The
challenges:
We are a Technology Centre within a primary school. We are 'two
cultures' (Stoll, 1998) within the school, as we operate with different
contexts and timetables. The timetables are not aligned due to the
contributing school slots and we operate session by session, as we only see our
students one session per week.
We operate under our own budget and becoming more independent from our
school with our own support staff and equipment. We tend to not share our
equipment due to the specialist nature and health and safety issues, which are
becoming more accountable.
These structures and constraints restrict collaboration with the greater
school staff and is generally limited to the weekly staff meetings. Where
possible involve ourselves in our school community to develop these
relationships by attending 'picnic' days. We offer our expertise to support the
school for school wide projects.
The eight contributing schools are another part of our community of
practice that is vital to develop relationships with these schools. Recently we
have encouraged teachers and staff to attend sessions and this has
reduced challenges by allowing 'collegiality' (Stoll, 1998) to support students
for success (TedED, 2012). Teachers are able to experience our 'culture' but at
the same time share their school's culture providing 'mutual respect' and
'openness' (Stoll, 1998).
The
changes:
Huakina Mai was introduced to our school beginning of last year. Huakina
Mai is about 'getting it right for Maori' especially for learners who are
having behavourial challenges at school (Savage, Macfarlane, Macfarlane
& Hēmi, 2012). It involves a partnership with the community whᾱnau,
students and teachers, developing an awareness of the culture and Te Reo, mana
inhancing interactions with students, and ways of behaviour is 'normalised'
through dominant discourse.
We have noticed improvements in student
relationships with implementation of using Te reo and developing cultural
awareness and implementing culturally appropriate protocols in classroom
practices.
However, further development and strategies are necessary to
underpin the main focus of Huakina Mai - developing partnerships with whᾱnau.
This connects to above challenges for us: a Technology Centre with the many
schools and students by finding the opportunities for this to happen. Mind Lab
has given some insights into this and simply a 'blog' or digital newsletter
reaching out to our greater whᾱnau could be options. We offer open days for whᾱnau
to join with students and share their learning experiences.
References
Savage, C., Macfarlane, A., Macfarlane, S., Fickel,
L., Hēmi, T. H. (2012). Huakina Mai. A whole school strength
based behavioural intervention for Mᾱori, University of Canterbury.
Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement
Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London.
Retrieved fromhttp://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture
TEdEd(2013, Jun 21). Building a culture of success-
Mark Wilson. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8Bjz-OCD8
Hi Fiona, your set up is quite different to mine, I can see that it times it must be challenge to maintain relationship with the staff and students at your school when you are operating under a different timetable and budget. It must also be challenging to blend and adapt to cultures of eight different schools. The class blog to communicate with whanau from different schools sounds like a great idea I am interested to see how you get on with this.
ReplyDeleteHI Anne It is still very much in the initial stages, but it will be great to get the blog up and running, so we can have some kind of 'flipped' or 'blended' learning in the programme. I have researched this for my inquiry and discussed possible outcomes with my colleagues and students. The blog would need to be rather 'robust' to achieve what we need it to do. I will keep you posted.
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