Sharples: Aspiring School Leaders
te-pati-maori
Thu May 10 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Sharples: Aspiring School Leaders
Thursday, 10 May 2007, 2:20 pm
Press Release: The Maori Party
New Zealand Principal and Leadership Centre:
Aspiring School Leaders Dr Pita Sharples; Co-leader Maori Party Thursday 10 May 2007
I am pleased to be here at Stella Maris; the Star of the Sea, and to spend some time reflecting on the legacy left us through the Sisters of Mercy Aotearoa.
It demonstrates to me the Law of Synchronicity: the meaningful coincidence by which you and I are in this place, at this time.
157 years ago, Nga Whaea Atawhai Sisters of Mercy travelled 16,000 miles over sea to Aotearoa in response to requests from Maori women to provide education and health care.
Bishop Pompallier had responded to the call for ‘wahine tapu’ to teach them and their children. And in 1850, eight pioneer sisters left Ireland to sail for our shores, learning Maori throughout their nine-month journey to equip them for the challenges ahead. Once here, they lived and worked amongst Maori, nurturing education, providing shelter; visiting the sick and imprisoned.
Here at Te Turanga o Kupe, the resting place of Kupe, the Sisters of Mercy established their home on the hilltops of Seatoun in 1909.
And almost a century later, another group of willing leaders; a group of teachers aspiring to principalship, is gathered here, to upskill yourselves in the challenges ahead by thinking particularly about how to ensure Maori are well cared for in your journey.
The Law of Synchronicity demands we make the connections between those who have gone before and those who will follow. It requires us to accept that none of us are islands in the oceans of humanity.
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We operate best on insights acquired by experience; on drawing the links between what is meaningful and relevant to you with what is meaningful and relevant to me.
Leadership, Principalship; Tino Rangatiratanga all have at their base – the value of connective strings of meanings. That, in essence, is the key to ensuring Maori experience success in education. I am always pleased to meet with teachers – and never more so, than teachers who have declared aspirations for brilliance. So today, I want to think about some ideas I have to ensure you do indeed shine in your leadership role.
Many of the Maori teachers that have shared experiences of schooling with me over the years have asked me how to respond to a common question from Pakeha teachers, struggling with Maori under-achievement. Those teachers have asked, “what am I doing wrong?”
I want to move that question around instead to ask, “what are we not doing to excite the intellect, to stir the mind, to inspire the souls of Maori students”.
It seems to me that there are three ways of thinking about this.
The first is thinking about what I know already.
I know the sky is blue.
I know that St Frances de Sales School, Holy Family School and St Brigit’s School are separated by distance but linked by a synthesis of culture and faith characterised as Catholic school education;
I know that 91% of Maori children are in mainstream – or general education schools.
And we all know that there are screeds of evidence that Maori children are not achieving as well academically as they should.
What I also know is that teachers, whanau, school communities value Te Tiriti o Waitangi. I know this because when the Government tried to take it out of the school curriculum, there was such an outpouring of anger from the consultation process, that their deletion decision had to be over-turned.
Leadership comes from having the confidence, the cultural competency, to understand what we know –say, to consider Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a model for power-sharing; and then to put that understanding into practice. That is, to ensure the opportunity for te reo Maori, for cultural aspirations, for matauranga Maori, Maori knowledge to flourish, to be preserved and protected, and thereby treasured in a way which reflects our Article two rights over all that we treasured, our taonga katoa.
The second approach is to know the things I don’t know.
So while the ERO report for Normandale School may tell me that the principal has identified that there is need for further development of te reo and tikanga Māori in the school’s programmes of learning; I do not know to what extent Te Atiawa ki Te Upoko o Te Ika is involved in that process; or indeed what was the quality of consultation with the taura here groups living here in Wellington.
We may know about what Claudia Orange refers to as Wars of Sovereignty – the political control manifest in the Land Wars - but do we know how the persistent attacks on the integrity of Maori culture, on the impoverishment of Maori, has lasting impacts in the hearts and minds of the children inhabiting your schools?
The third approach is what you don’t know you don’t know.
In an analysis of what Russell Bishop and Mere Berryman call ‘non-engaged students, Maori students were asked what the main reason was that they were withdrawn from class. The answers are startling in revealing the perceptions of Maori students of teachers. According to these students, they were withdrawn because:
Being Maori. Some teachers are racist. We’re thick. We smell. Our uniforms are paru. They shame us in class. Put us down. Don’t even try to say our names properly. Say things about our whanau. They blame us for stealing when things go missing. Just ‘cause we are Maori.
Just cause we are Maori. I wonder if in some classrooms around Aotearoa this week, things are being said about gangs, without making the connection to the brother who turns up to school with the red kerchief; the uncle who wears the patch.
How many of us know what the deeper meanings are beyond the names of the school at which we teach – names like Rangikura; Ngaio; Tawa; Konini; Muritai?
Non-engaging students are the most visible evidence that something is occurring in your classroom.
Although it is now some twenty years since the shock research paper of Alton Lee, Nuthall and Patrick was published, ‘Take your brown hand off my book: Racism in the classroom’, provided compelling proof of the insidious environment of institutional racism prevalent in too many classrooms.
Teachers were frequently oblivious to the accusations of ‘nigger’ or the racist labels silently whispered or passed in secret notes.
What is of even more concern, is the personal and cultural offence that your actions may incur, without even knowing.
Maori students have talked about the hurt they suffered with teachers cutting off the taonga around the neck – and the subsequent call on Koro to bless it.
Or it may be a case of expectations of students being influenced by the experiences of siblings or whanau with the same name.
What then, can we do, to make a difference for that Maori child sitting in front of you every day?
It is about grabbing the opportunity, the moment for meaningful coincidence to occur. It is about being prepared to admit that you don’t know. It is about being prepared to learn.
Wally Penetito, senior lecturer at Victoria University, explains it as:
“A lot of people tell me they are scared of working with Maori. They say 'we might get it wrong'. Well, stiff. Get it wrong. But do it, because next time you might do it better”.
Well could I say, that very attitude of being scared is wrong in the first place. I think one of the greatest things I learnt in my own education, was that the more I learnt, the more I realised I didn’t know.
It may appear at times, that no matter how many courses you sign up to about Te Tiriti o Waitangi; Maori culture, language and values, there is always the potential to cause offence.
That over-riding wish for familiarity and being able to just be natural with Maori families instead becomes a case of feeling awkward, inadequate, or uncomfortable.
The names by which we know ourselves are a classic example.
I have seen so many cases of cultural cringe in which the beautiful tupuna names our mokopuna inherit are greeted with, “and what do we call you for short” or ‘well that’s a mouthful – what nickname do you prefer to be known by?”.
The challenge of pronouncing Te Rangihaeata or Piri-ki-te-Atua correctly may indeed take practice –but it is practice which will be well worth the effort. The names by which we are known are integral to our identity; and in many cases may also be a vital connection to that child’s whanau, hapu, iwi, tupuna, maunga, marae, awa, or the unique circumstances of that child’s birth.
The connective strings of meanings that I referred to at the start of this session, is essential to what we, as Tangata whenua, refer to as whakapapa.
It is the layers upon layers of meaning that bind us together, that define and locate us as placed in an evolving journey of life.
I long to see our places of learning being places in which our whakapapa is celebrated; in which we all recognise the moments of awe and the moments of awkwardness, in which we realise a greater story lies beyond that which we think we know.
There is no one book; no TRCC course; no mentor = no matter how brilliant – that can wrap this learning up into one component; one core competency to document on your CV in your applications to be a Passionate and Powerful Principal.
The sense of valuing the unknown and unsaid is, however, integral to the successful acquisition of cultural competency.
We all know that the history of assimilation in Aotearoa has been inculcated throughout our key systems of knowledge. The dominance of Western culture has permeated across school books, media, education, professional development and so on, leading to particular assumptions about the superiority of one set of beliefs and values to the denigration of others.
Being here today, reflecting back on the commitment and the vision of Nga Whaea Atawhai Sisters of Mercy provides us with a perfect opportunity to overturn that history; to challenge those assumptions, and to start anew.
Just as the long journey out to Aotearoa created a space by which the Sisters could upskill in the language and culture of their students; today may represent another journey in which you seek to learn about the worlds in which your students inhabit.
The world of Ngati Kahungunu; the world according to Ngati Porou; the world shaped by Ngati Toa Rangatira.
And in turn you may share the beliefs and preconceived thinking that generates from your worlds.
Knowing where you’re going is one thing. Being clear about what it will take to get there is another.
And in the quest to get there, my call is to take the plunge – with or without discomfort - to actively listen, to learn and to make sense of the lived narrative of the Maori students who occupy your world.
It can be as easy as having the courage to ask, as one group of students reflected in completing a unit on respecting others cultures:
“Some teachers who aren’t Maori try to tell us what Maori do about things like a tangi. ….I could tell them about why we do things in a certain way. I’ve got the goods on this but they never ask me”.
At the end of a study of a sample of Maori students – some identified as engaged; others as non-engaged; Berryman and Bishop were able to pull together some common themes which I believe are central to creating a culture of inclusion and awareness. Whether their experiences were hot or cold, good or bad, the Maori students all spoke of having high aspirations for their achievement in education, and of a burning desire to see positive outcomes from their efforts. They said, and I quote:
“They wanted to be able to experience and succeed in education as Maori. Being Maori ranked just as highly as academic achievement for the students and for their whanau. These students want to be able to be Maori within the mainstream education system”.
They do not want to settle for the deficits and disadvantages documented in disparities. Just cause we are Maori.
They want to know, just as the ‘wahine tapu’ in this place knew before us, that they are truly equipped for the journey of life – equipped to succeed, to thrive and to excel.
As Leaders with the aspiration to succeed, your skills, your cultural competency; your belief in the potential of your students, will be essential to make their success happen.
And that is something I absolutely know that I know.
ENDS
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