| Summary: | This thesis explores the notion that iwi and schools working together can contribute to
culturally responsive curriculum and schooling. It investigates how some schools have
formed genuine education partnerships with iwi, and provides answers to the following
question: in what ways are iwi and schools working together to support Māori students?
An understanding of communities of practice, and what Māori student success looks like,
are essential. Imperatives for education partnerships and the educational policy, and
drivers for partnership are foundational in understanding and connecting collaboration
between iwi and schools with the wider educational picture in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In New Zealand, Māori are not as successful as their non-Māori peers. Approaches to
achieving education equity, including collaboration with iwi and Māori, is important for
informing education approaches and strategy. How those approaches are informed,
developed and implemented is equally important in achieving models likely to positively
affect Māori achievement in education. This is also important in ensuring that
participation expectations of iwi are co-constructed, reasonable and appropriately
resourced.
The theoretical base of this study draws upon the literature review on collaboration
between Māori/iwi and the New Zealand education system, as well as international
literature on supporting Indigenous students, using a community of practice approach.
The metaphor of ‘puna kōrero’ is used in this research, as an approach allowing for
consideration of different sites of investigation using an organic, kaupapa (issue, topic)
Māori perspective. The three puna kōrero explored are Te Kauhua: A Ministry of
Education funded professional development programme for schools and iwi; iwi voices:
six iwi education representatives speak about their experiences working with schools and
advancing their iwi education aspirations; Wai Study Help: an English-literacy
programme operating in a kura kaupapa Māori (Māori immersion schooling) setting that
has partnerships with its local university and iwi. From these puna kōrero, implications
for iwi, schools and the Ministry of Education are considered.
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Exploration of the three puna kōrero identified passionate leadership and purposeful
membership, funding and resourcing, monitoring and defining success,
whakawhanaungatanga (nurturing relationships with others) and involvement of whānau
(family) as key themes. Motivations for schools and iwi to work together are explored,
along with rationale for the Ministry of Education’s support of iwi-school communities of
practice. A framework for iwi-school communities of practice is proposed, including
recommendations for iwi, schools and the Ministry of Education.
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