Teaching stories - Community engagement
Find out ways that Pacific communities in Aotearoa have led teachers and schools to levels of greater understanding and involvement with Pacific students and how you could successfully connect in your own context.
About this resource
This resource is part of the Tapasā series. It contains videos that illustrate how Pacific communities have enabled teachers and schools to build greater understanding of and involvement with Pacific students.
Community engagement
These videos are stories of effective Pacific pedagogies. Community engagement includes ways in which successful relationships with communities help Pacific students flourish.
Members of the Pacific community and the profession have come together to tell these stories and help support teachers in developing the knowledge to empower their Pacific learners. See how other teachers have put the Tapasā framework to use in their schools and get inspired for your own journey.
This video is about community engagement and establishing strong home-community partnerships.
Relevant turu: Turu 2
This video is about community engagement. It is about establishing strong home-community partnerships where parents, whānau, and communities are involved in and support learning. The narratives in the video emphasise how important it is for schools to know their community, know how their communities are changing, and adapt to that change to remain relevant and meaningful in their engagement. Connections are important, and an example in the video describes a project that involved an external organisation, the Pacific Assist Trust. The school and students collaborated with the trust to provide furniture for schools in the Pacific Islands. Linking external organisations to the school and giving them the opportunity to present to learners is what community connections are all about.
Reflections for individual teachers
Engaging with the local and wider community helps build learning partnerships. As you watch this video, think about your classroom-community partnerships.
- How are you designing your local curriculum to respond to the needs of your learners’ communities? How can you apply community knowledge to enhance learners’ learning?
- How do you go about forming and developing partnerships with your local community?
- Learners carry knowledge about their families and communities inside themselves. How will you ensure that your learners share this knowledge to support the development of their identities?
- Have you considered community homework in your class? What activities have you incorporated to establish community connections in your class learning? How do you foster these connections to expand your learners’ understanding by connecting with their community?
Reflections for staff or departments
Community engagement is one of eight principles in The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum that provides a foundation for schools' decision-making. As you watch this video, as a staff member or a member of department staff, consider:
- How is your school engaging and connecting with your local community? How are you currently exploring and connecting with your local community and community organisations?
- Does your school have a culturally relevant strategy to engage with diverse communities and external organisations? If not, will you consider developing one? If yes, share what you know about your school’s engagement strategy.
- How often does your school conduct community research to increase connections? How can your school find out more about communities and organisations in your area?
- What other ways can your school bring your local community together to support school-community interactions and build on those connections?
This video is about developing local curriculum and best practices.
Relevant turu: Turu 3
This video is about developing local curriculum and best practices. Ali Glasgow, Victoria University, talks about making a dedicated commitment to intentional teaching and the things that children learn at home that need to be included in classroom programmes. Phil Muir describes culturally responsive practice, finding out what meaningful opportunities are currently out there, and linking them with existing teaching plans. Making cross-curricular, collaborative, project-based learning happen and continually exploring best practices is at the heart of an integrated approach to developing a local curriculum that resonates with and relates to each learner so they feel supported and empowered.
Reflections for individual teachers
As you watch this video, think about effective paedagogy for your Pacific learners.
- Share your understanding of your local curriculum. Think about whose voices help to share your local curriculum.
- How do you ensure that your curriculum is authentic and relevant to your Pacific learners? How can you make your curriculum more relevant and authentic?
- What is most important to you – content knowledge or skills? Share your thoughts.
Do you have a clear focus on supporting the progress of your Pacific learners? How are you integrating their Pacific worldview into classroom learning?
Reflections for staff or departments
As you watch this video, as a staff member or a member of department staff, think about the process of designing your local curriculum. How are decisions made? When conducting reviews do you engage your community?
- When developing your local curriculum, how do you decide what is most important for Pacific learners in your school?
- How can your school be responsive to the needs, identity, language, culture, interests, strengths and aspirations of Pacific learners and their families?
- How is your school assisting Pacific learners’ engagement with knowledge, values, and competencies so that they become confident and connected lifelong learners? In regards to your local curriculum, what support are you providing for your teaching staff to enable them to be responsive to the priorities and preferences of Pacific learners and their community?
This video is about knowing your students, the cultures they identify with, and what this means for them.
Relevant turu: Turu 1
This video is about knowing your students, the cultures they identify with, and what this means for them. Cultural celebrations are beneficial to learners’ progress. In this video, Board members at Kingsford School talk about the importance of having a Pacific cultural event. Kingsford School’s Fiafia Night helps engage overseas teachers who are new to the school and highlights the importance of Pacific Island culture in New Zealand for them. Cultural activities also engage Pacific parents and celebrate the language, culture, and identities of Pacific learners.
Reflections for individual teachers
As you watch this video, think about the ways you celebrate the diverse cultural backgrounds of your learners.
- How do you celebrate the cultural identities of your learners based on their own personal, cultural beliefs and experiences?
- How do you get to know your Pacific learners as individuals? Do you use conversation and classroom activities to enable them to share their cultures and perspectives? How are you using the cultural knowledge and experiences of your learners as an integral part of planning curriculum and paedagogy?
- How do you work with other teachers in your school to celebrate Pacific language and culture? How can you encourage Pacific learners to read, learn, and write about their own culture?
Reflections for staff or departments
Cultural responsiveness does not mean just learning about your Pacific learners. If you are a staff member or a member of department staff, think about how your school celebrates the diverse Pacific cultures of your learners.
- How does your school put culture at the heart of your school events? Share how your school celebrates Pacific language, and culture for your learners, and their families and communities.
- How are you helping non-Pacific staff to develop an awareness of Pacific cultural practice and cultural understanding? Share how your teaching staff grow their understanding of Pacific identity, language and culture.
How are you challenging your staff to seek professional development not only from workshops or cultural training but also by participating in Pacific events and community activities?
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Tapasā proverbs
This resource contains a set of proverb cards to support kaiako conversations and reflections on their practice.
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This resource explores values that support the Tapasā framework, including Pacific values, being culturally responsive, and engaging with parents, families, and communities.
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5 of 10Teaching stories - Where am I?
An exploration of the local context. Who is in your school community? Which Pacific group/s do they connect with? How are your students connected to their community?
6 of 10Pacific cultural competency workbook
This workbook complements the Tapasā framework and is designed to help you embrace cultural diversity and make a difference in each child’s educational success.
7 of 10Teaching stories - Who am I?
An exploration of a teacher's own identity and an inquiry into the Pacific identities of students and the place culture plays in their lives.
8 of 10Key messages from Tapasā
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9 of 10Tapasā framework
This resource explores the Tapasā framework and ngā turu, the competencies, that describe behaviours and understandings at the different stages of the teaching journey.
10 of 10
