Robbie Lamont
My passion for my role as a professional learning and development provider stems from my belief in teachers and my vision for an education system in which every child experiences connectedness and belonging within their school and community, and joy and success in learning that nurtures them to pursue their potential.
As a Pākehā educator, I believe I have a responsibility to contribute, through bi-cultural partnership, to realising the mana ōrite intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, in our schools and in our society.
As a PLD provider I work alongside and learn with school leaders and teachers across early childhood, primary and secondary settings. As together we strive to understand and address systemic racism in our schools, to strengthen equity, promote excellence, and nurture belonging for all children, we play our part in contributing to a more equitable and socially just society as our legacy for future generations.
Cultural Capability. I believe the four aspects of cultural capability are interconnected and interdependent.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi
I position myself as a bi-cultural partner, such that Māori have authority and agency over their mātauranga, tikanga and taonga. I facilitate relational and dialogic PLD activities, using a range of readings and resources, that seek to challenge the misinformation and disinformation prevalent in our society in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. I facilitate PLD that opens spaces for dialogue that supports schools leaders and teachers to develop more critical understandings of histories, including the dominating preconceptions of superiority that settlers from Europe brought with them and insight into how this has impacted iwi Māori, from the perspective of Māori.
Through formal and informal PLD contexts I work alongside school leaders and teachers to critically reflect on how their own beliefs and practices do or do not honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Māori self-determination, and to plan for new actions that express the potential inherent in mana ōrite relationships
Kaupapa Māori
Kaupapa Māori is critical to understanding the indigenisation of schools and schooling as schools seek to redress and recalibrate historical power imbalances. As a PLD provider I seek to open spaces for dialogue that allow school leaders/teachers to engage authentically and to recognise this is indeed complex mahi, given that western-European derived ways of knowing and being dominate our schooling system.
I facilitate PLD that supports school leaders / teacher to understand Kaupapa Māori so that they can more critically review how their current policies, vision and values, curriculum and pedagogies, and school-wide processes do or do not validate and affirm mātauranga Māori.
Critical Consciousness
Critical consciousness seeks to understand where power and privilege are located and how existing systems and practices either perpetuate, or disrupt and reconfigure, inequitable power relations such as are evident in racism, sexism and ableism. Using a range of resources and dialogic activities, I facilitate PLD for school leaders/ teachers to understand critical consciousness from a theoretical perspective.
I also open dialogic spaces wherein leaders and teachers can articulate the resilience and rigour that critical consciousness demands of us, the habits of mind that allow critique of our current realities, and the commitment and will necessary to take action that leads to change. I work alongside leaders and teachers to engage with a range of evidence and information in order to understand how power and privilege are playing out within their own settings, and how they will partner with whānau, mana whenua and their community to develop and enact more equitable solutions.
Whakawhāiti (inclusion)
Beyond simply the right of all students to be physically present or academically catered for within their local school setting, inclusion encompasses a metaphorical space wherein relationships of care have at their heart the well-being of all, each person is valued and respected for who they are and reciprocity and interdependence are built on the recognition of the value of each person’s contribution as an integral member of the group.
In supporting leaders and teachers to develop inclusive policies and practices I facilitate PLD that builds conceptual understanding of inclusion and that activates critical consciousness to surface and disrupt deficit perceptions and exclusionary practices. I utilise scaffolds and protocols that strengthen the capacity to listen to and learn with students and their whānau/families and processes that nurture collaborative ways of working. This in turn supports collective knowledge-building that leads to context-specific, one-size-fits-one responses so that students and their whānau/families are able to participate in ways that are self-determining, mana-enhancing and inclusive.
Referees
Elizabeth Forgie, Principal, Kerikeri High School. EForgie@kerikerihigh.ac.nz
Cheryl Wadworth, Principal, Whitney Street School, Piritahi Kāhui Ako Lead Principal. principal@whitneystreet.school.nz