School community relationship – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Learning From Each Other: A final report

Introduction Pacific parents and community members have much to contribute to teacher learning and thus to the education of Pacific students. Although the concept of Pacific success, through the education of Pacific students, has become ubiquitous as an aspiration, there has so far been limited research that has conceptualised Pacific education success in community terms. This is especially true in relation to teacher learning, teacher theorising, and changed practice. Understanding how to socialise teachers to generate and sustain new practice possibilities, informed by appreciation of the values, aspirations, and critiques of the Pacific parents and students they seek to serve, is therefore a priority. Learning From Each Other is a Teaching

Understand Me: Storied-Conversations as Afa for Strengthening Relationships, Curriculum and Pedagogies

Mā ngā korero tuku iho tātou me ō tātou ao e kitea ai, e rongongia ai, e whaiora ai.[1] E tatou te fauina i tatou ma a tatou si’osi’omaga, e ala iā tatou tala.[2] We craft ourselves and our worlds in stories. Understand Me was born out of an aspirational exploration of ways for teachers to deepen relationships with young children and families to open space for their knowledges to be valued in the everyday educational curriculum. The origin was a desire to facilitate a shift from awareness of cultural competencies to action that values family pedagogies in the learning life of the classroom. Family pedagogies are everyday ways of knowing,

Summer reading to overcome the summer effect

Introduction The school in which this project took place, Papatoetoe Central, was concerned about research evidence that indicated students’ reading achievement dropped after long summer breaks. This drop in achievement, known as “the summer effect”, has been reported in schools in New Zealand and internationally (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2007; Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2010; McNaughton, Jesson, & Kolose, 2012). Papatoetoe Central, a decile 4 school, is situated in a low income urban area in South Auckland; its student population comprises 9 percent Māori, 14 percent Pasifika, 51 percent Indian, and 18 percent Chinese, with the remainder European New Zealanders and other ethnicities. A high number of students have home languages other

Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki

Introduction In this project four teachers addressed their diverse students’ need for a range of different opportunities to develop more sophisticated expertise in science. They achieved this by drawing on the principles and practices of culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment for learning. Interviews and classroom observations indicated that students, and their families, took greater ownership and responsibility for science learning when teachers incorporated and built on the funds of knowledge and lived experience that all students bring from their homes and communities. Key findings Teachers can create culturally responsive pathways for science learning by incorporating children’s and communities’ funds of knowledge into the curriculum. Culturally responsive science teachers at times position