He tōtōpū nō te pakiaka, he hiwa nō te pā—Research on indigenous national monitoring frameworks

In 2024, the Ministry of Education contracted Te Wāhanga, the Māori research unit of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER), to carry out a kaupapa Māori research project to inform the development of Tīrewa Mātai. The overarching research question for this study is: What are key issues for the Ministry of Education to consider when developing Tīrewa Mātai?

To answer this question, the Ministry of Education asked NZCER to identify and analyse a minimum of five indigenous frameworks. The resulting study, which involved a literature review and whakawhiti kōrero with indigenous experts, reported on five monitoring frameworks and three assessment models. 

Ngā ariā matua | Key themes

Looking across the frameworks and models, the research team identified five key themes and a corresponding set of tūtohutanga or recommendations. These themes and recommendations are offered to inform the next stages in the development of Tīrewa Mātai.

1. Kia Māori: The Māori and indigenous groups who developed the frameworks and models described in this report endeavoured to establish, implement, and maintain authentic indigenous approaches to assessment and monitoring that aligned with their traditions and learning and knowledge systems. However, all these indigenous groups were required to work within colonial systems that continue to display blindness, indifference, and/or hostility to indigenous people, values, and ideas. 
2. Kia pono: In all cases, Māori and indigenous groups wanted to create frameworks and models that reflected and measured their own indigenous values, languages, knowledges, competencies, ideas, and definitions of success. These differ from Eurocentric definitions of success, for which assessment approaches and tools are already available. Notably, all the frameworks also acknowledged the importance of literacy and numeracy and the value of other Western subject areas.
3. Kia auaha: Māori and indigenous groups had significant creative input into all the frameworks and models. They maintained mana motuhake while challenging the constraints placed upon them by government priorities and education traditions that marginalised indigenous tamariki. As a result, the indigenous groups and their school communities exercised creative assessment design, critical thought, and developed assessment and monitoring capabilities. 
4. Kia māia: Political influences and policy changes had a significant impact on the development and implementation of all the frameworks we looked at. Sudden changes to government focuses and requirements, and the removal of funding, often meant that the full potential of the frameworks could not be realised.
5. Kia ngākau māhaki: Ensuring that guiding principles and/or values underpinned any monitoring framework or assessment model was considered essential by Māori and indigenous communities and developers. However, there were significant challenges and tensions associated with developing monitoring frameworks and assessment models that reflected indigenous principles, while at the same time operating within Western, colonial systems. 

Ngā tūtohutanga | Recommendations

To ensure that the new Tīrewa Mātai delivers maximum benefits for both the system and Māori, it is critical that:

1. Māori are involved at every stage of development and have tino rangatiratanga in all decisions.
2. The assessment approaches and tools employed are developed on the terms of Māori, in areas Māori value, and with significant input and decision making by key stakeholders, who include iwi, hapū, whānau, Te Matakahuki, Te Rūnanga Nui o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori, and Ngā Kura ā-Iwi.
3. Explicitly stated indigenous principles or values (that have been co-developed with all parties involved) underpin the framework’s development and implementation.
4. The Ministry of Education is open to significant creative input from Māori during the framework’s development.
5. Resourcing and support for the framework’s development and implementation are sustained so that it endures and continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of kura. 
6. The Ministry of Education entrusts to Māori the development of a tīrewa that is authentically Māori, underpinned by tūpuna values and principles, and is rigorous and strengths based.