Editorial
Tēnā koutou katoa.
Te raumati. He kaunga. Te moana. Ngā awa. Ngā manu. Mauri. Whakangā. Whanaungatanga.
Summer. Swimming. Beaches. Rivers. Birds. Life. Time to breathe. Connection.
The 2021–2022 summer holiday feels more vital than ever. Time to rest, recuperate, and rejuvenate. For many schools, the break will allow space to recalibrate in the wake of upheaval. May summer bring a time to connect to the natural world and enjoy the company of whānau and friends. The healing powers of nature, connection, and belonging permeate many articles in Issue 3.
The first two articles show how much students get out of learning in nature. In Dianne Christensen’s school, Tangaroa guides curriculum design, and tamariki are citizen scientists. Q&A asks why she bussed her class multiple times to the same shoreline. Di explains the learning and wellbeing benefits in studying one special place with species in situ across seasonal shifts. Andrea Milligan and colleagues find merit in a single trip to a precious place, this time a nature sanctuary. Tamariki sense its mauri. They witness the results of visionary efforts and notice a contrast with less sustainable behaviours. Both articles point to how teacher planning can optimise outcomes.
Teacher–librarian partnerships can work to support students with deepening understanding and designing next step actions. Senga White and Lisa Emerson show that when teachers work closely with school librarians a lot more can be achieved than when they each operate in silos. Librarians help to build bridges from what is familiar to places and knowledges that lie further afield.
Bronwyn Wood and senior leaders Shona McRae and Meredith Raukura look at how to build bridges between countries, cultures, and knowledge systems. Their article reflects on superdiversity in New Zealand schools. They set out four approaches to develop culturally inclusive and sustaining multicultural classrooms. There is close alignment with culturally responsive practice as a commitment to Māori students and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Their work illustrates that no two school communities are the same. This message is also reinforced by Tom Murdoch and Kate Thornton’s dive into quite different experiences of COVID-19 school closures. One principal leads a low-decile school in Auckland, the other, high decile.
Mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori gives equal standing to Māori knowledge alongside other knowledge systems. The esteemed knowledge of kaumātua permeates the article by Shriparna Saha and co-authors who are based in iwi, university, and industry contexts. They detail partnerships and processes that sit behind a maunga virtual fieldtrip resource now available to schools. Plenty can be learnt about how schools themselves might reach out to hapū and iwi to build local curriculum and learning programmes that incorporate mātauranga Māori.
Mātauranga Māori and te reo Māori are interdependent. Aronuitia te Reo, a new professional learning resource for teachers and leaders, is profiled in Assessment News. Esther Smaill and Teresa Maguire introduce themselves in te reo Māori as tangata Tiriti. Their team used findings from the National Monitoring Study of Student Achievement to devise a resource that English-medium schools can use to strengthen their provision of reo Māori learning opportunities. The pack looks fresh and fun and will no doubt inspire great conversation and direction-setting.
While Set may not qualify as light summer reading, our team hopes that Issue 3 2021 supports enthusiasm for teaching in 2022. We thank everybody who has shared their expertise or read the journal over such an intense year. May the holiday allow for a collective deep breath, a chance to immerse in the sweetness of the ngāhere, the crispness of the awa, and the saltiness of the moana.
Ngā mihi mahana.
Josie Roberts
Set Editor