Teaching stories: Parent and whānau engagement

Engaging families and whānau strengthens cultural space for Pacific learners. Watch how this school approaches first engagements with Pacific families, and remove any barriers to family engagement.

Relevant turu: Turu 2

This video is about communicating with parents and whānau. In the video, a teacher shares her school’s approach to first engagements with Pacific families and how they remove barriers that prevent families from attending these meetings. Engaging families and whānau strengthens cultural space for Pacific learners. The video also emphasises the use of communication channels to reach parents and whānau. The use of technology and timing are considered when encouraging parents and whānau into the classroom. Schools should be responsive, reasonable and use multiple channels to reach parents and whānau in collaborative and respectful relationships.

Reflections for individual teachers

As you watch this video, think about how you communicate with parents, whānau, and communities.

• Share the ways you build strong relationships with parents. Reflect on opportunities to talk with parents, for example, when they drop off and pick up their children.
• Reflect on the attendance of Pacific parents and whānau at school interviews. How are Pacific parents responding to emails, newsletters, written invitations, phone calls, or home visits?
• How do you engage with Pacific parents over potential problems or particular issues concerning their child? Share your thoughts about how you work on a shared responsibility that strengthens parent-school partnerships.

Reflections for staff or departments

As you watch this video, think about how your school takes cross-cultural communication, work and family commitments, second language use, the structures and timings of meetings, and the ability for Pacific families to express their views into consideration.

Think about the relationship your school has with Pacific parents and families. How has your school built strong and positive relationships with Pacific parents that encourage parents to feel comfortable about coming into school, getting involved, and sharing their views?

How does your school communicate with Pacific parents who have limited or no knowledge of the English language? Share ideas about how your school could facilitate conversations and enable families to use their first language to express their views.

Think about school efforts to encourage Pacific parents to become school trustees, help in the school canteen, or help with organising school activities and events.

Schools need to let families know that they value whānau opinions, expertise, and contributions. Partnerships and connections are vital to building a close community network.

Relevant turu: Turu 2

This video is about inviting whānau in and the lengths that schools go to to bring families into the school environment. Schools need to let families know that they value whānau opinions, expertise, and contributions. Partnerships and connections are vital to building a close community network. The fear of the unknown prevents most Pacific parents from engaging with the school. The teacher in the video speaks about hierarchy and parents' perceptions of teachers. Friendly relationships between parents, whānau, and schools benefit the learners. It shows learners that their whānau are involved and that the school is making the effort to welcome their whānau into their learning environments.

Reflections for individual teachers

As you watch this video, reflect on your own personal understanding of whānau engagement.

• How do you engage with Pacific parents to involve whānau in their child’s learning? How do you communicate the expectations of Pacific parents and let them know how they can contribute?
• How are you working together with parents and whānau towards the specific goal of supporting Pacific learners’ success? Think about the best examples of your collaborations.

Think about effective connections and relationships with parents and whānau, and how you can strengthen those connections through your interactions. Does the focus of these relationships change over time?

Reflections for staff or departments

As you watch this video, think about ways that your school invites whānau in. How is your school working with parents and whānau to accelerate and support progress and improve achievement for your learners?

Describe the relationship between your school and most Pacific parents and whānau. Is the relationship positively impacting learners? What is expected of Pacific parents and whānau?

What is your school story about developing effective relationships with families and whānau and bringing them into the school environment as part of your connections and engagement with whānau-school partnership?

When your school invites whānau in, do they understand the intent of the relationship?

Engaging children in their home language is important, and teachers need to include it in their lessons and programmes. Keeping Pacific languages alive in schools also embraces Pacific learners’ identities and cultures.

Relevant ethnicities: Cook Islands, Tokelau

Relevant turu: Turu 1

This video is about keeping a Pacific language alive. The video features a Tokelauan early childhood teacher speaking about how vital it is for Tokelauan children to learn their language, to know who they are, and where they come from. The language is also kept alive through celebrating Pacific Language Weeks, other Pacific events, traditional songs, action songs, and the use of games, books, and activities that encourage learners to use their home language. Engaging children in their home language is important, and teachers need to include it in their lessons and programmes. Keeping Pacific languages alive in schools also embraces Pacific learners’ identities and cultures.

Reflections for individual teachers

As you watch this video, think about how you embrace and keep Pacific languages alive and thriving in your classroom.

• Reflect on and share your thoughts about this Samoan proverb: “If there is no language, then there is no culture. If there is no culture, then all of the village will be in darkness.”
• How do you embrace cultural knowledge and language competency in your learners? Do you think that if you use a learner’s home language, they will be more likely to engage in the learning process, resulting in them achieving more?
• How do you support the use of learners’ home languages in the classroom for a smooth transition between home and school?
• Think of reasons why you should welcome home languages into classroom learning. How do you learn from Pacific learners who value their home language? How could you involve other learners to feel that their home language is acknowledged and respected?

Reflections for staff or departments

Think about how you celebrate Pacific languages in your school.

• Reflect on why schools should teach young learners in their home languages. Share your thoughts.
• How is your school celebrating and embracing Pacific languages to keep them alive and thriving in both the school and home environments?
• Does your school system structure support the content and delivery of a curriculum where the learner uses their home language to gain a better understanding of the curriculum content?
• Do you think keeping the learner’s home language alive in schools can help children navigate the new environment and bridge their learning at school with the experience they bring from home?

This video emphasises the interrelationship between language and cultural identity and the importance of protecting Pacific languages in Aotearoa.

Relevant ethnicities: Samoa, Tokelau

Relevant turu: Turu 1

This video explains the ways that Pacific families keep their languages alive at home. The video emphasises the inter-relationship between language and cultural identity and the importance of protecting Pacific languages in Aotearoa. The early learning service, Matiti Tokelau Akoga Kamata, is an example of how a group of New Zealand-born Tokelauans are growing and maintaining their language.

Reflections for individual teachers

As you watch this video, think of your role as a teacher working within a Pacific context.

• Some of your Pacific learners will be strong speakers of their first language because it is spoken and nurtured in their homes. How can you draw on the expertise of your learners and their families to bring Pacific languages to life in your classroom?
• Some of your Pacific learners won’t have knowledge of their first languages. Are there people or resources in your community that you can connect with to help bring their languages and cultures into your classroom curriculum?

Reflections for staff or departments

If you watch this video as a staff member or member of a department team, think about effective leadership practices in Pacific cultures.

• Find out what groups or initiatives that support and develop Pacific languages and cultures are in your community. Consider ways you can connect and build relationships with these groups so that you can draw on their expertise.
• How do you reflect the importance of Pacific languages and cultures in your charter, strategic plans, and school or centre curriculum?
• What short, medium, and long-term goals can you set for your team to keep Pacific languages alive in your learning setting?

Successful transitions for Pacific learners require time and are an important part of learners’ journeys and development. Supporting parent and whānau engagement will enable learners to navigate transitions.  

Relevant turu: Turu 2

This video is about transitions to, and within, schools. Successful transitions for Pacific learners require time and are an important part of learners’ journeys and development.  Supporting parent and whānau engagement will enable learners to navigate transitions. Felicity Mortin-Turner, a new entrant teacher, speaks about a six-month journey before a learner starts school. This is the stage when the school should make contact, and start forming a relationship with the family. A strategy that has proved to be useful in supporting Pacific learners is keeping relationships at the centre of all interactions. This is achieved by knowing the families, meeting them where they are, understanding what's happening for them at home, and initiating regular conversations with parents by checking in or phone calls to ask what the school can do to support their families. 

Reflections for individual teachers 

As you watch this video, think about your strategies for working with parents and families for successful transitions for their child.

• What steps do you take to ensure a successful transition from home to centre or classroom? Who is involved in these processes and how is their effectiveness evaluated? 
• How do you encourage Pacific learners to tell their stories about their experiences, and insights into their learning environment? 

How do you create a dialogue with parents and whānau so there is continuity for children’s learning and how do you know if this has been effective? 

Reflections for staff or departments 

Transitions are an important part of a learner’s school life and learning. How is your school managing different expectations and transition points for Pacific parents to support successful transitions for their children?

• In what ways does your school or early learning service learn about, understand, and acknowledge the culture of Pacific learners and their families as they join a new setting? 
• What do successful transitions look like from immersion early childhood services to non-immersion schooling? 
• How does your centre or school establish and support respectful, reciprocal relationships between everyone involved in each transition?

To what extent does your early learning service or school support and enable successful transitions? Are they more relevant for Pacific learners? 

In this video, parents of Pacific learners describe a desire for teachers to celebrate students’ unique cultural identities and grow Pacific students’ confidence as learners.

Relevant turu: Turu 3

This video captures the voices of Pacific parents who share what they want teachers to know about their children. Their messaging includes a desire for teachers to build on their child’s sense of love and belonging, celebrate students’ unique cultural identities, and grow Pacific students’ confidence as learners.

Reflections for individual teachers

As you watch this video, think about your role as a teacher working within a Pacific context.

• What conversations have you had with Pacific parents about their children? What have you learned? How are you going to respond?
• How might you build closer relationships with your Pacific parents to learn more about their children? How can you make them feel comfortable enough to share their perspectives and aspirations with you?
• The video calls for teachers to celebrate the cultural identities of Pacific learners and give them opportunities to participate in cultural activities at school. How do you build on the values and experiences of your Pacific learners and allow them to bring their cultural identities into your learning environment?

Reflections for staff or departments

The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum encourages schools to seek out and listen to the ideas of students, parents, families, whānau, and the wider community when designing their local curriculum (The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, p. 37). The following whakatauki outlines aspirations in Te Whāriki (p. 12):

"Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari he toa takitini. I come not with my own strengths but bring with me the gifts, talents, and strengths of my family, tribe, and ancestors."

• What effective approaches do you use to hear and listen to Pacific parents' stories?
• How might you strengthen your relationships with Pacific parents and families so that you can find out more about their children and find out about their values, aspirations, and priorities for teaching and learning?

This video looks at the challenges of bringing whānau into school and overcoming the barriers that can exist between home and school.

Relevant turu: Turu 2

This video looks at barriers that prevent parents from coming into schools. The teacher in the video speaks about challenges in bringing whānau into school and overcoming barriers that exist between home and school. It challenges teachers to take steps to get parents involved because strong education partnerships are the key. The Pacific learners in the video share their thoughts about why parents are not coming to school. Pacific learners then talk about language barriers and parents not understanding the achievement standards, and how this stops parents from coming into schools. Teacher perceptions are another issue when teachers have a limited understanding of what parents do outside of school and at home.

Reflections for individual teachers

As you watch this video, ask yourself if you have the active, ongoing participation of parents and primary caregivers in the education of their Pacific learners.

• When parents are not coming to school, how can you find out about parents’ involvement with their children's education, for example, helping with homework and discussing school events?
• Think about strategies to reach out to parents who do not come into school. Think about the channels of communication you can use and how to actively seek feedback from parents.
• How can you effectively involve parents? How can you break down some of the barriers highlighted in the video?

Reflections for staff or departments

As you watch this video, as a staff member or a member of department staff, think about your school and if they foster high-quality, successful parent involvement.

Discuss what successful parent involvement looks like. Think about the things that prevent parents from coming into schools. What are the barriers to successful parental involvement?

We know from the video that one thing that keeps Pacific parents from getting involved is their discomfort about school. That discomfort often stems from parents not knowing how to get involved. How can your school commit to encouraging parental involvement? How can your school take an active role in enabling parents to become involved in a variety of ways?

Reflecting Pacific cultures in the learning environment and inviting parents into school to share in their children’s learning are some of the ways that you can build strong relationships with families.

Relevant turu: Turu 3

This video is about involving family in learning and curriculum. The video explains that engaging with the learner is not enough; teachers need to build relationships with the parents, families, and wider communities of their Pacific learners. Reflecting Pacific cultures in the learning environment and inviting parents into school to share in their children’s learning are some of the ways that you can build strong relationships with family.

Reflections for individual teachers

As you watch this video, think about your role as a teacher working within a Pacific context.

Tapasā (p. 7) states that:

“According to Pacific learners (and Pacific parents), a 'good teacher' knows that I want my parents to be part of my learning journey and that my parents value being part of that journey.”

• What strategies were described in the video to support parents to be part of their children’s learning journeys?
• What can you do at your school or early learning service to develop closer relationships with the parents of your Pacific learners?
• How can you involve your parents in your students’ learning journeys?

Reflections for staff or departments

If you watch this video as a staff member or member of a department team, think about effective leadership practices in Pacific cultures.

• What actions and practices can schools and early learning services use to demonstrate and develop respectful relationships and reciprocal partnerships with Pacific learners, parents, families, and communities?
• Which of these actions and practices do you use in your context?
• Which actions and practices could you develop further?

Connect with your Pacific learners, parents, and families and invite them to help you develop a list of actions and practices they would like to see you using in your learning context.