Te Tere Auraki - Māori in English medium
Te Tere Auraki - Māori in English-medium strategy covers four projects.
The objective of Te Tere Auraki is to improve Māori students’ outcomes in English-medium schools, through the delivery of high quality professional development focussed on effective teaching practice.
Te Tere Auraki projects contribute to the Ka Hikitia goal of increasing the effectiveness of teaching and learning for Māori students in Years 9 and 10, and support the role of whānau in their children’s learning. They also contribute to the Ka Hikitia goal of supporting professional leaders to take responsibility for Māori students’ presence, engagement, and achievement.
Te Kotahitanga
Te Kotahitanga is a research project and professional development programme which supports teachers to build more effective teaching and learning relationships to improve the educational achievement of Year 9 and 10 Māori students in English-medium secondary schools.
The key objective of Te Kotahitanga is for schools to improve social and educational outcomes for Māori students, by:
- enabling teacher’s deficit beliefs to be challenged
- embedding new knowledge and practices, and
- building collegial professional learning communities.
More specifically, Te Kotahitanga encourages teachers to:
- challenge their personal attitudes towards Māori students
- care for their Māori students as Māori and develop strong, authentic relationships with them
- care about their Māori students’ performance, and
- create a well-managed learning context, and use a wide range of classroom interactions, strategies and practices shown by the research to work well.
Further information on Te Kotahitanga is available on our TKI website.
Ministers release Te Kotahitanga evaluation report
Education Minister Anne Tolley and Associate Education Minister Pita Sharples say that an evaluation of the professional development programme, Te Kotahitanga, shows it improves motivation and teaching for Maori students.
To read the report online and to download the reports and/or summary document see Education Counts:
Te Kotahitanga, which supports teachers to raise achievement among Māori students, is currently being used in 49 English-medium secondary schools throughout New Zealand.
"This Government is absolutely committed to raising educational achievement among Māori students," says Mrs Tolley.
"Te Kotahitanga is an important part of that goal. Along with improving results, it works with teachers to create culturally responsive learning environments, and this evaluation shows it is working.
"It also highlights increased job satisfaction and motivation among teachers, which is extremely positive," says Mrs Tolley.
The Government has invested almost $20 million in extending Te Kotahitanga to an additional 17 schools, allowing 7,000 more Māori students and 900 more teachers to be involved in the programme.
The Victoria University evaluation, released today, examined data from 22 Te Kotahitanga schools from 2004 – 2008, and is the first external evaluation of the programme.
"Te Kotahitanga recognises the importance of culture for learning, and helps teachers to improve practices, expectations and beliefs about Māori students," says Dr Sharples.
"Teachers, principals, board chairs, parents and facilitators were overwhelmingly positive about the design of Te Kotahitanga," said Dr Sharples.
"They said teachers had improved their classroom teaching and learning for Māori students. They also reported improvements in attendance, participation, motivation, and engagement."
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Te Kauhua
Te Kauhua is a professional learning programme that uses action research to increase schools’ knowledge and understanding about effective links with whānau in ways that contribute to enhanced outcomes for Māori students. This action research approach provides an opportunity for schools to take ownership of the change and lead their own professional learning in these areas.
Further information on Te Kauhua is available on our TKI website.
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Māori Secondary Teacher Workload
The Māori Secondary Teacher Workload programme provides support to Māori teachers in secondary schools and wharekura in a culturally and professionally relevant context to:
- plan and develop their career pathways
- enhance their professional practice through involvement in professional communities and professional learning and
- develop and access useful and relevant teaching and management resources that support the wide ranging work of Māori teachers.
The programme builds on the expertise and professionalism of Māori teachers and acknowledges and values their contributions to education.
Further information on the Māori Secondary Teacher Workload programme is available on our TKI website.
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Te Mana
Te Mana Kōrero professional development programme has been developed by the Ministry of Education to help teachers focus on quality teaching practices that can better realise Māori potential by engaging Māori students in learning.