How Might We Lead Through The Lens of Two World Views?

*Disclaimer

• I’m a male Pakeha New Zealander born in 1958 (Baby Boomer!)

• I gained an MA in History with a focus on NZ History (received and delivered through the lens of one world view)

• 66% of my teaching and leading in schools occurred in communities of high Māori populations (Ngāruawāhia and Ōpōtiki)

• Largely through the lens of one world view

• I’ve made several forays into learning te Reo, including University of Waikato Certificate of Māori Studies. 

Last week I spent a day in a hui with 11 people who I would consider some of the deepest thinkers not only about our education system, but, more importantly, about what the characteristics of and a vision for a future-ready education system for Aotearoa could be.

What one of the participants said hit me like a bolt of lightning. To paraphrase, she said:

“Actions since 1840 have let down both partners to Te Tiriti. Te Tiriti promised that 2 world views would shape our country. Ours (Māori) has been problematised and you have missed out on experiencing the world through ours.”

I spent the rest of the hui moving through a range of emotions as this insight rattled around in my head (and heart). I thought about my 42 years of teaching and struggled with feelings of regret that all of those years passed by without the benefit of the insight described above.

Yes, I had attempted to upskill my own te Reo. Yes, I had participated in many wānanga and noho. Yes, I led the committee that constructed a wharenui, Te Huingaongawai, on the grounds of Ngāruawāhia High School and worked with others to create a Year 9 Bi-lingual Class (which later became a Rumaki). Yes, I stopped all suspensions at Ōpōtiki College (which had impacted disproportionately on rangatahi and whānau Māori).

But all of this had been done through the one world view. All of it occurred within the structures and processes that stemmed from that one world view, so there was no challenge to the basic status quo and attached hierarchies of power and influence.

Of course, the consequence of designing our system, structures and processes through the one world view is the high levels of inequity that we experience.

Participants at the hui all agreed that what we have got from the system designed by one world view (inequity) is a result of purposeful design. The system is doing exactly what it was designed to do!

It has been designed in such a way that many, including indigenous learners, do not see themselves and the values embedded in their view of the world in the very place that is charged with the responsibility of overseeing their growth and development. The response from such learners seem to be to suppress who they are and what they value and believe to fit into the system or to push back, disengage and retaliate.

Even just the simple fact that until quite recently many schools had rules banning pounamu as part of their jewelery rules (some, I suspect, still do) reinforces that. Even more revealing is the voice of rangatahi and whānau Māori which describes the relentless racism they experience in their everyday experience of school.

The good news is that if we designed the system to have these specific outcomes we can design a system that has different outcomes.

It doesn’t have to be this way!

The even better news is that we have elements within the wider system that are proven to be effective which could form the starting point of a re-design.

Russell Bishop and his colleagues have done the research and designed frameworks to support the conditions that need to exist in schools that support more equitable experiences and outcomes. This has been presented to the sector through Te Kotahitanga and, more recently, Teaching (and Leading) to the North-east.

As well, there is now clear evidence that students who experience Kura Kaupapa, Kura-a-Iwi etc approaches achieve high levels of success.

All of us in education realise that connection with our community is crucial. My world view has resulted in schools driving that connection and generally informing whanau what they will be doing. I suspect that the world view driving the Kura models is one that results in whanau telling kura what they will do for their child.

The hui I attended has committed to doing some work around developing a future-ready vision for our system (not just individual schools). I am excited about this work progressing through the lenses of two world views as promised by Te Tititi.

At the same time as these thoughts are rattling around in my head I’ve been enjoying a re-acquaintance with NZ literature (a place where different world views can be brought to life). Reading Becky Manawatu’s Auē and Kataraina  and Tina Makareti’s The Mires have certainly brought two world views to life for me, including the consequences of having one suppressed. Right now, I have almost finished Monty Soutar’s first in his Kāwai series, which will be followed up by reading his second. I am learning more about Te Ao Māori from these than I ever did from my own schooling and my Masters degree.

Thanks to all the participants in that hui for contributing to the rattling in my head. Long may it continue.

How Might We Go About Unlocking Student (and Teacher) Engagement?

Near the end of January Derek Wenmoth and I facilitated a 2 day Retreat as part of our Refresh, Reconnect, Refocus (RRR) programme for 18 secondary and primary APDPs from across Aotearoa/NZ. As with our last year’s Principal RRR Retreat the feedback has been extremely positive:

Realistic and relevant, inspiring and helpful, a collaboration that flows and makes sense.

The best two facilitators I've had the pleasure of working with!

This week Derek and I completed our first round of 1-on-1 remote hui with each of the participants to support them to focus on their plans captured in their Experimental Design Canvas while dealing with the inevitable tsunami of operational matters APDPs have to deal with, especially at the start of the year.

The common words to describe how they were feeling a couple of weeks in and looking forward to our contact again in 3 weeks time were;

Energised, Optimistic, Connected, Proud, Relieved, Organised and Ready

It was at the Retreat that Derek shared a new book he had just come across, The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better by Dr Rebecca Winthrop, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, and journalist Jenny Anderson.

He used a cool matrix similar to this one here to explain the 4 modes of student engagement:

It was a real moment of clarity for me. 

I have been doing a lot of work in schools helping them develop an appropriate pedagogical model for their school contexts. They have each settled on their own core values and beliefs about learning which has led to the agreement on a set of principles, or guidelines for action, that result in a set of teaching practices being agreed upon. In all cases, the particular sets of values and beliefs point to each school having a clear desire to develop Learner Agency as the central driver of their pedagogy.

At that point we make use of Derek’s co-authored Agency By Design to begin the process of identifying the practices we need to have at the core of our pedagogy which will bring their core values and beliefs to light.

But it was the pivotal role Agency plays in lifting engagement from the Achiever  to the Explorer mode that provided the clarity.

The authors argue that students can be Passengers who cruise along doing the bare minimum as a result of not being engaged AND having no sense of agency or influence over what is being learned. They can be Resistors who have no engagement with the learning but use the agency or influence they have to push back and to make clear they are not engaged.

We might believe the Achiever mode would be the desired state. These students certainly work hard and gain very good results, but this is usually at the cost of fear of failure and high levels of anxiety.

It is the Explorer mode we should be aiming for where students are engaged BECAUSE OF the agency and influence they have in what they are learning. When young people are driven by internal curiosity rather than just external expectations, they investigate the questions they care about and persist to achieve their goals.

I have referred to this matrix in 2 school workshops since and it has helped to build buy-in for the pedagogical approaches the schools are implementing. Also, at one of my RRR 1-on1s last week a participant described how she had used it when workshopping with her staff to create buy-in for their new approach to Writing.

I haven’t read the book yet (it is on order) but there’s a good discussion with one of the authors on Afternoons with Jesse Mulligan (RNZ) which gives more insight.

The good news is that the authors promise that the book outlines some easy and simple adjustments teachers can make to their practice to increase the level of agency and move more learners into the Explorer mode.

While listening to the interview I couldn’t help but reflect on our journey to open Hobsonville Point Secondary School and our determination to focus on Innovate by personalising learning, Engage through powerful partnerships and Inspire through deep challenge and inquiry. This required us to be serious about Learner Agency.

This determination meant we had to combat a level of negativity from others in the sector and from media (The School With No Rules, NZH etc), and work hard to win the confidence of parents who thought they would be happy for their kids to be Achievers and not Explorers.

The easiest to convince were the kids, because they were the ones being engaged because they had influence! (I’m sure the glasses I’m looking back through have some tint of rose! Not all, obviously, were deeply engaged, but I had never experienced such a consistently high level of engagement before.)

Supporting schools to develop an appropriate pedagogical model for their context which has the intention of providing the most opportunities to move their students into Explorer mode is what I am focusing on in all of the schools I am working with.

We follow a fairly straight forward model that results in teams, and eventually, the whole staff co-constructing the deeply held beliefs about learning that will drive agreed practices.

Along the way there is a strong focus on student voice and involving them in stages of co-construction.

Get in touch if you think this is something your school may be interested in.

Finally, reflecting on the title for this post and the reference to Teacher Agency:

When we make minor changes to our practice, based on collectively held beliefs about what makes for deep learning, and when we invite students into that process, we feel powerful in our belief to make a difference and to move more students into Explorer mode. The ability to commit to that is Teacher Agency.

Best wishes