Presentation at the Personalised Learning Convening, Milwaukee, June 2022.

1. Inspiring the next
generation of
leaders, thinkers
and problem-
solvers
derek@futuremakers.nz
@dwenmoth
www.futuremakers.nz
http://futuremakers.nz/blog
Ko Wai Au? (Who am I?)
Institute for Personalised Learning
Summer 2022 Convening
The Power of Human Connection
21-22 June, 2022, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

2. Ko wai au…
my mountain, my river, my parents, my wife, my children,
my grandchildren…
Excluding Heathcote River Greg O’Beirne Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0 all photos are presenters own.

3. Image: Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Awareness
Do I understand what the
problem is and where it
comes from?
A
Behaviour
Do I care (enough) about the
problem and the people it
harms?
B
Change
Do I know how to correct
the problem and am I willing
to do it?
C
Identity
Do I understand the
importance of knowing who
I am?
i
OVERVIEW
Adapted from: Robert Livingston (2021) “The Conversation”

4. i
Identity
• Histories
• Language
• Culture
Photo by Yasin Yusuf on Unsplash

5. What do you know about New Zealand?
Blankmap-World Wikimedia Commons Public Domain
Lord of the Rings
Rocket Lab
Bungee jumping
Capital City Wellington
Auckland – Polynesian hub
Māori the original settlers
National bird – the kiwi
Vote for women 1893
Three official languages
Petrol price $8.34 / gallon

6. My family...
We are unique!
Each has their own story.
We are family, yet
different.
What is your family
story? How are the
unique characteristics of
each exhibited?

7. Build your pepeha...
Ko __________________ te maunga
Ko __________________ te awa
No __________________ ahau
Ko __________________ tāku whānau
Ko __________________ toku ingoa
Tēnā koutou katoa
Mountain name
Family name
City orlocation
River name
First name

8. Characteristics of identity
What do you think of when you consider the
concept of identity?
What makes ‘you’, ‘you’?

9. Characteristics of identity
Personal
 Race
 Ethnicity
 Language
 Gender
 Age
 sexual orientation
 physical attributes
 Personality
 Political affiliations
 Religious beliefs
 Professional identities
Cultural
 Place of birth
 Ancestory
 Religion
 Rituals
 Customs
 Holidays
 Language
 Cuisine
 Social behaviours
 Art, literature, and music

10. Your cultural reference points
• How did your family identify ethnially or racially?
• Where do you live – urban, suburban, rural?
• What langauge(s) do you use?
• What is the story of your family in America?
• What family folklore or stories did you hear growing up?
• What are some family traditions – holidays, food, rituals?

11. Teacher know thy student
A key finding of research into the response
of schools during the 2020 COVID
lockdowns was the lack of knowledge
about students and their home context by
teachers and schools.
https://futuremakers.nz/hybrid-learning/

12. “Do you know me well
enough to teach me?”
“The challenge within this question is profound and
goes to the heart of what we do. While I
acknowledge that schools are not always structured
in ways that allow for quality relationship
building, it’s too important NOT to give this
priority. Good teachers know that their job is all
about relationships. If we want our kids to ask
questions – to show a passion for our subjects, to
engage in the concepts we bring to them, we need to
do more than simply tell them to ‘pay
attention’. Getting to know who our students really
are as people is surely a responsibility that comes
with the privilege we have of teaching them.”
Kath Murdoch
https://www.kathmurdoch.com.au/blog/2013/11/12/do-you-know-me-well-enough-to-teach-me

13. “Do you know me well
enough to teach me?”
“The challenge within this question is profound and
goes to the heart of what we do. While I
acknowledge that schools are not always structured
in ways that allow for quality relationship
building, it’s too important NOT to give this
priority. Good teachers know that their job is all
about relationships. If we want our kids to ask
questions – to show a passion for our subjects, to
engage in the concepts we bring to them, we need to
do more than simply tell them to ‘pay
attention’. Getting to know who our students really
are as people is surely a responsibility that comes
with the privilege we have of teaching them.”
Kath Murdoch
https://www.kathmurdoch.com.au/blog/2013/11/12/do-you-know-me-well-enough-to-teach-me

14. Do you
know who
I am?

15. A
Awareness
Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash

16. NZ Historical context
Prior to colonisation, Māori considered ‘education’ as a collective
process of gathering, learning and sharing knowledge about one’s place
in the world and relationships with all things. It was also seen as a life-
long process of ‘whenua ki te whenua’ (from life to death). Over
successive generations the colonial education system socialised a
different dominant narrative.”
https://assets.education.govt.nz/public/Documents/our-work/Te-Hurihanganui/f-MOE19458-Te-Hurihanganui-Blueprint-Full-PRINT.pdf

17. NZ Historical context
“Education became a vehicle to promote western values, knowledge
and systems, actively suppressing the indigenous language, knowledge,
culture, and ways of being. In this system, dominant Pākehā
perspectives of independent success through education became
normalised. Those who demonstrated aptitude within the Pākehā view
of the world succeeded and were subsequently privileged. Those who
did not, were deemed to have failed and subsequently highly
disadvantaged.”
https://assets.education.govt.nz/public/Documents/our-work/Te-Hurihanganui/f-MOE19458-Te-Hurihanganui-Blueprint-Full-PRINT.pdf

18. Education in Traditional Māori society
• In traditional Māori society, all important aspects of life had systems
of knowledge transfer and skills acquisition that had been refined
over the centuries.
• As children grew, it was crucial to the survival and success of
the hapū and iwi that they learnt a positive attitude to work, and
practical activities such as gathering, harvesting and preparing food,
and weaving, carving and warfare. For such activities there was a
mixture of on-the-job training and formal learning, similar to an
apprenticeship.
• A ritual marked each step in the learning process, including some
form of test for the student.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/maori-education-matauranga

19. Native Schools in NZ • The first school along European lines for
Māori in New Zealand was established by
the Anglican Church Missionary Society
• Māori became increasingly interested in
learning to read and write – to
participate in the Pākehā world.
• The Native Schools Act 1858 provided for
an annual sum of £7,000 for boarding
schools, requiring Māori students to
move away from family
• By 1906 the use of Te Reo was
completely excluded at many schools. In
the experience of several generations of
Māori students this involved a complete
ban enforced by corporal punishment.
Source: https://teara.govt.nz/en/maori-education-matauranga
Image: NZ Archives, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

20. Native Schools in NZ Beyond basic reading, writing and
arithmetic, the curriculum was heavily
skewed towards instruction in manual
and domestic skills.
School inspector Henry Taylor, writing in
1862, said:
‘I do not advocate for the Natives under
present circumstances a refined
education or high mental culture: it
would be inconsistent, if we take into
account the position they are likely to
hold for many years to come in the social
scale, and inappropriate, if we remember
that they are better calculated by nature
to get their living by manual rather than
by mental labour.’
Source: https://teara.govt.nz/en/maori-education-matauranga
Image: NZ Archives, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

21. Assimilation policy
The first statement of an assimilationist policy
for New Zealand is to be found in the Preamble
to the Native Trust Ordinance of 1844:
“Whereas the Native people of New Zealand
are by natural endowment apt for the
acquirement of the arts and habits of
civilized life, and are capable of great moral
and social advancement: and whereas large
numbers of the said people are already
desirous of being instructed in the English
language and in English arts and usages: and
whereas great disasters have fallen upon
uncivilized nations on being brought into
contact with Colonists from the nations of
Europe, and in undertaking the colonization
of New Zealand Her Majesty’s Government
have recognized the duty of endeavouring by
all practicable means to avert the like
disasters from the Native people of these
Islands, which object may best be attained by
assimilating as speedily as possible the habits
and usages of the Native to those of the
European population.”
Source: https://teara.govt.nz/en/maori-education-matauranga
Image: NZ Archives, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

22. “The Federal Indian boarding school system
deployed systematic militarized and identity-
alteration methodologies to attempt to assimilate
American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native
Hawaiian children through education, including but
not limited to the following: (1) renaming Indian
children from Indian to English names; (2) cutting
hair of Indian children; (3) discouraging or
preventing the use of American Indian, Alaska
Native, and Native Hawaiian languages, religions,
and cultural practices; and (4) organizing Indian and
Native Hawaiian children into units to perform
military drills.”
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report, May 2022
https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/inline-files/bsi_investigative_report_may_2022_508.pdf
Ciricahua Apaches at the Carlisle Indian School, Penna., 188-?: as they
looked upon arrival at the School. [Photograph]. (1885 or 1886).
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C

23. Cumulative Impact:
• Devaluing and rejecting mātauranga Māori and te ao Māori – Māori
knowledge, values and beliefs are undervalued and often invisible
• Inequitable outcomes – ākonga Māori in English medium schools are
more likely to have lower levels of achievement, and higher rates of
stand-downs and suspensions
• Racism and bias – many ākonga Māori are experiencing racism in
school including feeling undervalued and underrated at school.
Research has also confirmed negative bias in teacher judgements and
low expectations of ākonga Māori in education

24. Your frames of reference...
• What is the history of the area where you school is located?
• What are the histories of the students in your classroom?
• Is there any evidence of privilege, assimilation, racism etc. There?
• How does this affect the way you view your students?

25. B
Behaviour
• Beliefs
• Bias
• Rapport
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

26. “Education either functions as an
instrument which is used to facilitate
integration of the younger generation
into the logic of the present system and
bring about conformity, or it becomes
the practice of freedom, the means by
which men and women deal critically
and creatively with reality and discover
how to participate in the
transformation of their world.”
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

27. Ref: Jane Gilbert (2005) Catching the Knowledge Wave - NZCER
What are the ideas about
knowledge, mind, and
learning that inform your
current thinking about how
you teach and how schools
should be organised?

28. Knowledge Minds Learning
Ref: Jane Gilbert (2005) Catching the Knowledge Wave - NZCER
It can be stored - in minds, books or
other kinds of databases
Knowledge is true, correct, “the facts”
It is something stable that accumulates
slowly over time; new knowledge
builds on older knowledge
It is built up by people, and people can
“have” it, however, it exists objectively,
independently of people
There are different branches of
knowledge called disciplines or
subjects
Each discipline has its own way of
doing things
Learning is the process by which
knowledge gets stored in minds
Learning is an individual activity: it takes
place in individual minds
Learning is an activity that happens in
more or less the same way in all
individuals
Learners of the same age (or stage of
development) will be ready for the same
kinds of knowledge at the same time
Learning is easier if the knowledge to be
learned is broken down into parts and
introduced as a series of steps.
Minds are like containers (filing
cabinets or databases), they store
knowledge
Minds also process knowledge; they
take it in, organise it and represent it
Minds are the places where thinking
and learning happen
Some minds have more capacity than
other minds for storing and processing
knowledge
The mind is located in the brain, but its
activities are distinct from the brain’s
other functions

29. Overcoming bias...
Hammond’s research has found that three conditions
need to be in place for individuals to successfully "de-
bias":
• Intention: You have to acknowledge that you
harbour unconscious biases and are motivated to
change.
• Attention: You have to pay attention to your
triggers and know when stereotypical responses or
assumptions are activated.
• Time: You have to make time to practice new
strategies designed to "break" your automatic
associations that link a negative judgment to
behaviour that is culturally different from yours.
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching-brain

30. Changing behaviours...
Adapted from: Diversity Pedagogy: Examining the Role of Culture in the Teaching-Learning Process, Rosa Hernández Sheets, 2005, pp.17–18.
If the teacher... Then the student will...
...demonstrates understanding and acceptance of diversity (race,
gender, culture, sexual orientation etc.)...
... demonstrate consciousness of difference and decrease
frequency of discriminatory actions towards others.
...creates the conditions that allows students to express aspects of
their cultural identity...
...display signs of developing psychological, social and cultural
dimensions of self as an individual and member of a group.
...initiates communations that provide participants opportunities
to evaluate, exchange, and share resources…
... be more comfortable in social interactions involving reciprocity,
variable degrees of trust, support, companionship etc.
...creates a classroom environment where students feel
emotionally secure and culturally & linguistically comfortable…
... engage as self-regulated learners to meet self-determined
personal and group goals.
...actively uses a learner’s first language when communicating
instructions, ideas or encouragement...
... be more confident in using literacy skills acquired at home and
in langauage experiences and social interactions at school.
...intenionally includes culturally influenced content, meanings
and perspectives in instructional resources…
...increase knowledge acquisition, connecting prior cultural
knowledge to new information and develop new understandings.
...use strategies that are intentional about connecting prior
cultural knowledge to new understandings...
... develop the thinking tools needed to gain new knowledge and
take control of their own learning.
...use a variety of approaches to determine what students know
and are able to do...
...become more self-aware and reflective of their own learning
and progress, and take more resposibility for their learning.
Diversity
Identity
Social
Interactions
Culturally safe
classroom
Social
and
cultural
development
Language
Culturally
inclusive content
Instruction
Assessment
Learning
and
knowledge

31. Empathy and
compassion...
“Not only is compassion
desired by patients, but
compassion is also
associated with better
clinical outcomes across
numerous conditions.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6537812/
Image: Doctor greeting patient, CC BY 2.0, via Vic on Flickr

32. Active Demandingness
Passive Leniency
Personal
Warmth
Professional
Distance
THE WARM DEMANDER THE TECHNOCRAT
THE SENTIMENTALIST THE ELITIST
• Explicit focus on building rapport and trust
• Earns the right to demand engagement
and effort
• Competent on the technical side of
instruction
• Encourages productive struggle
• Viewed by students as caring
• No explicit focus on building rapport or trust
• Doesnt’ focus on relationships with students
• Shows enthusiasm for subject matter
• Holds high standards and expects students
to meet them
• Able to support independet learners better
than dependent learners
• Explicit focus on building rapport and trust
• Shows personal regard for students
• Makes excuses for students’ lack of
performance
• Consiously lowers expectations out of pity
• Liked by students, but is a pushover
• No explicit focus on building rapport and trust
• Keeps professional distance from students
• Unconsciously holds low expectations for
dependent learners
• Mistakes cultural differences as intellectual
deficits
• Viewed by students as cold and uncaring

33. Te Akau ki Papamoa Primary School
• 12 years ago, Te Akau ki Papamoa Primary
School was failing Māori students.
• Ninety per cent of the Māori students,
whether they were boy or girl, irrespective
of which iwi they were from, couldn't
read, couldn't write and couldn't do
maths.
• The school established a radio station that
delivers te reo instruction to students daily
in their classrooms. Radio TAKP 107.60FM
broadcasts almost entirely in te reo Māori.
The broadcasts offer a variety of content,
including ways to learn, consolidate and
practice te reo Māori.
Source: NZ Hearald

34. Success for Māori as Māori…
Particular strengths of the approach at Te
Kaupapa ki Papamoa to promoting success for
Māori as Māori are:
• the presence of strong, well-informed and
knowledgeable Māori role models on the board,
in senior positions, and in the teaching team
• the way Māori students and families are
welcomed into the school
• the high expectations for Māori attendance and
participation in classrooms, sporting and
cultural activities
• the ongoing focus on the significance of being
Māori in the Bay of Plenty region
• the recognition and value trustees, leaders and
teachers place on Māori cultural identity.
https://www.teakaukipapamoa.school.nz/prospective-parents/learning/cultural-competencies/

35. Culturally Responsive Teaching
• Culturally responsive teaching isn't the same
as multicultural education or social justice
education.
• Culturally responsive teaching builds students'
brain power by Improving information
processing skills using cultural learning tools.
• Culturally responsive teaching is grounded in
social and cognitive neuroscience.
• Culturally responsive teaching requires
teachers to recognize the cultural orientation
we call "collectivism."
https://www.teachingchannel.com/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching-brain

36. C
Change:
•Structures
•Shift ownership
•Success
Photo by Duncan Shaffer on Unsplash

37. Public education in the twentieth-century...
“Was predicated on the belief that there was
such a thing as an ‘average’ person, that
children should be placed along a bell curve,
and that the best approach to education was to
offer standardized pedagogy and curriculum to
children within age-based cohorts.”
“It wasn’t designed to unleash the potential of
every young person.
“Instead, it was designed to ration education
resources inequitably, disregard the importance
of diversity, and elevate the few over many.”
SoLD alliance
https://coachingcorps.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SoLD-Alliance-initial-findings.pdf

38. Standardization
• Frederick Taylor 1856 – 1915
• Introduced ‘scientific managment” –
placing systems above man
• Provoked standardization of education
• Thorndike – “the main goal of education
is to sort young people according to their
ability”
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F._Taylor_1856-1915.jpg

39. Ergodic Theory
You may use a group average to make
predictions about individuals if two
conditions are true:
1. Every member of the group is
identical
2. Every member of the group shall
remain the same in the future
“Individuality matters”
Peter Molenaar
https://www.guilford.com/author/Peter-C-M-Molenaar

40. Structures and systems
 Timetables
 School day
 School year
 Curriculum
 Age group cohorts
 Subjects
 Teachers by class
 Teachers by subject
 Assessment
 Reporting
 Year group promotion
 ...

41. The science of
learning and
development
that can
transform
education
https://coachingcorps.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SoLD-Alliance-initial-findings.pdf
How are each of these reflected in the
way teaching and learning is organised
in your context?

42. What do our students expect?
Washor, E and Mohkowski, C (2013) Leaving to learn
Do my teachers really know about
me and my interests and talents?
Do I find what the school is
teaching relevant to my interests?
Do I have opportunities to apply what I am
learning in real world settings and contexts?
Do I feel appropriately challenged
in my learning?
Can I pursue my learning out of
the standard sequence?
Do I have sufficient time to
learn at my own pace?
Do I have real choice about
what, where and how I learn?
Do I have opportunities to
explore and make mistakes?
Do I have opportunities to engage deeply in my
learning and to practice the skills I need to learn?

43. Student Voice
One of the most powerful tools available to
influence academic achievement is helping
students feel they have a stake in their
learning.
To feel motivated to do something and
become engaged in its activity, youth (like
adults) generally need to feel they have a
voice in how it is conducted and an impact
on how it concludes.
Time and again, research has shown that the
more educators give their students choice,
control, challenge, and opportunities for
collaboration, the more their motivation and
engagement are likely to rise.

44. Shifting
the
ownership
of
learning
https://futuremakers.nz/learner-agency-2/

46. Image: Auckland Museum, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Awareness
Do I understand what the
problem is and where it
comes from?
A
Behaviour
Do I care (enough) about the
problem and the people it
harms?
B
Change
Do I now how to correct the
problem and am I willing to
do it?
C
Identity
Do I understand the
importance of knowing who
I am?
i
OVERVIEW
Adapted from: Robert Livingston (2021) “The Conversation”

47. https://vimeo.com/325105212

48. Takeaways
Three things that you’ve learned in this session – new ideas etc.
Two things that have challenged you personally
One thing you plan to take action on after this conference
3
2
1

49. Thank You
derek@futuremakers.nz
@dwenmoth
www.futuremakers.nz
http://futuremakers.nz/blog