Te Kotahitanga: a case study of a repositioning approach to teacher professional development for culturally responsive pedagogies

Abstract

This article presents a case study of a unique New Zealand professional development programme, Te Kotahitanga, for mainstream secondary school teachers. Findings discussed are drawn from an independent evaluation of the programme across 22 secondary schools. The professional development approach attempted to reposition the relationship between teachers and Indigenous Māori students, and enhance Māori student outcomes. Interviews with 150 teachers across participating schools investigated teacher perceptions of impact on classroom practice and student outcomes across subjects. The professional development programme was associated with shifts in teachers' understandings of their positioning within classrooms and relationships with and expectations for Māori students. Results also highlight ongoing challenges in teachers' repositioning and the development of new relationship-based approaches. The implications for teaching practice and professional learning programmes and recommendations for further research are discussed.

Keywords:

• culturally responsive pedagogy
• Indigenous students
• secondary schools
• teacher professional development

Acknowledgement

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, USA, May 2010. This work was supported in part by Contract Number 387-2904 awarded to Victoria University's Jessie Hetherington Centre for Educational Research from the Ministry of Education, New Zealand. The opinions expressed herein, however, are those of the researchers and do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Education, and no official endorsement should be inferred.