from kohanga reo, early childhood, through to primary, secondary and tertiary • Encourage collaboration across the education system

Strategies • How? Regionally - • Tertiary works with secondary, secondary works with primary, primary works with early childhood to prepare the student for the next step on the education poutama • Education holiday camps, summer preparation schools • Why? • We must ensure that Maori students do not enter the hierarchy of education in deficit at any point in the pathway to ensure they realise their potential and to maximise life choices

Strategies • Encourage collaboration across government to meet the holistic needs of students identified as “in deficit” acknowledging that Maori disengagement with the system is complex • Empower whanau/Hapu to support the student eg housing needs, health, social services • Whanau/Hapu must aspire for their mokopuna to succeed from a collective base of security • Identify tertiary students with the potential to engage in post-graduate study to focus research on issues pertinent to Hapu/Iwi development encouraging individual and collective benefit

Access • Identify individuals who have potential and support them and their whanau. • How? • Independent selection of students based on participation in National Maori specific and generic activities eg Manu korero, kapa haka, art, drama, sport • Why? • Target students who are motivated • Facilitate dual and multiple achievement • Approach universities to match potential with EEO initiatives • Scholarships and admission schemes

Utilization • Provide the resources to enable those with potential to undertake tertiary study • Be proactive, identify students and develop partnerships with the public sector to achieve mutual capacity building objectives • The HRC invests $1Mpa in Maori scholarships to support promising individuals • Other Maori scholarships across the public sector • Develop relationships with the private sector to facilitate work experience and direct resourcing eg FIRST Foundation • Matching students with organisations enabling work experience, holiday work, scholarships to ensure students are supported to complete their course of study

Commentary – Michelle Tohi, General Manager, Te Rapunga o Poutama (18 years experience in second-chance education provision) • Pakeha have a vested interest in Maori failure • How? • Who is benefiting from Maori failure in terms of service provision? • Who do agencies contract with to provide services to Maori? • 1990; approximately 21 Maori PTE’s in Central Auckland • 2003; 6 Maori PTE’s in Central and West Auckland and North Shore

Commentary continued • Maori specific service provision • 15 year phenomena • Outcomes for Maori • Pakeha service provision • 150 year phenomena • Outcomes for Maori • And we still continue to purchase • Why? • Who controls the money?

The Transition • Pakeha have a vested interest in Maori success • Why? • By 2050 the demographic prediction is that Maori and Pasifika Peoples will be 57% of the total population • We have to act collectively now • First, we have to recognise the need to change and actively facilitate change

Authority and Partnership • A theme of this conference • Purchase Agencies must commit to meaningful engagement and relationship development with Maori to ensure Maori retain the right to self-determine present and future life opportunities • Otherwise the cycle of dependency is reinforced • How? • Maori share the decision-making to determine who is funded and how services are delivered

Self-determination • They who name the problem own the problem • Maori need the space to name and own their specific problems and be resourced to develop solutions

Challenge If the Paternalistic relationship endures and if it is still Pakeha who make the decisions about what is best for Maori, then what is the pathway, the Poutama, toward Maori making decisions for Maori to benefit All New Zealanders? • Access to governance roles • A critical mass of Maori on government appointed boards • Maori in generic leadership roles

Case Study • “I Have a Dream” • A program instigated in 1981 by Gene Lang, a businessman who returned to give a speech to his old No. 121 public high school in East Harlem, New York and was told that 75% of students would not graduate • He promised university tuition to every sixth grade child who graduated high school and talked about being present to hear Martin Luther King Jr’s 1963 March on Washington “I Have a Dream” speech

“I Have a Dream” • Of the 61 original “Dreamers” • 90% graduated high school • 60% went on to higher education • Today, 180 projects initiated in 64 cities across USA • 2003 – New Zealand • Year 4 class at Wesley Primary, a Decile 1 school in Mt Roskill, Auckland

“I Have a Dream” • Kaupapa • Helps children from low-income areas reach their education potential by providing a long-term program of mentoring and tutoring with an assured opportunity of higher education • The project does not pick either the “cream of the crop” or those children perceived to be most at-risk: it offers the same opportunities to every child selected in the year level

Conclusion “Education can never be reduced to a mere economic output. It has the potential to transform the lives of individuals and whole communities. Its focus must be broad and empowering not narrow and confining.” (Prime Minister Helen Clark, TEC launch, 13 February 2003)

Education Experience