Educationally powerful partnerships
Ngā hononga e puta ai ngā hua mātauranga nui tonu
The goal for all those with an interest in the educational success of Māori learners – parents, whānau, iwi, school leaders, teachers, and the learners themselves – is to ensure that they achieve outcomes that will enable them “to realise their own unique potential and succeed in their lives as Māori” (Ka Hikitia, page 19).
Reaching agreement on what those outcomes are requires all those who care about the learners and have an interest in their welfare to build trusting relationships with each other that enable ako (reciprocal learning).
The message from research1 is that to make a real difference to the outcomes for students, those relationships need to have a relentless focus on student learning.
This concept is expressed in Figure 1 below and is unpacked in the items under Partnerships and Connections.
Figure 1. Educationally powerful partnerships
Partnerships and Connections
Principles of educationally powerful partnerships
Ruia case studies: Examples of the principles in practice
Connections between the principles and Ka Hikitia
Connections between the principles and Te Kotahitanga
Support for the principles from the best evidence syntheses
Connections between the principles and the Successful Home–School Partnerships report
Footnote
Robinson, Hohepa, and Lloyd (2009) refer to the creation of “educationally powerful connections”, and Bishop and his colleagues in the Te Kotahitanga project (Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai, and Richardson, 2003) refer to “productive partnerships”.