If we use seesaw as a reporting tool, how will it improve student achievement in reading for our culturally diverse learners in Room 12?
Our research question emerged from a commitment to work with our students' needs and their whanau. We work within a culturally diverse community and want to ensure that we are providing the best opportunities for reciprocal partnerships to develop between home and school. We know from our first reflection—and experiences in the classroom— that many parents from minority and culturally diverse backgrounds find conventional methods of education reporting stressful and exclusive. We want to remove this barrier by focusing on collaborative practices, which requires us to break down established methods of reporting that maintain power imbalances between the community and school.
Within conventional western academic systems, knowledge and learning are methodologically positioned as hierarchical. For example, the teacher holds the knowledge and imparts it to their learners. Such methods treat knowledge as something that is owned and based in relationships of power, which are situated in having and not having. Aotearoa scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith argues that traditional western “research is not just a highly moral and civilised search for knowledge; it is a set of very human activities that reproduces particular social relations of power” (2007, p.88). Such framing does not allow for knowledge to be relational, embodied or derived from community oriented practices. According to Hawaiian scholar Manulani Aluli Meyer, knowledge cannot be binary, nor absolute (2008). This thinking aligns with the Kaupapa Māori approach to research which has informed our research question.
The Kaupapa Maori principal of Tino Rangatiratanga has informed the development of our research question. We believe that conventional methods of reporting function to uphold western methodologies surrounding education and the production of knowledge. Currently the teacher imparts knowledge of the child’s ‘progress’ to the whanau twice a year. This method is not a reciprocal process, and creates a power imbalance between the school and the whanau. Tino Rangatiratanga is the principle of self-determination, whereby whanau have “meaningful control over one’s own life and cultural well-being” (Katoa Ltd, n.d) .
Conventional western academic systems are linear, with one person or group of people holding knowledge and therefore, power. Seesaw is a non-linear platform, unlike traditional paper reports. This platform, thereby, allows for whanau to determine how and when they look at student work, as well as initiating conversations with teachers. It also provides a format where whanau can share experiences and learning that are valued, which in turn shares power. Theorist Dr Vicki Hargraves states that power needs to be shared for optimal community and whanau engagement and it is important to let whanau choose how they participate. Seesaw gives whanau this choice, while also upholding Tino Rangatiratanga principles.
Using seesaw for live reporting will also uphold Toanga Tuku Iho. The Kaupapa Taonga Tuku Iho validates Māori ways of knowing, doing and understanding. Theorists Berryman, Lawrence & Lamont state that often when teachers are trying to respond to a child’s culture they fall into a trap of essentialism (2008). Teachers will determine what the culture is or isn’t by picking objects from that culture that make the most sense to them, often resulting in forms of tokenism. New methods need to be adopted to allow for teachers to develop and be part of cultural relationships with others instead of for them. Through our research question we hope to develop methods of reporting that establish a space where students and their whanau can share aspects of their culture and language that are important to them, not just those that are selected by the school. In doing so the children’s culture, language and worldview are valued, validated and made visible. The dialogue between whanau and school moves from an academic, power based relationship which upholds western values of knowledge and knowing to a reciprocal relationship which acknowledges and gives space to diverse ways of knowing, doing and understanding.
Providing space for diverse ways of knowing, doing and understanding also allows for the kaupapa Māori principle of ako to be upheld. In developing this research question we are trying to move away from linear educational structures where the teacher is the knowledge holder and imparter. The Maori Education strategy describes the concept of ako as ‘a teaching and learning concept where the educator is also learning from the student’ (2008, p.20). Teaching and learning becomes a reciprocal relationship between teacher, student and whanau. Seesaw’s live reporting function provides a space for ako while valuing whanau dynamics.
The Māori concept of whanau is rooted in ideas of whanaungatanga. Accordingly, whanau is a very important aspect of our research question. We acknowledge the role that whanau plays in creating positive outcomes for our students; our research question explores how we can enhance whanau relationships. Conventionally only direct caregivers receive reports and invitations to teacher conferences; in contrast, a digital platform opens reporting up to a much wider whanau group. It allows at least ten family members to view, share and comment on work, as well as communicate directly with the teacher. Current forms of reporting privilege western ideas of what constitutes family - the extended family has a peripheral role in the upbringing of a child. Our research question challenges this thinking by acknowledging the collective role the whanau has for student educational outcomes.
Aotearoa theorist Alison Jones suggests that “relations of ruling are perpetuated through a successful transmission and legitimation of the cultural values and perspectives of dominant classes in such places as schools”. We are committed to creating a place of learning which challenges this hegemony. Having our research question informed by the Kaupapa Maori principles of Tino Rangatiratanga, Ako and Whanau are the beginnings of this commitment. We will continue to reflect and question our own cultural bias as we move through this process. According to Moewaka Barnes Kaupapa Māori research asks 'whose truth?' This is a question we will continually ask ourselves.
Barnes, H. M. (2000). Kaupapa maori: explaining the ordinary. Pacific Health Dialog, 7(1), 13-16.
Berryman, M., Lawrence, D., & Lamont, R. (2018). Cultural relationships for responsive pedagogy: A bicultural mana ōrite perspective. Set: Research Information for Teachers.
Hargraves, V (n.d) Seven Principals to Effectively Support Māori Students as Māori. Retrieved from https://theeducationhub.org.nz/seven-principles-to-effectively-support-maori-students-as-maori/
Jones, A. (1991). At school I’ve got a chance - Culture/Privilege: Pacific Islands and Pakeha girls at school. Dunmore Press.
Katoa Ltd (n.d) Kaupapa Māori Research. Website. Retrieved from http://www.katoa.net.nz/kaupapa-maori
Meyer, M. A. (2008). Indigenous and authentic: Hawaiian epistemology and the triangulation of meaning. Handbook of critical and Indigenous methodologies, 217-232.
Ministry of Education (n.d). Kahikatia - Managing for Success 2008-2012: Strategy Approach. Website. Retrieved from https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/overall-strategies-and-policies/ka-hikitia-ka-hapaitia/ka-hikitia-history/ka-hikitia-managing-for-success-2008-2012/ka-hikitia-managing-for-success-2008-2012-strategy-approach/#accordion-9567
Smith, L. T. (2007). On tricky ground. The landscape of qualitative research, 1, 85-113.
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