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During our teaching practice week inside with our cohort, we could learn from each other at the same time we develop and practice our teaching skills. I particularly liked learning the content and teaching styles from the other teams. One of the other teams was teaching technology like my team, and the last team taught digital technology. 

The technology team formed by Jay, Lee and Fran focused on teaching whakairo (Māori carving). I very much enjoyed the first session visiting the Wharenui from the school. After observation and a brief explanation of the parts of the facade, we had to deduct from our observations the different locations of the pattern we were drawing and carving in the following sessions, raperape. This approach where the student infer or construct the knowledge by observations and experience make a significant impact compared to just reading the information from a text. We could learn how to draw the pattern, the meaning and uses behind it and carved our own piece, something I loved trying.

From a decolonising perspective, this approach differs significantly from Western approaches to design education and it focuses mostly on the visual without proper knowledge of the origin and meaning on the patterns. This commonly ends up being used as “inspiration” without proper recognition of the origin, and consequently, in cultural misappropriation of Indigenous design where patterns are decontextualised and misused. We can find examples of cultural misappropriation from Māori culture, and from Indigenous cultures in Mexico.

During our digital technology classes we could learn about digital citizenship and different aspects conforming it. My assumption on digital technology is that we would spend most of the time in front of the computer but it was a nice surprise to actually start the sessions away from it. It was a powerful experience to initiate the topic by being outside in the garden and reflecting on the importance to disconnect from the digital world and being connected to nature. Our project for the subject consisted in designing a poster explaining one or more aspects of digital citizenship on Canva, a free online design platform. I chose to do two posters, one about media balance and wellbeing, and digital footprint.

Learning and practicing with each other was a little nerve wracking at the beginning considering our peers have previous experience in the topic, while students would have a different approach and pace to it. However, I learn many different things from the experience and it was great to connect with people from a similar subject, some even almost unknown to me until that point.

Connection to Standards

During week 6 of our summer training, we had to do some hours of teaching training encompassing content development and delivery. Our technology group was divided into 3 different teams, each team had to conduct 4 lessons during the week. My team was formed by Losa who has an architecture degree, and Rubi with a visual communication degree and who will also work at Tāmaki college.

Our team focused on the Design process, particularly the FIDS model from Design for Change considering it a good entry point to design for Year 9. 

Design Challenge:

To design a natural space in your school to relax and connect with te taiao (the environment). This also required the connection to Te Titiriti o Waitangi through Partnership, Protection, Participation. 

Learning Outcomes:

To understand what is design and the design process.

To get familiar with the FIDS design process (Feel, Imagine, Do, Share).

To apply the different stages of the design process.

To work on a design challenge.

To develop a design project addressing a brief.

I found we had a good synergy working as a team, we all contributed and planned together since the beginning despite being the first time. Our initial meeting planning the complete structure helped us to create the foundation for the unit and divide the work where each of us took responsibility for one lesson in particular and co-created the last session. I was in charge of the introduction and the first step of the model, here is the presentation.

We divided our sessions approaching each step for each lesson and developed the complete unit plan for our Course Design assessment. However, we decided to reduce the weeks from 10 weeks to 6 weeks in the final proposal, to be more aligned with a typical term structure in a school.

After each session, we received feedback from our instructors to be integrated in our next lesson. I found this approach very useful since we could actively reflect and improve our practice during the week. This practice is aligned to the Teaching as Inquiry approach to be developed during our year of training and as qualified teachers.

The day of our last session I had to bring my daughter to the course, so I decided to integrate her to the activity as a “client” where everyone would present their project and justify how they were addressing the brief. It was very entertaining to the see the final proposal of each of our peers as well as their presentations.

We received good feedback in terms of the variety of exercises proposed that integrated outdoor activities. The multi sensorial exercises to connect with nature seemed to be powerful to experience a “relax” feeling, an important part of the design challenge. Another good feedback was about the use of quizzes in Kahoot! to test the learning at the end of the sessions. We also realised that having an external guest to evaluate their final projects was a successful strategy since they have to make sure they would cover the important aspects of their proposals and connect to the initial brief. 

Connection to Standards

The summer intensive course required three weeks of in-school experience. My house team, Manaia, was assigned to Kia Aroha College. I have heard about this school for their approach to decolonise and re-indigenise education in Aotearoa and raise warrior scholars.

“Kia Aroha College is focused on developing “Warrior-Scholars” —which we define as young people, secure in their own identity, competent and confident in all aspects of their cultural world, critical agents for justice, equity and social change, with all the academic qualifications and cultural knowledge they need to go out and change the world. ”

In Aotearoa New Zealand, the majority of schools are public following a mainstream approach but Kia Aroha College is a Designated Special Character school, something I haven’t heard before. The Ministry of Education defines Designated Special Character schools as “a state school that has a particular character which sets it apart from ordinary state schools and kura kaupapa Māori. The only students who may enrol at a designated character school are those whose parents accept the particular character of the school." However, the definition does not provide a clear view of how they operate or the differences with mainstream schools, our experience in Kia Aroha College gave us a glimpse on this. 

The school is divided into “villages” based on cultural background: Māori (Tupuranga), Samoan (Lumana’i) and Tongan (Fonoamalu). Within each village, students are grouped into juniors and seniors until year 12. In year 13, students from the different villages take lessons together at the library.

It was interesting to notice that students who are not Māori, Samoan or Tongan end up in the Tongan village. We asked the principal the reason why this happens, she says there is no particular reason but it has organically emerged. During some conversations with students from different countries and/or cultural backgrounds in Fonuamalu, it was mentioned they feel encouraged to connect with their own cultures and languages, something they appreciated and valued.

Team Teaching

I was fortunate to team teach with Matua Numia, an experienced Māori communicator, kapa haka performer from Tūhoe (honestly, I don't even know which words to use to describe him but I could say I saw how he embodies “being” Tūhoe, so awesome to witness), and with Sam who recently finished a master in English. My teaching experience mostly has been done individually, so this was a great opportunity to collaborate and develop other skills. We were assigned to Senior Tupuranga where we had to observe and team teach during our stay.

Cultural Identity, Tuakiritanga

We decided to focus our lessons on Cultural Identity where each one of us would concentrate on different aspects from the topic. Starting from the individual by Sam, to the Māori community by Matua Numia and finishing with global connections by me. Using a Marae as analogy, we tried to explain the different levels from the individual to the connection with the stars and the cosmos. My lesson proposal can be found here.

This approach aligned to Kia Aroha School lenses as a tripod where red is their culture or everything the child was born with, blue is curriculum or academic things and green is global or everything outside the classroom.

The final presentation unified the results of our individual lessons through installation and waiata performance. 

Connection to Standards

As part of our summer intensive teaching course in our host school, it was required to create and develop a lesson for our tauira. Considering my cultural background, I wanted to create a lesson to connect Indigenous knowledge from Mexico and Aotearoa from a decolonising design perspective like my PhD research. During my PhD journey, I learned from my supervisor Dr Jani Wilson and her research in mahi toi that this term aligns better to my views on art, design and craft, different from the Western perspective where these are classified and assigned hierarchies. Therefore, approaching mahi toi practice seemed an appropriate and hands-on activity to be developed during class.

As part of our team teaching approaching Cultural Identity, I design a lesson for students to make an Indigenous Mexican mahi toi (aka artesanía). The following description and reflection were part of my submitted assignment.

Making a Sikuli, Ojos de Dios, God’s Eye

Learning Intention:

To understand and reflect on the importance of mahi toi (design, arts and crafts) for Indigenous people. 

To connect Māori worldview with Indigenous Mexican worldview (Mesoamerica). 

Success Criteria: 

To build a God’s eye (Ojo de Dios, Si’kuli) from Huichol (Wixarika), Indigenous people from Mexico, and each student to connect it with Māori identity or value attaching a symbol/pattern or word in a mobile element at the bottom of the piece.

Reflection

Displaying mahi toi from Mexico (design, arts, crafts, textiles) around the room helped to raise the interest of the students towards the topic. It also helped to explore and understand what the students’ previous knowledge on the topic was. Also, the diversity of books like world atlas, archaeological, stories and comic books about Mexico was an easy introduction and an aid to settle the students on arrival or during the exercise. This different medium aligns to Ako from Te Kotahitanga (Bishop & Berryman, 2009) by providing different teaching strategies. It also provides a sensorial experience appealing students that are visual and kinesthetic, to mention some.

Connection to Te Ao Māori was directly shown in the work of some students. For example, one student described her work using the colour of the Tino Rangatiratanga flag. This aligns to Ako and the respect and understanding on Māori culture and beliefs (Bishop & Berryman, 2009).

Symbolism through colours scheme, and the connection of mahi toi with cultural identity and wellbeing is visible in the description of colours in relation to emotions. The New Zealand curriculum mentions the importance of wellbeing in students for effective learning and to support lifelong learning (Ministry of Education, 2007).

At the beginning, some sessions had a slow start requiring more encouragement and direct/personal demonstrations from my part to keep students engaged. Once the students understood and started the making process, they became engaged in the activity and kept working individually or alongside their peers.

The last day of the session there were more students than scheduled. One student came back again after even though he took the same session on the first day, and two students who were not enrolled, perhaps because they missed the first days or because they belong to other classes, joined and they even created their own God’s eye, Si’kuli or Ojo de Dios.

Also, in the last session, some students asked me to teach them dances we do in Mexico. So, we had an improvised dance session of Latin rhythms like cumbia and bachata. I think this last session was the most fun for all of us. They asked to take some pictures at the end of the class. These images became an important taonga of my experience. This experience link to the importance of developing strong connections with students through manaakitanga and whanaungatanga (Ministry of Education, 2011).

The installation in the presentation day showcased the results of the sessions, displaying los Ojos de Dios made by the students during the three days. The change of location for the installation brought uncertainty and lack of preparation from my side by not knowing the space. It is important to know the space in advance to plan accordingly.

Connection to Standards