Why is it important to focus on te reo Māori in schools?   

English-medium schools have the potential to play an important role in revitalising te reo Māori. Te Wāhanga – New Zealand Council for Educational Research is conducting research to support English-medium primary schools to develop strategic approaches to Māori language teaching and learning.  

Through our research we have identified:  

• Key reasons why English-medium primary schools should develop strategic approaches to teaching and learning te reo Māori 
• Key issues for English-medium primary schools to consider when developing a strategic approach to Māori language teaching and learning  
• Practices that create a positive impact on Māori language teaching and learning in English-medium primary schools.  

Follow this link to see more of the work we are doing to support reo Māori revitalisation.  

The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) asked the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) to provide an overview of the research literature on barriers and supports for women to succeed in secondary school leadership. The PPTA plan to use this review to help shape future work to address gender-based inequities. The Gender Pay Gap and Pay Equity Taskforce | Te Rōpū Mahi Rerekētanga Utu Ira Tangata me te Whakaōrite Utu is providing general momentum for such work.1

The overview questions

The following questions framed this overview of the available research:

• The current state—What do we know about women in secondary school leadership and their pathways to and through positional leadership roles?
• Barriers—What are the barriers to women being in positional leadership roles in secondary schools? Why are women 63% of the secondary teaching workforce, but only 37% of secondary school principals? 
• Supports and enablers—What policies and practices have been identified to better support women’s pathways into and through positional leadership roles in secondary schools?

There are three sections in this report, one for each of the overarching questions.

Our approach to leadership in this review

The Teaching Council’s Educational Leadership Strategy (Education Council, 2018a) takes a broad view of leadership, encompassing positional and non-positional leadership roles. The strategy defines educational leadership as “the practice of supporting others to make a positive difference to children’s and young people’s learning” (p. 8). We brought this broad lens to the review, but focused particularly on women in positional leadership roles.

This project was co-led by Sue McDowall from NZCER and Prof Roseanna Bourke and Prof John O’Neill from Massey University.

The project explored children’s views of their informal learning during the five-week lockdown (school closures) of Alert Level 4, Aotearoa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Approach

178 children in Years 4 - 8 (8 - 12 year olds) were recruited from ten schools in the Wellington and Manawatū regions.

Children took part in an art-marking activity and individual interviews in Terms 3 and 4 (2020) around their learning while in COVID-19 lockdown. A Children’s Research Advisory Group (CRAG) was established and they advised us on the interview questions and the interview process. The research questions are:

• What did Year 4 - 8 children learn, and learn about themselves as a learner, during the lockdown, with their family/ whanau?
• How do the children think they could use this learning back in the school context, and through their everyday learning?
• How has their view of themselves as a learner changed?

Findings from the research identified 7 themes around children’s learning, and have been published in print form (url included) and digital narratives. We hope children, parents, teachers, principals, researchers, and policy makers will enjoy, and learn from the voices of these young people and their learning experiences while at home.

Project Team: Sheridan McKinley, Elliot Lawes, Sinead Overbye and Hūrae White (Te Hua Kawariki Educational Trust).

He Tīrewa Ako was a teaching and learning guide that kaiako and ākonga could use to plan and track progress over time in reo ā-waha (oral language), tuhituhi (writing), pānui (reading), and pāngarau (mathematics) within Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. https://tmoa.tki.org.nz/Te-Marautanga-o-Aotearoa

It was developed following recommendations of the Ministry of Education’s Curriculum, Progress and Achievement Ministerial Advisory Group report to improve equity, trust, and coherence for all ākonga learning through te reo Māori. These recommendations incorporated feedback from the Māori medium sector. 

Reo ā-waha, tuhituhi, pānui and pāngarau are each made up of a set of tīrewa (progressions) representing the key components within that area of learning. Each tīrewa describes a set of whāinga (indicators of critical skills, aspects of knowledge and/or attributes) which an ākonga needs to demonstrate, and which cannot be left to chance.  Kaiako and ākonga can use the whāinga to track progress and achievement along the learning pathways.  

The Ministry of Education contracted NZCER to provide a psychometric design and plan, psychometric services, and trialling with kaiako, for the development of  He Tīrewa Ako.  

We worked with content developers,  Victoria University of Wellington, Haemata Ltd, Aronui Ltd, Kia Ata Mai Educational Trust, and the University of Auckland. 

This project explores what student activism looks like in Aotearoa New Zealand by conducting a literature scan. It will define student activism and identify recent examples of activism undertaken by secondary school aged students. Interactions between student activists and adults, including schools and teachers, will also be discussed. 

The literature scan considers the following research questions:    

• What are recent examples of student activism in Aotearoa New Zealand?   
• What do students gain from their participation in activism?   
• What can be learned about student engagement and learning through student activism?   
• How do schools view and respond to student activism?   
• In what ways does the New Zealand Curriculum support student activism?  

The Wellbeing@School website support schools to build a caring and safe school climate that deters bullying behaviour.  For further information, please visit wellbeingatschool.org.nz

The key components of the website are: 

• A self-review process for schools to follow 
• School self-review (audit) tool  
• Two student surveys, one each for primary and intermediate/secondary students
• A Teacher survey 
• Further resources and support information. 

The Wellbeing@School surveys guides schools to review these aspects of school life: 

• School-wide culture and practice  
• Teaching and learning  
• Student culture and strategies 
• Community partnerships 
• Aggressive student culture.  

For more information and further breakdown of the aspects go to: https://wellbeingatschool.org.nz/information-sheet/aspects-school-life-explored-ws 

Survey tools can be used online, or paper format with a data entry requirement.  

Schools can use the website to securely store data and access current and historical reports for their school. Any data used for reporting or research is stripped of identifying attributes to ensure user and school anonymity. 

Wellbeing@School services for schools 

The Wellbeing@school website is hosted by NZCER on behalf of the Ministry of Education.  NZCER continues to host and support the website, while also acting as a safe and confidential custodian to the data. 

Wellbeing@School support 

The NZCER Wellbeing@School accredited education advisor team provides advisory support for schools and Kāhui Ako. Facilitators work with schools to create customised workshops about inquiry focus and effective use of the Wellbeing@School data. 

Workshops can be delivered via Zoom or face-to face/kanohi-ki-te-kanohi. 

For further information see our Customised workshops webpage, or email the education advisors at: education.advisor@nzcer.org.nz 

Wellbeing@School refresh and new developments 

In 2019 the NZCER conducted an extensive review of the four Wellbeing@School tools (School self-review tool, the teacher survey, and the two student surveys). The review involved a team of NZCER researchers, developers and psychometrician, and external stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education. 

The intent of the review was to refresh the existing tools and measurement scales and ensure that the items reflect contemporary ideas and language. 

The review had three aims: 

• psychometric performance of items 
• usability and content relevance: drawing on seven years of feedback and usage to ensure up to date language, and accessibility 
• ensuring the Wellbeing@School tools recognise diversity, particularly regarding Māori and Pacific students and teachers. 

Once the review was complete, the Wellbeing@School survey tools were updated in December 2019. 

Development of new items in Reslience strategies and Fairness and racism 

Currently the team is developing new items around Resilience strategies and Fairness and racism.  Eight new student items and 11 new teacher items will be added as draft questions to the online W@S survey tools in November 2020. They will appear in the online SSRT, teacher survey and student surveys, and the item reports only. These items will work together with current items to indicate the areas of Resilience strategies and Fairness and racism. 

This work was also supported by two rapid reviews: Racism in schools [pdf] and Resilience in schools [pdf].

Wellbeing@School updates 

The Wellbeing@School toolkit was migrated to our new online platform (Assist) at the beginning of 2020. This included the migration of all historic data and reports, with several new reporting and user interface features being available.  

The NZCER Wellbeing@School service desk team provides support for school registration and customer account creation, creating and administering surveys, reporting, and technical queries. For more information or support, please call (04) 802-1440 or email the Wellbeing @ School service desk: wellbeing@nzcer.org.nz 

Research using Wellbeing@School data 

A number of research projects draw on the data from the Wellbeing@School database. 

All identifying attributes are removed to anonymise the data, which is then used to inform the research and reporting to the Ministry of Education. 

Research reports and further resources relating to the development of the Wellbeing@School toolkit can be found at https://wellbeingatschool.org.nz/other-ws-resources. 

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are the types of complex issues that are sometimes called “wicked problems”. They involve many different systems and have no easy answers because positive gains in one area might be offset by negative impacts in another, no matter what is decided.  As part of our ongoing curriculum work we have identified the need for students to become better systems thinkers if they are to understand why these challenges are so hard, and what the implications might be for them in their own lives (see for example Key Competencies for the Future).  

How can teachers provide effective opportunities for students to build their Systems Thinking capabilities? What might NZCER do to support them? These deceptively simple questions underpin this literature review project. The following indicative questions are guiding our analysis. 

Curriculum questions:  Do systems thinking curriculum challenges resonate with other issues for implementation of a “21st century” curriculum? Can we build on our previous work in this area? 

• What sorts of outcomes are envisaged for including systems thinking in the curriculum? 
• At what stage of their schooling could students be introduced to systems thinking practices? (What might “progress” look like?)
• How might systems thinking best be included in the overall curriculum?

Conceptual questions: can we provide a helpful description of complex systems to guide teachers’ own professional learning and curriculum design thinking? 

• What features of complex systems are important for students to learn about and why?

Pedagogical questions: can we provide practical advice for schools? Are there implications for our ongoing resource development work?

• Are there specific challenges in teaching for systems thinking? If yes, what advice is given about how best to address these? 
• Are there research-based resources that schools can readily access? 

Assessment questions: can we provide practical advice to schools? Are there implications for our ongoing assessment work at NZCER?

• (How) have systems thinking capabilities been assessed? 
• What issues have arisen for assessment and reporting?

Since 2019, NZCER has worked with Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission to evaluate its financial capability mahi, providing annual reports and recommendations to the organisation. This has focused primarily on two programmes so far: Sorted in schools, Te Whai hua - kia ora and the Sorted Pacific Peoples Pathways to Home Ownership (PPPH) programme. 

Sorted in Schools, Te whai hua - kia ora

Sorted in Schools, Te whai hua - kia ora is a financial capability programme led by Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission. The programme aims to equip all young people for their financial future. Resources are available free to all secondary schools for both the New Zealand Curriculum and Māori medium education. Find out more about the programme here.

NZCER is evaluating Sorted in Schools, Te whai hua - kia ora as part of a portfolio of research and evaluation work for Te Ara Ahunga Ora. The mixed-methods evaluation started in August 2019 and is now in its third year. Evaluation reports are available on the Retirement Commission website at Sorted in Schools Research | Retirement Commission Te Ara Ahunga Ora, as well as below. 

Pacific Peoples Pathways to Homeownership programme

This programme is a partnership between the Ministry for Pacific Peoples and Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission. It aims to build the financial capability of 1200 Pacific households over three years to assist them in achieving their home ownership aspirations, and is now evaluated by NZCER with reports available on the Te Ara Ahunga Ora website and below. 

Te Wāhanga, on behalf of Oranga Tamariki, conducted research into the benefits of Social Workers in Schools (SWiS) in kura kaupapa Māori and kura ā-iwi (kura), using a kaupapa Māori approach.  

This contributed to the wider project conducted by Oranga Tamariki to better understand benefits students and their families receive from the Social Workers in Schools (SWiS) service. Four reports were published for the project.  

The guiding kaupapa that shaped our research include whanaungatanga, rangatiratanga, moemoeā, manaakitanga, and mataara.  

“[My SWiS worker] helped me understand Māori more. Getting me out of trouble. Helping me understand my English, my Māori, maths. Confidence and understanding. I used to look down. Now I look up.” 

All four reports for this study can be found on the Oranga Tamariki’s website here.

Key successful ways of working

SWiS workers are successful in kura for four main reasons.  

1. Whanaungatanga 
SWiS workers in kura: 

• have a long-term trusting relationship with tamariki and whānau, kura and their communities. 
• know that, to support a tamaiti, they also need to work with and support whānau.

2. Te reo Māori and tikanga Māori 

SWiS workers in kura are confident in te reo Māori and tikanga Māori, and therefore are accepted in kura.

3. Kaupapa Māori

SWiS workers in kura have the knowledge and confidence to use kaupapa Māori and mātauranga Māori approaches in their practice.  

4. Understanding and including what is important to the community 

SWiS workers in kura support tamariki to connect with their culture, local knowledge, and tikanga because this will improve their wellbeing. SWiS workers find ways to help these connections.

The report made six recommendations for Oranga Tamariki to consider: 

1. Increase funding and resources for SWiS in kura kaupapa Māori and kura ā-iwi 
2. Make sure that all SWiS workers who go into kura have te reo Māori me ngā tikanga Māori 
3. Extend kaupapa Māori practices to English-medium schools 
4. Review Oranga Tamariki systems and processes so that they align with kura policies and practices 
5. Review current tools used in kura and develop tools in te reo Māori  
6. Improve coordination between agencies to provide effective wrap-around services for tamariki and whānau

Ngā tikanga mahi tino whai hua 

He whai hua te mahi a ngā kaimahi SWiS i roto i ngā kura nā ēnei take matua e whā.  

1. Whanaungatanga 
He tika ēnei kōrero mō ngā kaimahi SWiS i roto i ngā kura: 

• he hononga wā roa ō rātou ki ngā tamariki me ngā whānau, waihoki te kura  
• e mōhio ana rātou e pai ai tā rātou tautoko i tētahi tamaiti, me mātua mahi tahi, me mātua tautoko hoki tōna whānau.

2.  Te reo Māori me ngā tikanga Māori 

E māia ana ngā kaimahi tauwhiro SWiS i te kura ki te kōrero i te reo Māori, me te hāpai i ngā tikanga Māori, nā konei kua rarata ngā kura ki a rātou. 

3. Kaupapa Māori 

He mōhiotanga he māia hoki ngā kaimahi tauwhiro SWiS i roto i ngā kura mō te whakamahi i ngā ritenga kaupapa Māori, mātauranga Māori hoki i roto i tā rātou mahi. 

4. Te noho mārama me te whakauru mai i ngā mea hira ki te hapori. 

Ka tautoko ngā kaimahi SWiS i roto i ngā kura i ngā tamariki kia whakatata atu ki tō rātou ahurea, ki te mātauranga o te takiwā, ki ā rātou tikanga hoki, nā te mea, he oranga kei reira. Ka kita e ngā kaimahi SWiS) ētahi huarahi hei āwhina i ēnei hononga. 

1. I runga anō i tō mātou mōhio ki ngā mahi e mahia ana e ngā kaimahi tauwhiro SWiS me te pānga o aua mahi, kua oti ēnei tohutohu e ono te tāpae e mātou hei whiriwhiri mā Oranga Tamariki.  
2. Me āta whakarite kia mōhio ngā kaimahi SWiS katoa ka haere ki ngā kura he matatau ki te reo, he mōhio hoki ki ngā tikanga Māori 
3. Me whakawhānui ngā ritenga mahi kaupapa Māori ki ngā kura arareo Ingarihi 
4. Me arotake ngā pūnaha me ngā hātepe katoa a Oranga Tamariki kia hāngai ki ngā kaupapa here me ngā ritenga mahi o ngā kura 
5. Me arotake ngā taputapu e whakamahia ana i roto i ngā kura ināianei, me te whakawhanake taputapu i roto i te reo Māori  
6. Me whakapakari te ruruku o ngā tari tētahi ki tētahi, kia noho he ratonga tauawhiawhi mā te tamariki me te whānau

SWiS is a government-funded, community social work service provided in most English and Māori medium, decile 1-3 primary and intermediate schools. 

NZCER has been awarded an MSD contract to undertake a research project focused on exploring learning partnerships using data from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) study.   

The aim is to develop a deeper understanding about the extent and nature of good quality learning partnerships between parents/whānau/caregivers and education providers (early learning services, schools, kura), and how such partnerships can best support student wellbeing and learning. 

The research will be led by NZCER with a completion date in January 2021. The Ministry of Education (through Paul Aitken) is the named policy partner for the work.

Findings will be made available on the Growing up in New Zealand website here.

Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ)

Growing Up in New Zealand is New Zealand's contemporary longitudinal study, tracking the development of approximately 7,000 New Zealand children from before birth until they are young adults. The total sample includes approximately 1,000 Pasifika students, 1,300 Māori students, and 160 students who attended kōhanga reo. 

The study is designed to provide unique information about what shapes children’s early development and how interventions might be targeted at the earliest opportunity to give every New Zealand child the best start in life. The data available for this study is from when the children were 54 and 72 months of age.

Research Questions

1. What is the picture of good learning partnerships (culture valued, good communication, feeling welcomed and supported) between mothers and their child’s early learning service (at age 54 months) and between mothers and their child’s school (at age 72 months)? 

2. How are good learning partnerships between mothers and early learning services/ schools/kura related to: 

• child factors (ethnicity, special needs, order in family)
• maternal factors (security of cultural identity and language use, maternal self-efficacy and confidence, parenting values, support for child’s learning at home, education level, material hardship, family type, family size, maternal age at child’s birth).

In particular, what patterns do we see for mothers of Māori children, mothers of Pacific children, mothers of Asian children, and mothers of children with special needs? 

3. How are good learning partnerships between mothers and early learning services related to school readiness outcomes and maternal satisfaction with their child’s learning (at 54 months)? 

How are good learning partnerships between mothers and school/kura related to maternal satisfaction with their child’s learning (at 72 months)?

4. Is there continuity of good learning partnerships between early learning service and school? Is continuity or the lack of it related to aspects of the transition to school, and/or other variables associated with the mother or child? 

Reporting will include:

• a research report  
• communications content 
• a policy brief 
• a seminar presentation. 

Policy relevance

Parent/whānau/caregiver partnerships with education providers is increasingly emphasised in education policy as a key lever to improve children’s wellbeing, engagement and learning outcomes. This policy interest is matched by whānau voices in the Education Conversations | Kōrero Mātauranga consultations and reviews. Parents and whānau want their child’s early learning service/school/kura to be responsive to their needs and values, and to communicate well with them. They want to have a real partnering voice in what happens for their child in the early learning service/ school/kura.