Teachers as Learners: Improving Outcomes for Māori and Pasifka Students through Inquiry

QTR&D was an exploratory project founded on the beliefs that all young people can succeed at school and that one of the keys to enabling students to achieve their potential is effective classroom teaching.

Its purpose was to help teachers improve teaching and learning outcomes for their Māori and Pasifka students by providing the teachers with opportunities to inquire into their classroom practice and to participate in tertiary study.

Although the teachers who participated in QTR&D worked within a range of contexts, they shared a commitment to improving outcomes for their Māori and Pasifika students. They all had the opportunity to read and discuss research and recent literature on their inquiry question, to deliberately apply their new understandings within their classroom practice, and to evaluate the impact of doing so. Their learning goals were to:

• increase their pedagogical knowledge and skills in their particular curriculum area
• explore culturally responsive pedagogies and how they could use them to enable their Māori and Pasifika students to achieve to their full potential
• use Teaching as Inquiry processes to connect general principals about effective pedagogy to the diverse experiences, strengths, knowledge, and needs of the students they taught.

Each of the teachers reported on their inquiry into their practice. Seven of these reports have been adapted as learning stories; these are included in this set of materials as springboards for thinking about the Teaching as Inquiry cycle, effective pedagogy, and cultural responsiveness and how they might connect to your own practice.

This document is part of a set of materials for teachers and school leaders that explores teaching as Inquiry and culturally responsive pedagogies within specific curriculum areas.

Questions / Things to think about

1. What are the shared understandings of cultural responsiveness, Teaching as Inquiry, effective pedagogy, evidence-based practice, and collaborative inquiry in your school? What informs these understandings?
2. How much attention do you pay to these concepts and approaches at your school?
3. How much attention do you pay to them in your own teaching and learning practices?