Sharples: Specialist Classroom Teachers Hui
te-pati-maori
Thu May 03 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Sharples: Specialist Classroom Teachers Hui
Thursday, 3 May 2007, 1:44 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Specialist Classroom Teachers Hui (Wellington Region)
Gear Homestead, Porirua
Dr Pita R Sharples; Co-leader Maori Party
Thursday 3 May 2007
‘From NeverNever land to Neversaynever’
When I was growing up, I wanted to be an All Black. Now I was a fine rugby player from all accounts – but at 12 stone for a flanker I was too light, and so Auckland Second B was the best I got.
The other day I asked some of my mokopuna what they wanted to be.
“To be like you Papa” they said. “To take over Manutaki” (Te Roopu Manutaki Maori cultural group); “to be the boss of the Marae”.
To me, it was all about the difference in the quest for neverland – the fantasy land of eternal hope; to the spirit of determination, of resilience, that ‘neversaynever’ attitude which will lead us through.
The dreams of my mokopuna are expectations we know we can deliver on. There are plans and goals and strategies which can ensure that our mokopuna truly achieve all they aspire towards. And who knows, there may be some mighty Allblacks amongst them too.
As I was preparing for today, yet another piece of research came out, the headline screaming that Maori are undereducated, underpaid and dying too young.
“And they call that news?” I thought. The report for the World Health Organisation concluded and I quote:
“Inequalities experienced by the indigenous people of Australia and New Zealand are significant and would be fundamental breaches of human rights if either government was prepared to debate the notion of indigenous rights”.
Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
The report documented, amongst the indicators of deprivation, poor access to education in Maori for children, evidenced by the stats we all know, such as:
- That in 2005, only 51% of Maori school leavers attained NCEA level 1 or higher; compared to 89% of Asian school leavers and 78% of European;
- That only 7% of Maori adults between 25 to 64 had a bachelor’s degree compared to 18% of European;
- That 7.6% of all Maori were unemployed in 2006; almost three times higher than the European rate of 2.7%.
Against this context then, I am delighted that you, the Specialist Classroom Teachers of the Wellington Region, are prepared to go where no government will go – and actually debate the notion of indigenous rights; tackle the facts of the matter; and never say never.
So how do we make it happen?
A report I would recommend to you all, is the report, ‘Towards making achieving cool’ which documents the experience of the project, Achievement in Multi-Cultural High Schools, (Aim Hi).
One of the most sobering statements in that report was from a Maori parent who said:
“I don’t believe we are to blame as parents for our children. The system has to change. It must change to meet the needs of our children. We want them to succeed”.
For too long, Maori parents and families have been held to account for a supposed defective influence on their children. Integration was the goal, to move Maori children from what Hunn called a ‘backward life in primitive conditions’. Harker took the call one step further in 1979, and suggested that
“perhaps we have to learn to live with some measure of achievement difference between ethnic groups”.
The deprived nature of the Maori home, the cultural deficit theory was sustained from accounts of early missionaries, through to the 1960 Hunn Report, through to the 1997 Report by Chapple, Jeffries and Walker who located the blame for Maori under-achievement as being a product of the attitudes and choices of Maori parents.
And even as recent as a month ago, the Government has been boasting about their support for The Te Kotahitanga programme. The programme is a teacher professional development project which helps teachers to change the way they relate Maori students.
Te Kotahitanga reported that the need for such a project emerged from the crisis state of current teacher expectations:
“The teachers spoke of students’ deficiencies as being the major barriers to students’ progress and achievement. In fact, there was a strong preponderance of a pathologising of Maori students lived experiences by the teachers which in turn limited their interactions with Maori students in culturally and academically engaging ways.
In effect, this study shows that many teachers believe that Maori learners are simply less capable of educational achievement because most come from limited language and economically poor homes. In addition, the teachers as a group were very uncertain as to where solutions might lie. (Te Kotahitanga; Ministry of Education, 2003; p28)
It all makes for pretty dismal reading.
Well I am pleased that this fine group of educational leaders is not prepared to live with disparities – the question is what to do about it.
The first step, I would suggest, is actually to listen to what Maori people think could be helpful in advancing our aspirations for educational excellence.
Hearing what Maori students say is a very good place to start.
One of the most depressing findings from the book, Culture Speaks, Cultural Relationships and classroom learning, is that most of the students interviewed reported that being Maori in a mainstream secondary school was a negative experience.
How bad is that! This is a publication from Mere Berryman and Russell Bishop in 2006 – last year. And yet 91.6% of all Maori students are in mainstream schools – that’s 148,802 Maori children having a negative experience.
In summary, Maori students in mainstream schools, experienced a life in which teachers did not generally see them as being achievers. Indeed, Maori students were more likely to be targeted as causing trouble, both inside and outside the classroom.
This is not new.
And we all know the history of Maori education which has transformed through the attitudes of tangata whenua who stood up and said NeversayNever.
Over twenty years ago, we founded the first kura kaupapa Maori in Aotearoa, at Hoani Waititi Marae, which led on the first kura kaupapa Maori secondary school for graduates of our kura.
But we weren’t prepared to give up on our tamariki in mainstream schools at the same time.
So alongside the incredible excitement of kura kaupapa, we also put our energy into a whole heap of other student support programmes, including:
- Community and school homework centres;
- Second chance classes and options
- School life skills programmes
- Tu tangata, work skills programmes
- School cultural clubs
- Voluntary subject counselling
- Taha Maori programmes, confidence courses
- And an alternative education programme based around Maori weaponry, health and fitness, te reo, Maori history and customs.
But you know, even with our most enthusiastic attitudes, if we are forever relegated to the margins, we will not make a difference. It must be a question of attitude; an expectation of excellence.
We must want success as badly as Maori parents and whanau want it. We - and I mean we as educationalists and leaders – must set the standards we expect for achievement by looking at ourselves, examining our own areas of need, and doing something about it.
We must be prepared to be uncomfortable.
Looking again at the ideas in Culture Speaks, I was drawn to a statement from a Maori student who had experienced success.
“The teacher I liked best wasn’t Maori but he could have been. He knew all about our stuff. Like he knew how to say my name. He never did dumb things like sitting on tables or patting you on the head. He knew about fantails in a room. He knew about tangi. He never stepped over girls legs. All that sort of stuff. ….He always came and saw whanau at home, more than once during the year. He invited the whanau into our room anytime. We went on picnics and class trips and the whanau came along. We always planned our lessons together. He was choice.
You don’t have to have read Paulo Freire to know that this is the language of liberation. Knowing about ‘all that sort of stuff’ is incredibly important to the emancipation of the mind.
It’s about what we in the Maori Party use as our party mantra, walking the talk. Being prepared to actually put it out there, to listen to other points of views.
It’s not a matter of a Maori/Pakeha split; or indeed an iwi-centric split, although of course Ngati Kahungunu has a particularly brilliant understanding of how the revolution will be won.
The revolution from the oppression of theories of integration or assimilation must come from us all.
The Te Kauhua Maori Mainstream Pilot Project recommended three key steps towards achieving success:
- caring about Maori student success,
- valuing Maori student culture and
- listening to Maori student views.
All these three factors appeared to dispose teachers towards raising student achievement.
It sounds so easy – and it is.
Out here, Porirua College has modelled that step towards transformation, through something as simple as the rebuilding of their kura. What did they do? They asked students what they wanted – the students consulted alongside of whanau. They showed they cared – and we hope that they will listen.
It’s about making the impossible possible. Wanting to know what the hopes and dreams of all our mokopuna are; and communicating respect for Maori students and their whanau.
And if that sounds like a big leap of faith, maybe some tiny steps towards making it happen, is to go to www.youtube.com; and see what our rangatahi are saying or listen in to some of the podcasts on eSnips or contribute to a blog, learn how to librivox, go crazy on bebo – or as they used to say in my day, get into the groove!
We have to try to get it right.
Our mokopuna deserve that opportunity.
The demographics of Aotearoa tell us that by 2021, one in every three students in the education system will be of Maori and Pasifika descent.
And yet just two years ago, the Hui Taumata identified what they described as a reservoir of ‘untapped potential’ - young Maori who leave school without qualifications.
We must not leave our rangatahi deserted in Never Never land.
We must believe in them, we must prepare for our future. We must know all about stuff. We must deliver. We must want to succeed.
And we must throw the double negatives aside and declare, Always say Always! The best is yet to come.
ENDS
Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}
Using Scoop for work?
Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.
Join Pro Individual Find out more
Find more from The Maori Party on InfoPages.