Te Kākahu: Building on Success

Te Kākahu is a professional learning and development (PLD) response in up to 10 schools, also working directly with whānau, hapū and iwi within the Whanganui rohe over 2014–16. Te Kākahu is part of a larger Ministry-funded programme called Building on Success that aims to strengthen school and iwi capability to accelerate valued outcomes for Māori learners in secondary schools.

Te Kākahu is led by Te Puna Mātauranga o Whanganui and Cognition Education Ltd.

Schools work with facilitators to design an inquiry based programme of support, informed by the individual school and student achievement and participation data. Boards of Trustees, leaders, and teachers are invited to focus their efforts on embedding the identity, language, and culture of their Māori students into school programmes and teaching practices, and to focus on relationships for learning pedagogies that are known to impact on outcomes for Māori learners.

An iwi education forum, known as Te Paepae Mātauranga, are also collaborating in support of their engagement with schools in their respective rohe. They have agreed to work alongside local schools, whānau, hapū and iwi based on the following principles:

• Mana Whenua – iwi protocols and responsibilities will guide PLD programme engagements with schools and whānau. This principle acknowledges iwi interests and expectations to describe, support, and evaluate success as iwi.
• Kotahitanga – Whanganui iwi and neighbouring iwi agree to work together to design curriculum offerings, support whānau engagement and schools with learning and teaching. This principle recognises the potential of collaboration initiatives to achieve education goals and aspirations.
• Rau Kotahi – rangatahi will have access to curriculum offerings from iwi groups involved with this PLD programme. This principle respects the whakapapa relationships of rangatahi with more than one iwi and how they choose to express their language, culture, and identity.      
• Whānau Ora – iwi will support whānau to understand and engage with schools so they may positively influence the learning process and educational achievement of rangatahi Māori. This principle reflects the pivotal role of whānau as a critical voice in the education of their rangatahi.

Te Kākahu draws on iwi capability to shift pan-Māori perspectives within curriculum towards a place-based iwi-centric curriculum, aiming to normalise local tikanga and knowledge within classrooms and school culture. Knowledge sharing between iwi and schools is carefully orchestrated so that ways of knowing, doing and being are accessed and valued, and not assimilated. In other words, the notion of effective practices for Māori learners is extended from the classroom and schools to effective practices for whānau, hapū, and iwi. This collective impact model strengthens the dual roles and shared responsibilities between schools and whānau, hapū and iwi to provide authentic learning opportunities where rangatahi can achieve educational success as Ngā Iwi.

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