Throughout 2021, more than 70 teachers and kaiako will be mentored to develop integrated local curriculum, with a focus on Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.
Amiria Stirling talks to kaiako at the first hui held at Te Papa in Wellington.
In 2022, Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories will be given more prominence in both English and Māori-medium schools and kura through the Tikanga ā-iwi learning area of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and Social Sciences in The New Zealand Curriculum.
A cohort of teachers from throughout the country will be supported on this journey by He Mārau Pāhekoheko, the Raranga Matihiko national teachers’ programme, developed and led by The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Amiria Stirling is a facilitator and content creator of the programme, and hits the road in May and June to facilitate two-day wānanga throughout Aotearoa. She will be accompanied by colleague Tara Fagan, project director for Raranga Matihiko/Weaving Digital Futures.
“I want to see schools go on a journey of integration. We hope the end result is that the schools will capture their journey and they’ll share it with us. These schools will be the catalyst of an approach to integrating Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories working towards 2022,” says Amiria.
“For a lot of us learning our history is new. We might know aspects of it, but we don’t necessarily tie the whole story together. Or we might know the national picture, but not what the local impact was, so there’s a lot of learning to happen,” says Tara.
Digital Technologies and Hangarau Matihiko (DT&HM) and Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories are the two most recent changes to the curriculum, says Tara.
Raranga Matihiko is well placed to help teachers and kaiako weave together elements of the two areas of the curriculum to develop engaging and relevant programmes. For the past three years, the team has been working with partners Auckland Museum, Waitangi Treaty Grounds, MTG Hawke’s Bay, Waikato Museum, and more recently Auckland Art Gallery, to deliver the programme.
“We work with teachers to find out what their inquiry topic is, design bespoke programmes, and then draw on aspects of our museum or taonga or curatorial knowledge. Even though that part of the programme has been DT&HM focused, it’s actually about curriculum integration and local curriculum, because we want to bring those local stories in as much as we can, as well as making sure that we’re not teaching technology in isolation,” explains Tara.
Tara says digital technology is a tool for students to be able to tell their own stories – and engage with them.
“For young people, there’s something exciting to be able to 3D model a battle site that happened in the 1800s, or to represent their learning in different ways.
“Suddenly when you’re starting to design a 3D waka and you’re talking about Pacific navigation, you’ve got to think about what you’re going to put on that waka. You’ve got to design for what sort of sails you would have and how you would transport food. It’s an enabler for learning,” she says.
Tara Fagan discusses local histories with kaiako at the Wellington hui.
He Mārau Pāhekoheko will focus on three kete which will be unpacked during the nationwide mentoring programme, says Amiria.
The first kete will include discussing challenges and the kind of integration participants think their schools can manage.
“Before we get into the context, we’re looking at what is integration? How much can you manage in your school? We realise some teachers may only be able to manage integration across a couple of classrooms, or even in their own classrooms.
Teachers from the Wellington region attended the first hui at Te Papa in May.
“In this programme, there are four views of integration: integration across a couple of subjects like maths and science, integration across a syndicate or a larger portion of the school and the way they manage curriculum, and also large-scale integration of curriculum areas across the entire school through to the end point – where there’s integration into communities,” explains Amiria.
Kete two will focus on the history of the whenua where a school is located, and developing and maintaining authentic and reciprocal relationships with mana whenua and relevant groups.
“Who are you going to connect with, to talk about the local histories that pertain to your local area? In the kete there are some resources/tools to help kaiako identify the who and how,” says Amiria.
“Where we can, we want to hold our wānanga at cultural and heritage spaces, because they will be one of the local places that hold that knowledge and taonga,” explains Tara.
“It’s really important for schools to consider local knowledge and their approach to mana whenua or their local museum or cultural and heritage spaces. We want to try bring people together and say ‘in your first contact, share the knowledge among schools’ and build relationships,” she says.
Kete three will bring everything together.
“By the end of the wānanga, each participant will have created a future-looking curriculum for their school to implement – ideally in 2022,” explains Amiria.
“It’s about capturing what we know, what we don’t know, what we do with the information, and how we blend that into our education programme. That’s where it fits in with digital technologies – you have this platform now to unpack and create with the new learning,” she says.
Following the two-day wānanga, participants will attend webinars and receive mentoring throughout the year to get schools to the end of the third kete.
“There will probably be a lot of online meetings. I’ll walk alongside them and see what help they’ll need on their journey. Every journey will be bespoke, so my job will be to learn what each school is aiming for, and what they have and need,” explains Amiria.
While group mentoring will be closed to the participants in He Mārau Pāhekoheko, the webinars and resources will all be licensed by Creative Commons and freely available via the website(external link).
“We’ve built up a lot of resources over the three years we’ve been doing Raranga Matihiko, so we will be directing teachers to some of these, but we also have a wide range of experts across our team. So, if a class wants to do digital storytelling, we can show them ways in which they can do that.
“We’ll be running webinars which won’t just be open to teachers taking part in the programme, but to any interested teacher,” says Tara.
It’s hoped a free online conference will be run at the end of the year, so the teachers and kaiako involved in the programme can share the journey with each other, and colleagues nationwide.
“These teachers are putting a lot into the programme, and if they’re willing to share their learnings, it’s good for them to be able to help other teachers with tips and tricks, successes, and things that didn’t work so well,” says Tara.
As a former tumuaki, Amiria is passionate about people knowing their own stories.
As a former tumuaki, Amiria is passionate about people knowing their own stories.
“This is coming from a background of Māori-medium education where it’s inherent. It’s naturalised in the setting and I’m aware that I’m going into spaces that aren’t familiar with that kind of approach to education, which is why in the first kete, I’m going to talk about who you are, what your makeup is, what you do, and why you do it, before stepping into the next kete.
“Each community will have their own bespoke foci and contexts. That’s why it’s a privilege for me to see the ways schools embrace those local contexts and stories,” she says.
To help support teachers to create relevant integrated curriculum with a focus on Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories, the Raranga Matihiko national teachers’ programme will help kaiako:
Teachers from the Wellington region attended the first hui at Te Papa in May.
BY Education Gazette editors
Education Gazette | Tukutuku Kōrero, reporter@edgazette.govt.nz
Posted: 8:12 am, 20 May 2021
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