Destreaming in Aotearoa by 2030.

By Amanda Campbell & Carmen Aldridge

Can you describe the negative impacts of streaming (fixed-ability grouping in education) and why it needs to end? Do you hold any unconscious or conscious bias that has resulted in different expectations for ākonga? Have you thought about if you’re a high expectation teacher or a highly differentiated teacher? Be prepared to feel challenged in this engaging and empowering session through discovering some of the latest research from Professor Christine Rubie-Davies and Kōkirih–the plan for removing streaming from our schools led by Tokona te Raki and other education agencies including Tātai Aho Rau. Be inspired to self-reflect about changing your practice by learning about the negative impacts ability grouping has had on Māori and Pacific learners. This session is ideal for educators who want to: Build their capability to provide equitable opportunities of learning for all. Work towards to the shared goal of ending the practice of streaming in schools in Aotearoa by 2030. If you’re ready to take action and contribute towards transformative positive change in education come along!

• Confronting systemic racism and bias
• Ending Streaming
• Partnerships for equity – whānau, iwi and community
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Empowering Pacific learners – cultivating digital leadership and equity in education.

By Mele Togiaso & Mandy Dempsey

The purpose of our ‘Pacific Digital Leaders Project’ was to support our Pacific ākonga in growing leadership and digital skills and empower them to make a positive impact in their community. During this workshop, discover our project journey and look at how we approached growing our digital leaders. In sharing our story we will discuss the positive impact it had on our ākonga. The ākonga involved in this project are Year 4-6 tamariki from Bromley School in Ōtautahi. As a part of the project, they worked with similar aged tamariki from schools across the region. There will also be a hands-on component to this workshop as we invite you to create your own augmented reality scenes using the iPad and immerse yourself in a story from the Pacific! You will be guided by some online video tutorials created by our Bromley ākonga. We are excited by what was achieved for our ākonga during this project. Data collected throughout the project revealed significant growth in confidence and enhanced well being and sense of self. We also saw an increase in students’ feelings of connectedness to their Pacific cultures. We look forward to sharing with you our project journey and giving you, as kaiako, the opportunity to be inspired by our ākonga. ‘A fai ia vave e o’o lou va’a, alo na o ‘oe, ae a fia tuli mamao le taunu’uga, tatou ‘alo’alo fa’atasi.’ If you want your canoe to go fast, go alone; if you want to go further, let us go together.

• Effective Pacific pedagogies
• Hangarau Matihiko | Digital technologies and fluency
• Learner agency – sharing power
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Equity as a measurement of leadership.

By Laurayne Tafa & Whetuu Nathan

R.A.D.I.C.L Leadership - what it takes to be a leader and advocate of equity. Being a great leader and advocate for equity has everything to do with what you do and how you do it. This talanoa moves participants through the six success factors of system leadership, which bring about effective teaching and equitable outcomes for ākonga. Taken from evidence-based research and development - R.A.D.I.C.L Leadership demystifies all the elements responsible for the accelerated and sustained improvement for ākonga and the leadership demonstrations that can transform an entire school culture. Dr Whetuu Nathan | Te Rarawa, Whakatōhea - Kāuru Kura | Director of Education at Ako Mātātupu Teach First NZ - unpacks what it means to be a Te Tiriti partner as a provider of education and how to weave together a thriving professional and collaborative learning system. Laurayne Tafa | Mulifanua, Waipu, I Creator Managing Director of Tafa_Ed helps demystify the most debilitating beliefs and practices that are at the root of inequality and what needs to be transformed and sustained at the leadership level. Come ready for a highly interactive talanoa which allows you to make meaning of the content, engage in collaborative problem- solving for your context, and consider the relationship between leadership and equity.

• Confronting systemic racism and bias
• Effective pedagogies
• Leadership
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E whakamana ngātahi ai i te huarahi ako:Enriching the learning journey together.

By Kirstin Hensman & Karen Russell

This presentation will explore designing rich, authentic learning opportunities through a school’s local curriculum. We will share examples of how we have supported kaiako, in both Māori and English Medium, to design inquiry learning that explores Tūrangawaewae, our place to stand, and how curriculum areas have been weaved together to enable deeper learning. We will discuss how digital learning progressions were used in Māori medium to enable agency for all ākonga. Find out how we used the local community including iwi and whānau to inform our planning and the delivery of learning through storytelling. Discover how we used the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum to collaboratively plan using the key questions and learning experiences to design what students need to know and appreciate in an authentic way. This led to inquiry- driven learning opportunities that were focused on participation for change. Through designing this learning there were opportunities to discuss assumptions and attitudes towards systemic racism and how we can begin to work through these issues. Collaboration between kaiako created deeper learning opportunities for ākonga. Through weaving together curriculum areas, the learning was more meaningful and engaging. We will share a number of digital resources that can be used to support learning throughout the inquiry process. We will also explore digital tools that can be used by ākonga to create and share their learning.

• Confronting systemic racism and bias
• Hangarau Matihiko | Digital technologies and fluency
• Te Takanga o Te Wā | Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories
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Working with Te Mataiaho | The refreshed New Zealand Curriculum and the updated learning areas.

By Chris Carr

The Ministry of Education seeks to ensure that our education system continues to evolve and remain focused on delivering equitable and excellent outcomes. Te Mātaiaho is the refreshed New Zealand curriculum which is designed to ensure all ākonga have access to rich learning opportunities.

In this workshop, we will:

• Provide a brief update on the NZCR programme, including opportunities to provide feedback.
• Highlight the aspects to notice about the refreshed learning areas in the whakapapa of Te Mātaiaho,including a focus on the progressions model.
• Explore the guidance available and links with the Common Practice Model for teaching literacy,communication, and maths.
• Unpack examples of how to plan using the progressions model and UKD, building from ANZH.

Participants will have an opportunity to discuss and work together to share ideas about approaches and get hands-on designing rich learning opportunities and program design/review.

They will also:

• Discuss implementation resources that they have found useful.
• Talk about the next steps for their kura and school curriculum.
• Curriculum refresh and Te Mātaiaho: the draft curriculum framework
• Marau ā-kura | Curriculum design

Pasifika Navigators: the power of our stories.

By Dahlia Malaeulu

Pasifika Navigators are all around us, constantly trying to find their place in the world while still wanting to find, reconnect and honour who they are, what they are and everything that comes with this. The Pasifika Navigators Book Project was released on World Poetry Day in March, 2023. It is the world’s first Pasifika Student Poetry Book which shares the dreams, aspirations, life changing challenges and learnings of 52 Pasifika students across Aotearoa. Contributing authors range from year 7-13 students and include a mix of reluctant and passionate writers, as well as first time and award winning student poets. In this presentation/ workshop we share the story behind the stories to help us better connect, understand and support each other as we journey back home to ourselves and move forward together.

Key learning outcomes:

• Understanding the power of our stories as Pasifika.
• Proven tools to help our tamaiti to be seen, heard and valued as Pasifika.
• Deep dive into the existing and continuing challenges Pasifika tamaiti faces.
• Teachings and lessons through literacy from 52 Pasifika students across Aotearoa.
• Confronting systemic racism and bias.
• Effective Pacific pedagogies.
• Identities, languages and cultures

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WHY Coaching? Collaborative practice for various contexts.

By Teresa Hannard & Lauren Nummy

Stand together, like kahikatea! Appraisal, often a contentious issue at schools and for staff, conjures feelings of anxiety and box-ticking protocols. This research investigated modifying teacher appraisal practices. Fundamentally, teachers should lead the process. Adopting Participatory Action Research methodology, a project team consisting of teachers worked through iterative cycles to critically reflect and develop a new approach.

The data gathered throughout the research resulted in the model - WHY Coaching. WHY Coaching stemmed from the concept of change and showed focus on positive relationships, strong pedagogical practices, collaboration, and personal professional development. Often, coaching models can require tedious hours of training and accreditation, which are often not sustainable. With teachers often being time-poor, the intention of WHY Coaching is to focus on quality and not quantity.

The process includes:

1. Two teachers buddy up.
2. One 20-minute observation using the observation template.
3. One 20-minute (maximum) coaching conversation.
4. Steps 2 and 3 are repeated (you are both coach and coachee).

This process will be done twice during the year with a final written personal reflection. The ever-changing pace of education requires a flexible system to learn and grow professionally. WHY coaching promotes opportunities for staff in any learning context to observe, discuss, and set short-term goals together. WHY Coaching is about relational trust, learning, growth, collegiality, empathy, trust, fun, and overall, highlighting teachers as professionals. This approach is not a ‘run of the mill’ hierarchical practice; it is about working and learning together.

• Leadership
• Wellbeing

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Key concepts informing the design of socially inclusive resources.

By Gloria Gomez

Human-centred design is a strategy that can support the development of digital access and equity “in the construction of culturally sensitive, accessible, flexible learning” (Gomez, Jones & Birt, 2022, p. 27). In 2005, I stumbled upon “inclusive design” when I was applying human-centred design principles to the development of a preschool artefact, as its features enabled children with different physical and cognitive abilities (e.g., preliterate children, emergent writers, and an autistic child) to work at their own pace on a learning activity collaboratively (Gomez, 2010). This same artefact was later incorporated into the teaching of children with severe speech difficulties (Kicken et al., 2016) due to community-based design (Gomez, 2020).

Since then, I ask myself how to design from a socially inclusive standpoint, considering that what I design can impact people’s lives at a cognitive, motor, and sociocultural level. Resources can be more inclusive if, during feature design, the common functional capacities of all the people who must interact with these are considered. Four use cases illustrate how key concepts drawn from inclusive and universal design support the development of frameworks and evaluation criteria that can inform design projects (class, postgraduate, or entrepreneurship) in preschool and primary education, design for technology (Gomez & Wakes, 2020), bioengineering (Gomez & Wakes, 2022), health (Rojas & Gómez, 2020), and educational technology inclusive of people with severe impairments (Contreras, Gomez & Navarro-Newball, 2019).

This talk is at a beginner’s level and aims to inspire attendees to slowly or quickly make their designed artefacts or resources more socially inclusive.

• Hangarau Matihiko | Digital technologies and fluency
• Inclusive learning
• Learner agency – sharing power

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Strategic planning with the refreshed curriculum, Te Mātaiaho, and NCEA.

By Karen Spencer, Terry Fenn & Mere Davis

Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | The Ministry of Education seeks to ensure that our education system continues to evolve and remain focused on delivering equitable and excellent outcomes. Both Te Mātaiaho (the New Zealand Curriculum Refresh (NZCR) and the NCEA Change Programme) were initiated through Kōrero Mātauranga / The Education Conversations - consisting of a series of conversations about the future of the education system in Aotearoa New Zealand. As a result, a five-year programme aimed at ensuring that all ākonga experience rich and responsive learning is underway, connecting NZCR, Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, NCEA, and early learning.
In this workshop, we will:
• Provide a brief update on the Ministry of Education’s strategic approach and goals, with a focus on the refreshed Te Mātaiaho/the New Zealand Curriculum in relation to the NCEA Change Programme and its implementation process.
• Introduce the NZCR Readiness Tool and how it might be used to support change conversations.
• Explore implementation resources and examples to support conversations about well-being and the design of rich, engaging learning.
Participants will have an opportunity to discuss and work together to:
• Identify their schools’ current strengths and possible next steps in relation to change actions, using the NZCR Readiness Tool.
• Share ideas about approaches to strategic planning and programme design/review.
• Discuss recently released implementation resources and share those they have found useful.
• Talk about the next steps for their kura and school curriculum.
• Curriculum refresh and Te Mātaiaho: the draft curriculum framework.
• Marau ā-kura | Curriculum design

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He maunga, he kōrero, he awa, he kōrero:The mountain speaks, the river speaks.

By Te Mako Orzecki & Alicia Ngaropo-Tuia

This bilingual presentation/workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to consider what stories you have in your own backyard. Where have the names of the maunga and awa come from? And who are the iwi that are in your rohe? This interactive workshop will get us discussing, questioning, enacting, and sharing stories of our past. Nō reira nau mai, tauti mai.

• Marau ā-kura | Curriculum design
• Te Takanga o Te Wā | Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories.
• Te reo Māori

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Empowering learners to use their voice:Empowering teachers to authentically differentiate learning.

By Samantha Craig

How powerful would it be if learners could show their teachers what they need to be engaged and stretched in their learning? What impact could this have on a teacher’s practice? We have all read the research on the importance of relationship-based learning, especially for Māori and Pasifika learners. How can you move beyond the surface to ensure that you are really able to see each learner as an individual and be open to feedback from learners on your teaching?

In this session, delegates will explore:

• Ways to involve their learners to create quality evidence.
• Matching evidence to learning goals.
• Supporting learners to self-identify new goals.
• Learners giving feedback on the challenge and enjoyment of lessons.
• Understanding students’ perspectives on how engaged they are.

Ideas and resources will be shared to enable all delegates to leave with new ideas to try with their learners. This session will also share two digital tools, SchoolTalk and Engagement Sliders, that are available to teachers and learning communities, which weave together the key elements of teaching, learning, and assessment that cannot be left to chance.

Learning Outcomes:

• Tools for your kete: Ways to approach flexible groupings in the classroom and move away from streaming.
• Utilise learner engagement to adapt teacher practice.
• Empower learners to drive their own learning.
• Develop your own set of criteria for effective evidence in your classroom.
• Referencing the research: Growing a SchoolTalk network to develop a system that learns.
• Impacts of SchoolTalk and Engagement Sliders on inequity.
• Ending Streaming.
• Equity capability.
• Learner agency – sharing power

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Creating inclusive schools for rainbow and takatāpui students.

By Ella Sargison

This workshop will cover the latest NZ research on students of minority sexualities and genders, relevant terminology, how homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and discrimination affect people, the coming out process, pronoun use and the biggest issues facing rainbow students.

We will present practical ways your professional practice and school can become or continue to be an inclusive and safe place for people of all sexual orientations, sexes and genders.

We will also share our resources developed for schools to support them in their rainbow inclusion journey.

• Inclusive learning.
• Partnerships for equity – whānau, iwi and community.
• Te Takanga o Te Wā | Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories.

Breaking the binary: Transforming our approach to gender.

By Jerome Cargill

This session will challenge our approach to gender in New Zealand schools. It will make a case for reframing gender by looking at contemporary research. Increasingly youth are identifying as transgender or nonbinary and they are doing so at increasingly younger ages. Data suggests gender diverse students can struggle to find success and to fit into traditionally structured learning environments. Critical questions will be asked about how our professional practice is supporting our changing understanding of gender. The final part of the session will build allyship by presenting transformational ways to approach gender that breaks the binary way of thinking in order to stand together with our rainbow ākonga and make our schools safer for all young people. The presentation will focus on a secondary schools context, but the content is also relevant to intermediate and primary schools contexts where similar questions are being raised.

• Identities, languages and cultures.
• Inclusive learning.
• Wellbeing.
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Education’s role in supporting Asian learners to succeed.

By Lovely Dizon

Negotiating ethnic identity for Southeast Asian (SEA) migrant adolescents (SEA adolescents) is challenging as they are positioned between two cultures, New Zealand and SEA, leading to isolation, a lack of belonging, and growing mental health needs. Despite this, little research has been conducted on how to effectively support this population group.
The research question was, “how can 1.5-and second-generation SEA migrant adolescents in New Zealand be supported as they negotiate their ethnic identity?” This study used a sequential mixed methods grounded theory. The quantitative component utilised secondary data from a regionally representative sample of secondary school students (Youth’19) to determine the factors influencing ethnic identity for SEA adolescents and well-being. Semi-structured interviews with SEA adolescents (n=8) and stakeholders involved in supporting Asians or adolescents generally (n=12) were undertaken to explore how SEA adolescents would like to be supported as they negotiate their ethnic identity and how stakeholders can provide this support. Quantitative and qualitative data were used for theory development, using constructivist grounded theory analysis methods. This research resulted in a grounded theory ‘inviting SEA adolescents to be fully known,’ showing how educators and leaders can collaborate with researchers, Asian communities, and learners to create a greater sense of belonging for Asian learners in learning environments to help them succeed. The findings provide a narrative explaining the complex needs of SEA and other Asian learners by describing their everyday experiences of negotiating ethnic identity, providing educators and leaders with greater knowledge of the complex needs of these learners.

• Confronting systemic racism and bias.
• Identities, languages and cultures.
• Wellbeing.
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Soso'o le fau ma le fau: Connecting fibre with another fibre.

By Ruta McKenzie & Glenda Albon

Soso’o le fau ma le fau – Connecting fibre with another fibre. Transitions to school for Pacific tamaiti and āiga. ‘I can be adaptable to the new environment and be who I am. My identity is still strong.’ “Pacific approaches typically use and value metaphors and models, which provide an authentic means of connecting the familiar with the unfamiliar.” - Te Whāriki 2017.

This project brings Pacific researchers, leaders, āiga (families), and the community together to capture perspectives and stories that inform, influence, and shape the learning and practice of teachers from ECE and schools. The design and implementation of the project are deeply embedded in Pacific approaches where respect and reciprocity are crucial for learning and engagement, as described in the early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki (2017).

In this presentation, we will share the findings and stories of impact that specifically address the needs of Pacific learners and their āiga as they transition from early childhood education (ECE) to school. We will also share resources to guide and support teachers and leaders who are working with Pacific tamaiti, families, and communities during the transitions journey. Through the Pacific process of talanoa, teacher researchers gathered data from the silent voices of āiga who contributed their stories that honour and celebrate equity.

• Effective Pacific pedagogies.
• Identities, languages and cultures.
• Inclusive learning.

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Supporting gifted learners: Swimming upstream towards equity.

By Deb Walker, Melissa Powell & Char Barnett

Ko te ahurei o te tamaiti arahia ō tātou mahi. Let the uniqueness of the child guide our work. When we respond emotionally instead of professionally to the needs of our gifted learners, equity frequently becomes distorted by bias and misconception.

Twenty years ago, gifted learners were acknowledged for the first time by the MoE as learners with special needs. They required gifted learners to be identified and provided for. Ten years ago, MartinJenkins completed a scoping study on the value of providing for gifted learners in Aotearoa NZ. They said, let’s not: Create an equity gap, support an excellence gap, and ignore the future of our country.

Three years ago, the MoE included gifted as a distinct priority in the Learning Support Action Plan. Today, however, many of our gifted learners are still under-identified and lack appropriate support for their learning and well-being. They are potentially our largest group of underachievers concerning annual growth in learning and commensurate with their potential, but we tell ourselves this doesn’t matter as these kids will do ok by themselves, are already lucky, and can teach others how to learn.

It’s hard to buck a trend; nevertheless, this presentation will share the journey of a few kura across Aotearoa NZ who have set out to deliberately provide for their gifted learners. Their stories reach across Early Years through to Secondary, covering in-class and out-of-class provision, and will discuss the opportunities they have developed and the obstacles they are working through.

If equity is what we truly believe in, and gifted learners are across every demographic you can name, then catering for those who have the ability to achieve well above the expected norm should be part of expected daily delivery.

• Confronting systemic racism and bias.
• Equity capability.
• Marau ā-kura | Curriculum design.

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Cultural taxation in schools: Can you do the karakia for our staff meeting?

By Maraea Hunia, Hariata Tutua-Nathan & Samantha Metcalf

Who gets asked to do the karakia at your school? What about that quick translation, whakataukī, waiata, or Māori name? Who takes the kapa haka? Who does the karanga or whaikōrero? This lighthearted workshop will support you to understand the concept of cultural taxation and the impact it has daily in schools. You will explore new approaches to getting and giving cultural support, and find new effective ways to respond to the 101 requests you received last week.

• Confronting systemic racism and bias.
• Equity capability.
• Marau ā-kura | Curriculum design.

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A community of inquiry: AI through the eyes of Aotearoa educators.

By Tim Gander & Brendon Shaw

During times of rapid change, educators must come together to share, listen, learn, and innovate. This presentation uses a collaborative community-of-inquiry approach to explore learning approaches using AI in New Zealand schools. Participants will learn about the insights gained from forums held since April 2023, where primary, secondary, and tertiary educators shared their experiences using AI to support effective pedagogy and inclusive learning. The presentation will focus on the central themes of equitable outcomes in education and discuss the successes and challenges of AI in achieving these outcomes.
Participants will be invited to contribute to the findings by sharing their experiences and insights during the session, which will be added to the open kete of knowledge following the presentation. The presentation will conclude with a discussion on how AI can support learning in education while emphasising the importance of equitable outcomes and the role of educators in ensuring that AI is used responsibly and ethically.

• Confronting systemic racism and bias.
• Effective pedagogies.
• Hangarau Matihiko | Digital technologies and fluency.

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Te Tīrewa Marautanga o Aotearoa - a new trajectory in curriculum design (workshop)

By Rāwiri Toia & Dr Tabitha Mackenzie

This workshop is a follow-up to the Whakahihiko (Activator) session.

In 2020 the Minister of Education announced the redesign of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, this formalised the new trajectory for curriculum development in Aotearoa. Te Tīrewa Marautanga is the name for the redesigned curriculum and is an innovative and Māori-centric development that will lead curriculum design and implementation in Māori medium settings for the next decade.

Attendees will leave with knowledge of the key components of the new curriculum, they will have an understanding of why this development is important and what challenges it will respond to and resolve.

Key concepts underpinning Te Tīrewa Marautanga will be discussed including:

• Ngā pou e whā o Te Tīrewa Marautanga.
• Kaupapa kōkiri.
• Tīrewa ā-kura.
• AKO - an approach to teaching and learning
• Ngā tini mata o te whakaako
• Tīrewa ako
• Te Tīrewa Marautanga
• He Tamaiti Hei Raukura
• Marau ā-kura | Curriculum design