TEDE532: Engaging with Mori Learners

The opportunity to investigate and reflect upon Mori learners in this assignment has been a
task I have greatly enjoyed given the culturally diverse setting in which my first practicum has
been taking place. Hamilton West School has a roll in which over a quarter of students identify
as Mori, and from first glance the school appears to be excelling in helping those students
achieve success (Education Review Office, 2013). The challenge facing schools today is
ensuring that despite the largely Eurocentric societal context that they find themselves operating
in, Mori students are able to express, and have valued, their cultural distinctiveness and
potential throughout their education (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2008, p.18; Averill, 2014). In
order to achieve this for Mori students, schools need to interweave Mori "identity, language
and culture" throughout their curriculum and school community (MoE, 2013). Such an
interlacement will help to combat the historically exclusionary experience of Mori students in
education, and is supported by policy documents such as Ttaiako (MoE, 2011), Ka Hikitia
(MoE, 2013), as well as projects like Te Kotahitanga (Bishop, Berryman, & Wearmouth, 2014;
Smith, 2012). In the past, the difference between national standards results of Mori and nonMori students have been explained through deficit theorising, where hurdles to learning have
been attributed to Mori whnau and students themselves (Macfarlane, Macfarlane, Savage, &
Glynn, 2012). By attributing such outcomes instead to the inequitable nature of the education
system and society, schools can begin to address their own unexamined assumptions, beliefs
and knowledge about Mori learners and move towards a more culturally inclusive educational
system (Carrington & Saggers, 2008, as cited in Carrington, MacArthur, Kearney, Kimber,
Mercer, Morton, & Rutherford, 2012). Such a system will strive towards supporting Mori to
achieve as Mori(MoE, 2008b, p.8), actively participating as healthy citizens of the world, and
in doing so will understand that this can mean very different things for different Mori students
(Durie, 2001).
A culturally inclusive and responsive system depends upon the interventions and strategies a
school decides to implement and the ways in which they carry these out. Hamilton West School
shows a promising start towards such a system, when you enter its grounds the school values
are proudly displayed taking their lead from both The New Zealand Curriculum (MoE, 2007),
with Rangatiratanga and Kaitiakitanga, as well as Ttaiako (MoE, 2011), with Ako,
Manaakitanga, and Whanaungatanga. Actively incorporating these values into the day to day
life of Hamilton West and ensuring they are prioritised in teaching practice signals to Mori
students that their culture matters and is valued as part of the wider school community
(Macfarlane et al., 2012). It is uncommon for a day to go by at Hamilton West where a student is
not asked to reflect on whether they are embodying these values in their actions.
With such a strong focus on Mori values, upon entering Hamilton West I was prepared to have
my knowledge of Mori language and culture put into practice and pushed into a state of
extreme growth. Unfortunately as the weeks went by the radical inclusion of Mori language
outside of the school values did not eventuate. The only Mori teacher has attempted to combat
this situation with a weekly newsletter encouraging the use of specific Mori phrases and
focuses that, if taken up by all teachers, would build a community of inclusion and cultural

respect. The management team appears to see this newsletter as sufficient and many teachers
appear to just not have the time to fully incorporate it into their classrooms. Such tokenistic
offerings put the inclusion of Mori language primarily up to Mori teachers and, as Ngp
(2013) points out, this is both unethical and insensitive given the central role Te Reo plays in
New Zealands identity. Given that only around 10 percent of teachers in New Zealand identify
as Mori, ensuring that the incorporation of Te Reo into classrooms is seen as the role of all
teachers is vital to creating a culturally accepting and supportive environment for students
(Education Counts, 2015). Hamilton West has taken the right steps towards Te Reo inclusion in
their school, but further strategies that engage not only teachers, but iwi, whnau, and
community in the success of Mori language learners is critical to their success (MoE, 2013)
Ka Hikitia (MoE, 2013) emphasises the importance of the early years in education and places
particular importance on literacy for Mori students during this time, noting literacy is the key to
all formal learning at school (MoE, 2013, p.23). Stepping stones, a pathways program that
sees new entrants spending 1 day a week at school in the term prior to commencement, reflects
this emphasis, working to develop and strengthen a bond between students, whnau, teacher,
and school. In line with this understanding, Hamilton West has a number of strategies in which
the literacy levels of Mori students are a key focus. One of these, Reading Together, is a
home-school partnership in which parents are encouraged to attend a short, informal, seminar
where teachers show whnau members effective strategies for reading with their tamariki. While
an effective intervention, take up by Mori students and their whnau was lower than with other
ethnicities at the school (Hamilton West, internal documents, May 19, 2016). One possible
reasoning for this outcome is a failure to involve Mori students in the strategy, to get them
interested in the process and to enlist them in helping engage their whnau; a method identified
as most effective at hooking in parents (MoE, 2008b).
Reading Recovery has been another key strategy identified at Hamilton West for ensuring their
Mori learners achieve in literacy. McDowall, Boyd, Hodgen, & Vliets (2005) support such an
intervention, finding that the personalised nature of the interactions in Reading Recovery are
particularly supportive of Mori learners as it allows for a supportive learning environment where
relationships that foster an understanding of students diversity can develop. These findings are
in line with the Ttaiako (MoE, 2011) competency Whanaungatanga where high expectations
communicated through strong relationships help to lift up and support Mori achievement.
Unfortunately such high expectations are not always found at Hamilton West, where on
occasion deficit thinking has shone through in the under-assessment of the capabilities of Mori
students. One student in particular has often been referred to as low level, coming from a
troubled background, and having somehow slipped through the cracks educationally; despite
this, testing the student in mathematics recently, I found that he was thinking on a level just as
high as his classmates. Deficit thinking, however subtle, can lead to missed learning
opportunities for Mori students and a failure to engage them in their learning.
Culturally responsive teaching that makes learning relevant to Mori students is a strategy that
Hamilton West has put considerable effort into this year, partly due to an expected ERO report,
but hopefully more so for the proven success such actions can have in enhancing culturally

engaged learning (Bishop et al., 2014). Planning at the unit level focuses on including Mori
legends, dances, foods, and cultural practices in all levels of the curriculum. To take this
strategy further, beyond a surface level approach, professional development of teachers is
necessary that encourages an understanding of Mori history that generations before may not
have been privileged to. My experience with Mori history in primary school failed to include the
struggle of Mori people to legitimise their language, culture, and... to exert their sovereignty
over a Mori world, defined by Mori, controlled by Mori, for Mori (Patara, 2012, p.50).
Understanding that Mori cultural inclusion in the curriculum is a vital pathway towards Mori
achievement works to counter the difficulties often faced in enacting government policies where
teachers simply tick the boxes.
By encouraging higher level thinking in teachers, Hamilton West could motivate its staff to step
outside of the existing structure that they find themselves in and contemplate alternative
practices that address the unequal structures of the education system that Mori face
(Carrington et al., 2012). A recent school wide reflection on the Ka Hikitia and Ttaiako
documents highlighted this need, with management only wanting to hear the positive and
turning a defensive side to any discussions of larger changes needed. Carrington & Saggers
(2008) advocate the need for a transformational approach that addresses the underlying and
unchallenged beliefs held by a school if they are to truly move towards an inclusive approach
(as cited in Carrington et al., 2012).
A step towards this transformation for Hamilton West would be to adopt a strategy of coconstruction in which Mori whnau, students, and teachers work together to make decisions
that prioritise Mori learners (Averill, 2014). Building strong relationships like this will enable
teachers to understand what achieving as Mori(MoE, 2008b, p.8) means for their students
and whnau, and what they would like it to mean at Hamilton West.
Examining Hamilton Wests commitment to culturally inclusive teaching strategies and
interventions has left me concerned that they are unknowingly fixating on perceived deficiencies
of Mori students (Patara, 2012). In doing so, they run the risk of contributing to the destructive
outcomes that can occur when a dominant partner, in this case Hamilton West, speaks as if they
know what the weaker partner, Mori students, need (Macfarlane, Glynn, Cavanagh, Bateman,
2007). From the five competencies laid out in Ttaiako (MoE, 2011), Hamilton West chose to
incorporate three into their school values; those that were omitted hold the key for this school in
diverting their progression onto the path of a supportive and inclusive framework. They are:
Wananga, to participate in and encourage communication with communities about strategies
that work for their students diverse needs; and Tangata Whenuatanga, which ensures Mori
learners are affirmed as Mori (MoE, 2011). By talking to Mori communities in a manner that
values and seeks to assert the position of Mori culture, Hamilton West can move towards
future interventions that ensure Mori defined success. This scenario is beneficial not only for
Mori but for all, as when we create a culturally inclusive classroom and school environment, all
students, no matter their culture, benefit from it (Macfarlane et al., 2007).
Creating such an environment in my own classroom, school, and life is a challenge I had not
identified prior to training towards becoming a teacher. Learning that even the act of naming

students as priority, as different, is already an exclusionary practice in itself left me at first a little
hesitant as to how I could bring a positive impact to Mori students educational experiences
through my teaching practice (M. Kecskemeti, lecture, March 2nd, 2016). Investigation into the
practices that support these students, and what it means to achieve as these students, has left
me feeling confident that I am on the path towards a pedagogy of culturally responsive teaching
and learning. In examining the practices and strategies of Hamilton West I can see how a
teacher can fall in line with the dominant culture, and I do not pretend to be completely immune
to the socialising forces at play here. By continually striving to increase my knowledge and
understanding of Mori culture and language I can work to better understand and question the
assumptions that may lie underneath my thinking and teaching, as well as that of the school and
wider educational setting I operate within (Carrington et al., 2012). Only through a stance of not
knowing, of seeking to understand, can I hope to combat these forces and build the positive
relationships with students and whnau integral to supporting them in their learning (Patara,
2012). I believe that what happens in schools can make a difference towards creating a more
inclusive and cohesive society, inclusion is something that must be alive in ourselves, in our
teaching, and not something we try to do to students (Carrington et al., 2012). I was lucky
enough to experience an education where all my cultural and family beliefs and actions were
supported and celebrated; it is my role as a teacher to ensure an environment in which all
students feel that cultural acceptance and celebration.

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