Te Kotahitanga Phase 3 School Reform: The impact of a professional development programme within a large, multi-cultural, secondary school in New Zealand.

Abstract

This thesis examines the impact of Te Kotahitanga on leaders, teachers and Māori students within the context of a large, multi-cultural, secondary school in New Zealand. This school was one of twelve secondary schools invited to join Phase 3 of the Te Kotahitanga Research and Development Project from 2003 to 2010. This initiative aimed to work with teachers and school leaders to improve the engagement and success of Māori students. This thesis presents and reflects on qualitative evidence from interviews with the leaders, the Te Kotahitanga facilitation team and teachers in this school. Evidence from the Rongohia te Hau survey and teachers’ classroom walkthroughs provide further qualitative and quantitative evidence. To observe some of the results of teachers’ work with Māori students, it then discusses Māori students’ Rongohia te Hau survey data and their NCEA results from 2004 – 2010, and post 2010 up to the reactivation of Te Kotahitanga in this school in 2013. There are three themes that emerged from my findings. The first theme identifies leadership as a key emerging concept and the important role of Rangatira (school leaders) in bringing people together around a common vision. The spread of the programme across the school clearly emerged as the second theme, where this education reform was spread through relationships of whānautanga. Thirdly, the theme of ownership towards sustainability emerged from the findings. Ownership required working as one towards the common unity of purpose (Kotahitanga). The evidence shows that when Te Kotahitanga was fully implemented in this school and it did work during the period of this study and again when Te Kotahitanga was reactivated in 2013. However, although the school had been working on ownership towards sustainability of positive changes, sustainability did not ensue. This thesis suggests that once a school has established a common vision that is clearly understood by all the leaders and teachers in the school, everyone has to remain committed to that vision. To be successful the moral imperative for any reform towards social justice has to be fully committed to and understood by the leaders of the school and all the teachers. This thesis hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take in their commitment to raising the participation and academic achievement of Māori students.