John’s story - Agentic positioning

This clip emphasises the powerful notion of teacher self-efficacy; that is, teachers believing they can make a difference and believing that they have the freedom to take action. This could, for example, be about working to create better relationships with their students or making changes to their teaching approach. Equally, it could be about building students’ self-belief, helping them to realise that they have inherent capability, and that they need to have their own high expectations, to help them realise their potential.

Questions / Things to think about / Activities

1. Using an inquiry process, let's examine our existing beliefs about the impact we can have on Māori students reaching their potential. How could we change our beliefs and understandings to help address the issue of Māori student achievement? What beliefs do we need to ‘reposition’?
2. What actions do we need to take to demonstrate that we embrace the opportunity to effect change?
3. What can we do to build self-belief in Māori students, so that they (and their whānau) dare to have high expectations and aspirations?
4. In what ways are our expectations of Māori students the same as /different from our expectations of other students? What influences our expectations? Are our expectations of Māori students sufficiently high?
5. The power of the self-fulfilling prophecy is underscored by Bishop et al (2003:204). Teachers’ low expectations of Māori students can be a barrier to achievement. In the introduction to the BES on teacher professional learning and development (2007:xix), Bishop contends that high expectations develop out of improved relationships. What actions can we take in our teaching practice to address any ‘deficit theorising’? See Timperley and Phillips (2003:628) re the importance of having student learning goals, planning to address those goals, selecting appropriate tasks that align with those goals (and engage students), and implementing a planned programme to address the goals.