Teachers Creating Effective Learning Experiences for Indigenous Learners

Abstract

“Recently professional learning and development has turned a corner. Teachers as leaders of learning have realized that they can be agents of change within their classrooms by focusing on quite specific teaching changes to improve outcomes for their learners” ( Conner, 2015 : p. 7 ) . This paper provides examples of how teachers were challenged to link changes in their practice to include good principles of indigenous pedagogies (through participating in cycles of teaching and inquiry), to changes in students’ outcomes, which has rarely been reported previously. Vignettes of changes teachers made to their teaching were gathered as they responded to reflections and support from mentors and used student achievement data as tools for inquiry. Teachers were provoked to be more aware of the importance of evidence-informed critical reflection on pedagogical development that was appropriate for indigenous students. We provide an overall analysis and vignette examples to illustrate the emerging themes which were: the development of positive professional relationships (mentor-teacher, teacher-teacher and teacher-student), developing pedagogical knowledge that was appropriate for indigenous students that was also informed by seeking student and whānau (family) voice or feedback to inform changes to teaching.