Māori and education

English-medium schools’ inclusion of whānau Māori aspirations for their children has been identified as a critical factor in the wellbeing of Māori students. What can teachers and school leaders in English-medium schools do to include whānau aspirations and strengthen whānau engagement in Māori students’ learning and wellbeing? A group of professional learning and development project leaders and regional facilitators reported strategies they had supported schools to use with this goal in mind. Most approaches had positive effects on strengthening school–whānau partnerships, with unforeseen challenges emerging in one case. Some of the reported approaches and their effects are incorporated into five fictionalised narratives that teachers and school leaders can reflect on when they review their practices for engaging whānau.

Despite policies recommending schools collaborate with whānau and Māori communities, and research that indicates why these connections are important, what remains less obvious is how these partnerships might be best achieved and sustained. This article discusses a professional development resource that challenges and supports school leadership teams to listen to their Māori communities in order to begin to develop relational and culturally responsive connections with these same communities. The research draws from the experiences of school leadership, Māori parents and whānau. In this article we present themes from interviews with two researchers who have engaged extensively with Māori communities, and we provide an activity to consider these ideas in your school.