Keynote - Part 4

Transcript

Dr Mere Berryman
Phase 3, so you’re still with us Phase 3, put up your hands please if you’re a Phase 3 person, yes yes yeah. And you may have seen that some Phase 1 people put up their hand again. Because this time we had the opportunity to work with 12 schools, and we started in 2003, the very end of the year when we introduced the hui whakarewa, and we’re still going, yes. Again I have to say that we didn’t learn anything … start new, we just learnt that we could build on and continue to develop the things that we had first heard in 2001. I have to say we were developing more confidence in this thing called Te Kotahitanga. On the one hand, I recall the unrelenting support and commitment of Phase 3, as we’d had with Phase 2 and Phase 1. But I also recall the resistance and the resistance was both within Phase 3 schools; it was external to Phase 3 schools in their communities. We have the really interesting relationship with the unions for a while and it still continues to be interesting. It’s still really echoing around the corridors of power and wherever they might be. We have to be, we have to be aware of that. But the other thing that we did find was the importance of feedback loops even if we didn’t like the feedback that we were getting from some particular directions. And I’m sure you will appreciate that as well.

We also learned in Phase 3, actually Phase 3 we learned so much from you, and I really, I really want to acknowledge how opening to learning and Russell and I and the rest of the people that constantly bombarded you, have felt and have learned with you. We learnt that the effective teaching profile worked in classrooms but actually it also worked at the level of professional development. So, the whole notion of feedback loops and effective teaching profile was really what we’d known to begin with and again it was being affirmed. And the notion of the iterative research and development of Te Kotahitanga has grown out of the work in Phase 3 schools.

What’s been interesting is how you people have managed change. And here’s an example of a Phase 3 school up there, where we almost ripped the heart out of that school but the thing that was amazing for me was that even when the principal went, Elizabeth managed to take over and pull that school together in a time of huge challenges from the community. We know that if we want people to work in schools as regional coordinators then they better well know their business. And we don’t have a breeding ground for regional coordinators - you do. And I mean there’s the other Russell in my life who became the lead facilitator, there he is up there, hiya Russell. Managing change has been difficult, it’s been difficult for you and it will continue to be difficult. But there’s a success story of when you take leaders out of a school they have a plan, they didn’t leave it to chance and there are other schools in that same position, there are other schools that didn’t have the opportunity to do that. And all the while a learning opportunity, the learning around distance made us look for other options.

That’s where we really started working with CWA. And we worked them in two ways, the development of DVDs and resources for electronic means, but also setting up of the e-community, with the help of CWA the e-community was born in 2006. And Te Arani talked about this logo, this piece of Te Kotahitanga iconography. And again, there was nothing new in that. That came out of Phase 1 and just became more and more embedded. The other thing that came out of Phase 3, and before I go onto Phase 4 I want to mention it, was the importance of how do we actually make this sustainable in schools? And so that piece of learning, how do we scale up and make it sustainable?, that piece of learning also I’ve got to attribute to Phase 3. You’ve taught us so much and I want to acknowledge you.

However, like all good things, the Ministry by this time thought that actually maybe Te Kotahitanga was gonna have wings and was going to fly and did need a little bit more funding, and we did. And that’s when Phase 4 came in, so put your hand up Phase 4. Yeah. I can remember the very first photo up there, the one at the top, can you see Aunty Nan and Mate. That was the very first time Phase 4 came together. And I guess out of those conversations and you can see there’s Ngaruawahia there, representing the team that we’d established in Phase 2, the RTLB, the school support services persons and also the school people sitting around the table. And down lower Alfriston, us recognising the need to have principal conversations with lead facilitators and the learning that could go on in those conversations.