Leadership through the eyes of Māori educators

PPTA's Te Huarahi Māori Motuhake, in conjunction with Community Research, held a webinar on leadership through the eyes and experiences of two Māori educators in leadership roles.

COMET Māori Education manager Will Flavell (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāpuhi) and Tokono Te Raki Māori Futures Collective Kaihautū Dr Eruera Tarena spoke about the role of leaders, teachers as leaders and what supports leaders can put in place. Tech entrepreneur Kaye-Maree Dunn moderated the session.

Open to all PPTA members, it was an opportunity for some much needed connecting in this space after the cancellation of the PPTA Māori Teachers' Conference in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown.

A participant's view

Otago Girls' High School teacher Joe Hunter took part in the webinar and shared her experiences with us.

This year has been a time of finding different ways to share our pedagogy, and I've found webinars a convenient way to learn. I like that I can get tea on the go and listen in at the same time, ask questions directly of experts and then later on, watch again, share and spread the ideas

Will Flavell interviewed non-Maori  students of te reo to see what their motivations for learning were. He found that they felt really comfortable working together in a kaupapa Māori space, and that their parents had a strong influence on their engagement and academic outcomes.  He addressed school non-attendance by sharing the data so that whanau could come up with workable solutions. The slides with quotations from students about their "why" and their future plans would be a great idea to have posted around school, and great for starting staffroom learning conversations too.

Arama Mataira shared how her work with indigenous communities in Australia informed systems change in a West Auckland secondary school.

Some little pearls I took away to think on how to make positive change were: "you have to look everywhere in the system", "decisions made and actions taken lead to innovation" and "shared vision leads to total wellbeing".

With Te Wiki o te Reo Māori coming up, I've been thinking about her remarks on the positive influence on students of te reo Māori being modelled and valued by staff, particularly when used by the principal and senior lead team.

She also emphasised an agreement as necessary to work together in a partnership (food for thought in our collective agreement negotiations). It was interesting to hear how her work with indigenous communities in Australia informed systems change in a West Auckland secondary school.  Perhaps most intriguing was her job title as "intercultural navigator". Maybe that's a challenge for all of us as teachers.

The presenters have such a wealth of knowledge and experience and I would love to learn more from them. The MC herself, Kaye-Maree Dunn, has an outstanding background and much to share I've also had a quick look on the communityresearch.org.nz website at some previous webinars, and I'm definitely up for a revisit of this material in greater detail.

Thanks to our Te Wehengarua Āpiha Māori, Dr Te Mākao Bowkett for providing this opportunity. It's a great way to add to our professional learning kete.

Resources and future webinars

If you missed the first webinar, never fear, it is now available to view online at ppta.org.nz. You can also view the bios of the presenters and find out more about them.

Keep an eye on our events page for details on the second of our webinars, which will highlight Māori approaches to wellbeing.