
Challenge and Change
Posted on 12 September, 2023
https://poutamapounamu.org.nz/news/2023/challenge-and-change
Te Tiriti: What is our agency?
Prof. Mere Berryman recently gave a keynote address and ran a master class during the New Zealand Area Schools Association Conference in Rotorua.
Responding to the theme of the conference ‘Challenge and Change’, Mere spoke of how deeply entrenched racial prejudices promoted internationally, prior to colonial settlement in Aotearoa, continue to cause division throughout our society. The equitable contexts for living and learning that successive governments have sought to promote have not eventuated.
The disparity in education outcomes remains evident with rangatahi Māori having disproportionately heightened rates of suspension and expulsion. Half of those receiving early leaving exemptions identify as Māori, as do 7 out of 10 of those in Alternative Education settings.
While the challenge is recognised, the root causes of this situation, and how to change it, are less well understood. The compounding intergenerational debt owed to those denied equity of access to education requires sustained transformative action.
Why, asks Mere Berryman, is a society inclined to believe it exemplifies progressive values apparently lacking in a collective response to the issues?
"To understand the genesis of our systemic failure, we have to know our history and many of us have been poorly served in what we have been told, or perhaps not been told. A lot of what is broadly accepted as our ‘common’ history is in fact the storying of nationhood and equalty of opportunity that celebrates the actions of settler governments. In this process, some historical narratives are intentionally silenced while others have been amplified."
- Mere Berryman
Mere’s challenge to the conference was for every individual to realise their personal agency to enact the promises made on their behalf in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
"Mere is so very special, her presence is so humble, and yet her words are so compelling. She reminded us that we all have to connect to the history, our history, and where we sit within that history. Everybody is taking it on board on paper, but if you really want change those of us in leadership roles have to understand where we connect, and where our responsibility lies, otherwise it’s just rhetoric."
- Louisa Barham NZASA President
Mere illustrated how the history of education in Aotearoa reflects that of wider society with an accumulation of ‘policy sediment’ that still mires this generation of learners, and their families, in a status quo of privileging some, while abandoning others.
Consistent and focused support of contemporary initiatives has been ineffective, with the sector too often left to determine for themselves how best to respond.
"The aspirations of the first two iterations of Ka Hikitia went unfulfilled and, as a nation, this went largely unnoticed. Without our recognising the full implications of what is required and where to start, excellence and equity for all through education may also continue to be ignored despite the changes to the Education and Training Act and the actions it calls for."
- Mere Berryman
During her master class, Mere drew on the work of Mason Durie to introduce the Māuri Ora Pathway - one of the Critical Change Elements employed by Poutama Pounamu to support schools and early learning centres to bring about transformative reform.
The Best Evidence Synthesis has case studies featuring the work of Poutama Pounamu including:
- Transformative leadership, impact and sustainability: Raukura Rotorua Boys High School
- Rongohia te Hau: Effective support for culturally responsive teaching