Respectful Relationships for Collaborative and Sustainable Educational Communities

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This symposium establishes historical contexts from the colonial education system imposed on the Indigenous Māori population in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and the disparities that ensued for these learners. A blended learning professional development (PD) program is being used with educators in Aotearoa to understand and disrupt this situation. We introduce this program through a systematic, review of related literature. Then, in-depth findings, from a master's thesis present the experiences and voices of a group of educators who have completed this year-long, PD program. Next, we consider outcomes from a much wider group of educator participants. We conclude with implications for others, concerned with learners who are too often, misunderstood, pathologized and marginalized by a system that was set up to educate.
Objectives of the session

This symposium has three main objectives:

To understand some of the political, cultural, and social ramifications of attempting to disrupt an historical, colonial education system that inter-generationally has adversely affected the lives of Aotearoa-New Zealand’s Indigenous Māori learners.

To consider outcomes from a systematic literature review against a specific blended learning PD program designed to understand and disrupt these historical legacies of inequity and support teachers to develop cultural competency and capabilities by engaging in pedagogies and experiences that Māori learners have told us, are educationally transformative.

To review the experiences of a group of leaders and teachers who have participated in this year-long, blended professional learning and development (PLD) and consider implications for disrupting the ongoing marginalization of specific groups of learners in other racialized schooling systems.

Overview of the presentation

Educator PLD must align with existing evidence of effectiveness if it is to enhance teachers’ praxis and subsequently, students’ learning. Blended learning can afford a more flexible and effective form of professional learning, leveraging on the strengths of both online and face-to-face PLD contexts.

This blended learning PLD provides opportunities to critically examine oneself within the very fabric of society. In Aotearoa, this metaphoric fabric includes an education system which was shaped by and designed to support an oppressive colonial agenda that has assimilated and underserved its indigenous Māori population over successive generations. Holding a mirror up to ourselves, to critically examine our own beliefs, values, and practices in these regards, is required but seldom achieved. The program’s carefully considered underpinnings of Critical and Kaupapa Māori theories provide opportunities to raise consciousness so that educators can recognise, understand, and respectfully deconstruct prejudice, bias, and racism when it is present.

Structure of the session

This symposium reports on three interrelated studies: a systematic literature review of blended learning; a master’s level thesis and an iterative analysis of a wider group of participant school leaders and teachers, over successive cohorts.

We begin by discussing the systematic review of related literature and introduce the existing blended learning program. Next, we provide in depth learnings from two separate groups of educators who have completed the PLD. We conclude by considering the importance of power sharing and time required to develop respectful collaborative and sustainable future educational communities with and for Māori. This is required if the wellbeing of Māori learners is to be realised. Within the system’s current acts, policies, and praxis, these understandings are of ‘critical’ importance.

Scholarly or scientific significance

This paper demonstrates a process for dismantling the racialized, colonial schooling system in Aotearoa to promote more equitable, and effective schooling for Māori and potentially other indigenous or marginalized learners. The importance of power sharing and prioritizing time to develop respectful, collaborative, and sustainable future educational communities, with and for Māori, is required if Māori wellbeing is to be realized. Colonial and policy outcomes that have oppressed Indigenous knowledge and culture must first be understood and disrupted. Therefore, using this approach to work with educators to reclaim these understandings can potentially enable a more transformative approach for other groups of Indigenous or marginalized learners going forward.

Sub Unit

• International Aligned Associations / New Zealand Association for Research in Education - NZARE

Papers

• Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Insights From Blended Approaches to Reform Cultural Competency Within Professional Communities of Practice - Elizabeth Martha Ann Eley, University of Waikato; Elaine Khoo, Massey University

• Changing Hearts and Minds: Transformative Praxis From Participating in the Poutama Pounamu Blended Learning - Carma Maisey, University of Waikato

• Cross Cohort Learnings for School Reform: The Importance of Power Sharing and Time for Disrupting and Repositioning Critical Social Consciousness - Mere Berryman, University of Waikato; David Copeland, University of Waikato