Culturally responsive leadership supports inclusive environments and improved learning for students and families with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It involves developing leadership pedagogies, practices, and policies that create inclusive schooling environments.
Culturally responsive leadership is an individual and a collective responsibility
Culturally responsive leaders:
Regardless of position or age, any member of the staff and any student has the ability to be a culturally responsive leader.
Lead for diversity
To lead for diversity means to actively respond to the diversity in the school population. Educational policy and practice reflecting a Maori world view as legitimate, authoritative, and valid has the potential of creating a culturally responsive approach that benefits the entire school community.
The New Zealand Curriculum acknowledges the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the bicultural foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand. All students have the opportunity to acquire knowledge of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga.
The Treaty principle of partnership benefits all learners. It harnesses the knowledge and expertise of the diverse people who can contribute to students’ learning, including families, whānau, iwi, and other community members.
Looking at the Treaty of Waitangi curriculum principle
In this video, Wharehoka Wano offers schools simple strategies to get started and describes what might be seen in classrooms where the Treaty of Waitangi principle is enacted.
Whare comments on the importance of school leaders and kaiako knowing:
Schools should know what tribal area they’re located in, and the rivers and mountains that are important.
This document outlines roles and focus areas of leadership from a Māori perspective and presents some of the key leadership roles and practices that contribute to high-quality educational outcomes for Māori learners. Initially created for Māori medium educational leadership, this is a useful resource for all school leaders.
Māori achieving success as Māori (MASAM)
A framework for developing a school curriculum that supports Māori students to enjoy and achieve educational success as Māori.
A sabbatical report by Christine Jessop from Forest Lake Primary School – Hamilton.
Principal, Roger Hornblow describes their two and a half year journey to build culturally inclusive practices at Pegasus Bay School. They began by involving whānau and the community to develop their place-based approach to learning. Consultation with the Ngāi Tūāhuriri Education Committee (Ngāi Tahu) was ongoing from the early stages of designing the new school.
Place-based learning can help teachers practise a culturally responsive pedagogy which is grounded in the unique historical, cultural, and ecological contexts their students live and learn in.
Each of the learning communities at Pegasus Bay School incorporates local names and stories, which are part of students' learning. Roger describes two whole-school PLD projects undertaken by staff to build their understanding of Māori tikanga and reo. They have made te reo Māori and inclusive approaches part of their everyday practice so they are seen as "business as usual" by students and parents.
Online professional learning was made available for the whole staff through the Te Reo Puāwai course – a guide to te reo Māori, which includes how to teach it to others and use it authentically in your setting. The value of working online meant teachers could work at their own pace, revisit the lessons and resources, and work together to build understanding and develop practice.
Pegasus Bay School trialed Huakina Mai trial, along with two other schools in their area. Huakina Mai aims to enhance learning outcomes and experiences for Māori students and their whānau by supporting schools, students, whānau, and iwi to build a whole school approach to positive behaviour based on strong relationships, authentic engagement, power sharing, culturally responsive behaviour management systems, processes, practices and pedagogy (ways of teaching and learning). Roger notes the importance of connecting with the two other schools in the trial.
Create effective links between school and other cultural contexts in which students are socialised, to facilitate learning. Use a blended approach, which includes face-to-face and online.
(Ford, 2012 )
Teachers from Pegasus Bay School discuss how students learning their pepeha, rakau games, waiata, and karakia has created a culturally responsive environment where tikanga Māori is celebrated and valued. Teachers work hard to connect with whānau. Student work is shared through classroom blogs. Teachers have organised workshops using parent and whānau expertise with harakeke weaving leading up to matariki. Feedback from whānau has been positive.
Te ika unahi nui wānanga – A marae-based learning programme
Students from Coastal Taranaki School learn at Tarawainuku marae. The marae holds the cultural knowledge of the local tribe inside its houses and in the environment in which it is located. Whānau were invited to provide their input into designing learning experiences and encouraged to participate in these at the marae each week with the students. Regular meetings were held to discuss learning for each term.
Rob Clarke, principal of Burnham School, explains the importance of face-to-face meetings in terms of successful whānau and community engagement with e-learning tools.
Face-to-face dialogue and relationship building helps to eliminate “guesswork” when identifying possible barriers and opportunities for student and teacher learning. Provide opportunities for the leadership team and teachers to have conversations with, and listen to, Māori students, whānau and the wider Māori community to gain a deep understanding of where students are from and what they bring into the school setting. Find out about the expectations and the aspirations that parents have for their children.
As well as ensuring that leaders and teachers are building interdependent relationships with students, parents and community members, and the principal, consider the quality of internal relationships between leaders, teachers, and administration staff. Provide staff with opportunities to share their ideas and perspectives, so they are empowered to contribute to decision making.
Use understandings gained from conversations with Māori students, parents and whānau, fellow leaders, teachers, and support staff to guide the development of a shared vision. Develop a vision that ensures all students (particularly those being least served in the school in terms of education success) are better able to achieve academic success. Use your vision to inform school systems and structures.
Leading schools that include all learners
This online guide unpacks what it means to lead an inclusive school where all students are supported to be present, engaged, participating, and achieving in ways that honour and value diversity.
Design systems and structures that articulate "how your school does things" to create an inclusive culture that supports learning.
Regularly review and update documents to reflect developing understandings of culturally responsive practice, as a result of ongoing dialogue with students and parents, and through your professional development programme.
Cultural responsiveness needs to permeate every aspect of the school to create an inclusive environment, including the:
A series of videos on the NZC website supporting understanding and leading whole school te reo Māori development, effective pedagogy, and a culturally connected curriculum.
Partnering with parents, whānau, and communities
This online guide provides information, examples, and resources to support schools with developing and strengthening effective partnerships. It emphasises the value of building close community networks to support student learning and wellbeing.
ERO suggest schools can improve their practice by building their understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi and its implications for school policy, organisation, and planning (Ministry of Education, 2012 ). Consider to what extent the Treaty of Waitangi principle is evident in the interpretation and implementation of your school curriculum and how it is enacted in classrooms.
Use important policies that guide the school as a basis to develop practice guidelines, in conjunction with teachers, which contain expectations regarding relationships and classroom.
Consider your:
"To ensure that all Māori can achieve their full potential in education, the system must fit the learner rather than the learner fit the system."
Ministry of Education, Supporting Māori students
Establish and support pedagogies and frameworks that underpin culturally responsive practices by:
The Treaty of Waitangi and school governance: Ki tua tua o te matapaki kōrero ko te mahi
This document enables trustees of English-medium schools to better understand the Treaty; emphasise the responsibility and potential that boards have in ensuring that the implications, obligations and the spirit of the Treaty are implemented and upheld.
Connection between the school and the community is essential in developing school-wide culturally responsive practices.
Research indicates that when schools develop educationally powerful connections with whānau and their Māori communities there is potential to significantly improve learning outcomes for Māori students (Berryman, Ford & Egan, 2015, p. 18 ).
Both partnership and collaboration infer a degree of power-sharing. Consider what power-sharing means in terms of engagement with Māori whānau and communities. A productive partnership is described as being a two-way, mutually respectful relationship that “starts with the understanding that Māori children and students are connected to whānau and should not be viewed or treated as separate, isolated or disconnected” (Kahikitia, p. 17 ).
Understand and be responsive to the cultural conditions of your particular school community by:
Identify how you can use digital technologies to support and facilitate your partnerships. This may mean providing parents and whānau with support to access and use the technologies.
Holy Cross School is a multicultural community. Kathy Moy-Low explains how they engaged with their community while building e-learning opportunities. One of their initiatives is after school parent technology sessions, run once a month. In this video clip, parents explain why they go to the classes – the benefits for their own learning with technology, and how they can engage more with their children's learning.
Providing professional learning and development (PLD) for staff is an important aspect of influencing cultural responsiveness. To support staff to successfully develop culturally responsive practices, leaders need to know:
Support staff to:
At Pegasus Bay School, teachers teach and use te reo Māori daily so students hear and see it as a natural part of their school culture. Pegasus Bay School principal, Roger Hornblow explains the importance of being deliberate about giving teachers skills at a personal level, which have practice and performance outcomes. Working through the online course, Te Reo Puawai, together as a whole staff meant teachers were able to collaborate, support each other, and develop their practice together.
Teachers are aware of the importance of using te reo Māori regularly and pronouncing it correctly. Students and teachers are learning together. Kupu and posters placed around the learning environment provide te reo support.
Tamariki are encouraged to bring things in which are meaningful to them. They have gathered things such as shells, toi toi, and harakeke, from their local environment which are used as classroom resources.
"The aim of culturally responsive teaching and learning is to improve Māori education outcomes where the tamaiti (child), the whānau (parents and family), and hapū and iwi (tribal group) are integral to determining the education journey. The core of cultural responsiveness is: responding to 'the child’s cultural experiences' – in this case as Māori and all that it encompasses."
Diversity encompasses many characteristics including:
Teaching needs to be responsive to diversity within ethnic groups, for example, diversity within Pakeha, Māori, Pasifika and Asian students. The diversity within individual students influenced by intersections of gender, cultural heritage(s), socio-economic background, and talent also needs to be recognised. Evidence shows teaching that is responsive to student diversity can have very positive impacts on low and high achievers at the same time (Alton-Lee, 2003 )
These characteristics are interdependent.
Culturally responsive teachers use a wide variety of strategies to create inclusive classroom contexts where students are encouraged to acknowledge and celebrate diversity and learning with and from each other. These include:
Quality relationships are central to quality teaching
The Effective Teacher Profile (ETP) illustrates effective interactions:
Tātaiako – cultural competences for teachers of Māori learners
Culturally responsive teaching and learning pedagogy is realised when:
Tau Mai Te Reo and Ka Hikitia are companion strategies and should be read in conjunction with each other. Tau Mai Te Reo is a strategy for all learners, while Ka Hikitia is a strategy for all Māori learners.
Tapasā – Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners
Increase the capability of all teachers of Pacific learners.
Teachers at Pegasus Bay completed an online course, Te Reo Puawai, over a term with ongoing access to the course content and resources for the year. They collaborated to plan learning and build a culturally responsive environment. In these videos, teachers share the variety of strategies and approaches they developed to engage the tamariki with what is happening in their learning community. They explain the different technologies they use as part of their classroom programme to support learning and engage with parents and whānau.
Students use a variety of apps to create content, practice their reo, hear themselves, reflect on their learning with peers, and set goals for improvement. Content is shared with whānau through classroom blogs.
Te reo Māori is taught and used daily in the classrooms. Teachers agreed to plan 15 minute instructional lessons to make it manageable. They also include daily karakia, music, and games and identify features of their learning environment that reflect the culture of their learners and provide prompts to support using te reo Māori.
Go to the School stories tab for more examples of using digital technologies in the classroom.
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The Treaty of Waitangi and school governance: Ki tua tua o te matapaki kōrero ko te mahi
This document enables trustees of English-medium schools to better understand the Treaty; emphasise the responsibility and potential that boards have in ensuring that the implications, obligations and the spirit of the Treaty are implemented and upheld.
The cultural self-review: Providing culturally effective, inclusive education for Māori learners
This book by Jill Bevan-Brown provides a structure and process that teachers from early childhood centres through to secondary schools can use to explore how well they cater for Māori learners, including those with special needs. Central to the book is a cultural input framework which provides a set of principles for analysing programme components including: environment, personnel, policy, processes, content, resources, assessment, and administration.
The pedagogies and practices supported by a bi-cultural and culturally responsive approach to leading teaching and learning will benefit the entire school community. Two examples of school leaders who have achieved better results for their Māori learners are outlined in the following New Zealand university masters degree theses’:
Culturally responsive leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand secondary schools (2016)
The New Zealand Curriculum Treaty of Waitangi principle
NZC Update 16 focuses on The New Zealand Curriculum principle the Treaty of Waitangi and its implications for teaching, learning, and the school curriculum.
Tātaiako: Cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners
Tātaiako provides a framework that can support professional development and learning for teachers, leaders, and aspiring principals. The framework identifies five competencies and for each provides indicators at four levels: entry to initial teacher education, graduating teachers, certified teachers, and leaders. Supporting the indicators are possible outcomes expressed as examples of learner voice and of whānau voice.
Ka Hikitia – Kā Hapaitia is a cross-agency strategy for the education sector. It sets out how The Ministry of Education will work with education services to achieve system shifts in education and support Māori learners and their whānau, hapū and iwi to achieve excellent and equitable outcomes and provides an organising framework for actions.
Tapasā – Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners
A tool that can be used to increase the capability of all teachers of Pacific learners.
Action Plan for Pacific Education
The Action Plan maps the Government’s commitment to transforming outcomes for Pacific learners and families and signals how early learning services, schools, and tertiary providers can achieve change for Pacific learners and their families. The Action Plan has resources and guidance including planning templates.
Huakina Mai is a kaupapa Māori behaviour initiative that promotes whānau, schools, and iwi working together to build a positive school culture, based on a Kaupapa Māori world view. This initiative is based on the growing body of practice-based evidence that school and student/whānau success are improved by personalisation and strong relationships of teachers' knowledge of, and caring for students.
A sabbatical report by Christine Jessop from Forest Lake Primary School – Hamilton, published 2012.
Te Mangōroa is a portal to stories, reports, statistics, and reviews from across TKI and other sites that reflect effective practices to support Māori learners to achieve educational success as Māori. Te Mangōroa contains practical illustrations of what the Māori education strategy, Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia, means for teaching and learning.
Inclusive education – Guides for schools
This site provides New Zealand educators with practical strategies, suggestions, and resources to support learners with diverse needs. Specific guides which may be useful:
Promise of place: Enriching lives through place-based education
Place-based education (PBE) immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences, using these as a foundation for the learning across the curriculum. PBE emphasises learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community. This American website provides useful information, templates for planning, and school stories to support understanding and implementing PBE.
A series of videos on the NZC website supporting understanding and leading whole school te reo Māori development, effective pedagogy, and a culturally connected curriculum.
Culturally responsive practice
A collection of videos featuring educators talking about culturally responsive practice, pedagogy, and learning environments.
Māori achieving success as Māori
A framework for schools to build an environment that supports Māori students to achieve success as Māori. School stories, information, and examples on how to develop a framework for your school.
A marae-based learning programme
Te Ika Unahi Nui is a marae-based wānanga (learning programme) that was developed and trialled with students from Coastal Taranaki School at Puniho Pā, Tarawainuku marae in Okato, Taranaki.
Mutukaroa is a home-school learning partnership that seeks to accelerate learning progress and achievement for students in years 1-3 by fostering the active engagement of parents and whānau in learning partnerships.
Connecting with Pasifika families and communities
Information and examples of how schools use digital technologies to support connections with Pasifika parents and families.
Information and examples of how schools use digital technologies to support inclusion of all students. See also:
Berryman, M., Ford, T., & Egan, M. (2015). Developing collaborative connections between schools and Māori communities. Set 3
Earl, L.M., Timperly, H. & Stewart, G.M. (2008) . Learning from the quality teaching research and development programme (QTR&D): Findings of the external evaluation
Ford, T. (2012). Culturally responsive leadership: How one principal in an urban primary school responded successfully to Māori student achievement. Set 2
Harcourt, M. (2015). Towards a culturally responsive and place-conscious theory of history teaching. Set 2
Patara, L. (2012). Integrating culturally responsive teaching and learning pedagogy in line with Ka Hikitia. Set 2