Tārai Kura, July 2023 Pānui 18

By Diana Wilkes

Tēnā koe, and welcome to the July pānui which is focused on the theme of ‘Meaningful student involvement’.

In our feature article, Dr Gabrielle Wall shares what meaningful student involvement means to her, why it is important, and suggests ideas for how to do this in our schools.  She offers a broader lens on the idea of agency that  we discuss in subsequent articles, considering how schools might harness opportunities for ākonga to be active participants in shaping the democratic process of schooling and their experience of it, both in terms of their learning and other power-sharing opportunities. 

Our Change Kete for School Transformaiton 2023 is a curated resource of recent research and practice aimed at providing support for schools navigating transformational change. In this pānui we share the section of the kete on meaningful student involvement. These video snippets and research papers, from both national and international settings, provide a great starting point for your school’s further exploration of this topic. 

The article, Ākonga agency and culturally responsive pedagogy: A community of practice update, reports back on the journey that  five schools are taking as a  community of practice (COP), undertaking a deep dive into this topic.  

  1. Why is agency important?
  2.  What is agentic learning? 
  3.  How can agency be implemented in a culturally responsve way? 

The article offers a treasure trove of resources that our kaiako found very useful to deepen their understandings around these questions and invites you to consider joining a community of practice with other schools in 2024. 

Finally, in Te Mātaiaho – how the whakapapa puts ākonga at the centre, we learn how the whakapapa of the refreshed curriculum intentionally interweaves all the curriculum components and supports us all to keep learners at the fore of our curriculum decision-making and planning.  The article beautifully unpacks the whakapapa, using the conceptual framework of WHY, HOW and WHAT, and leaves us with five questions to consider as a starting point to strengthen the links of embedding ākonga agency within our decison-making on local curriculum. 

Thank you to our team of Ringa Whao who have contributed to our pānui this month.

Ko te ahurei o te tamaiti arahia o tātou mahi
Let the uniqueness of the child guide our work. 

Ngā mihi nui, the Tārai Kura team.

Read the full publication