As part of induction and mentoring at Kelston Girls’ College, BTs read and discussed sections from Mere A Berryman and Russell Bishop’s ‘Culture Speaks’. These are some notes from one session.

Engaged Māori students…

• All highlighted cultural understanding as being paramount in schools
• Prefer to explain their own culture rather than have teachers explain it poorly
• Think teachers need to understand tikanga (especially P.E. teachers)
• Think teachers don’t need reo to relate, but positive feelings towards Māori, and an attitude of curiosity
• Are deeply offended and tired of mispronunciation
• Worry that racism becomes deeply institutionalised when left unchecked
• Have strong memories of having their behaviour totalised over any other memories of education
• With browner skin have it tougher
• “stick up for themselves”, so fight back, and this lands them in trouble
• Respect teachers who respect students first
• Need teachers to be friendly and have a laugh, while still keeping the class in line
  • Relate to them
  • Don’t be high and mighty
  • Be there for the kids
• Think first impressions are important. Some teachers come across too strong or too light
• Value honesty and consistence
• Notice when teachers don’t know what’s going on in their classroom and just assume without evidence
• Notice when teacher ego gets in way of teaching
• Value voice & choice; student agency and humanism
• With valid counter-arguments or an explanation for behaviour are often dismissed
• Think that self-efficacy can be driven by teacher voice—especially when negative
  • i.e. teachers who think students can’t achieve decrease that student’s value of themselves
• Think inclusion is something that the student body must create, not something for the teacher to enforce—the teacher can encourage students to notice exclusion, however
• Need transparent and honest expectations (p. 92)
• Think teachers need to relate everything to the real world
• Express that there are complex inter-relationships (p. 101) that affect behaviour, and “teachers need to be careful about how they handle matters when a student wants to make a change for a better”
  • Narrative therapy approaches?
• Think teacher acknowledgements in class in the form of certificates is babyish—others thought it showed the teacher notices
• Disliked getting marks back solely quantitatively
• Like feedforward
• Think unmarked work means students don’t know where they’re at, so stop trying, because they think they may be going on a tangent
• Still value regular marking
• Feel that writing dominates most classes
• Feel that most peer conversations in class are work-related, as long as the classroom environment is focussed and well-managed
• Say “it’s not the rules we mind, but it’s how they use them, and also, they need to get their stories straight”

Disengaged Students

• Feel the teachers don’t care about them and te ao
• Are prone to punitive approaches to discipline without explanation
• Feel as though they couldn’t trust their teachers, and their teachers didn’t trust them
• Feel the teachers have low expectations of them
• Need UDL
• Feel the schools don’t make their whānau as important as the students feel they are
• Are often disciplined for uniform, despite often not having the funds
• Think the ideal teachers:
  • know them well,
  • take time to know about tikanga and te ao,
  • are flexible,
  • take time,
  • allow students to choose groups,
  • care for them,
  • know their culture and whānau,
  • push them to do better
• “try to understand us and the way we learn—make it easier for us to learn”

Teachers

• feel they can’t trust their students
• feel like their Māori students don’t want to engage because they don’t want to be praised (whakama)
• remark that when asking for volunteers, non-Māori tend to volunteer
• (some) see it as an ethnicity-based issue, some not
• Are not sure how to connect to Māori students (some, or why)
• Think Māori students appreciate the personal link more than Pākeha students—especially personalised feedback and feedforward (easier in English language arts)