Developing responsive and respectful relationships with Māori students

Suggested questions for an inquiry about the Māori students in our school

• What do we believe that culturally responsive and mutually respectful relationships between teachers and students look like?
• How would we describe our relationships with our students? Do we consider the fact that many of them come from a cultural context that differs significantly from that of many of our teachers? Do we acknowledge this difference in our relationships?
• Do we believe that how we form and maintain these relationships contributes way to student engagement and achievement levels? In what ways?
• Who dominates teaching and learning in our classrooms – the teacher or the students? Or is there an equitable balance?
• How do we believe that most of our students perceive us? Have we asked them? Do we think that their perceptions of us affect their learning in any way? How?
• Do we celebrate our students’ successes as much as we could?
• What else could we do to form culturally responsive and mutually respectful relationships with our students?

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