Over
the past six months our team at Mairtown have been a part of a research cluster
group; focussing on leadership within Early Childhood Education. As part of this focus we had to come
up with a research question as a team, ours was;
“How is our teaching team leading the way in assessment
practices that contribute to our tamariki Māori (and all our
children) being able to recognise their learning potential as rangatira/leaders?”
These photos represent our older boys displaying their rangatira traits by role modelling how to appropriately end waiata with pukana and whetero. This passion was passed on to our younger children who now display the same energy and mana.
This
question sparked lots of thinking and ended up taking us all on a very
fulfilling journey. At first we thought about how this question would look with
in our context at Mairtown Kindergarten. In terms of our assessment we often
recognise children’s leadership qualities. We know that we have fantastic
tamariki who display a wide range of leadership skills, including helping
their peers and teachers, role modelling positive ways of being or showing empathy.
However we wanted to consider how were we to know that children recognised these
skills and traits within themselves. We also wanted to know how we as teachers help create
an environment where these skills and traits were authentically recognised and celebrated.
-Leadership
is not a position or a title, it is action and example-
Braeden actively shares his skills and knowledge with his peers about how to get across the monkey bars. He demonstrates this over and over again to encourage and nurture his peers learning and development.
Although they are just dolls, Austin and Bella display the up most respect and care towards them. Their empathy and manaakitanga that they show when playing with the dolls is also reflected in their interactions with each other and their peers.
After
much reflection amongst the team, and an empowering kōrero with Roimata
Macfarlane, our Pou Whakarewa Tikanga Māori (Professional Practice Advisor
Māori) from the Northland Kindergarten Association, we started to have a
clearer idea of the direction we wanted to head in.
Our
initial plan was to talk to the children about the concept of leadership, with
the idea that this would transition into more discussion about the Te Ao Māori
concept of Rangatiratanga (leadership). We started by asking the children, “What
is a leader?” and “What kind of behaviours do leaders have?”
“It’s like some person be leaders and
stuff. Some leaders come to the back to help other people.” (Peter)
"A person who is a leader is a helper. They help other people with heaps of stuff. They help show them how to make lego and how to do swinging and how to be friendly." (Taika)
“When people follow the other people.
They hold others hands.” (Matteo)
“A leader is the helper and say toru,
wha at mat time. They do not whistle and when someone gets hurts they say ‘Are
you o.k.?’ They are kind.” (Emma)
“For helping people when they fall down
and saying ‘are you all right’ and ‘do you want to play with me?’ They are good
at showing others how to be good. By tidying up and showing others how to do
this. I show people how to do flips” (Charlie)
“Waiting for your turns and not pushing
in. Well they are kind and gentle.” (Sienna)
“Not shouting, not hitting. Be gentle.”
(Jack)
“Leaders is about having no hitting.
They be funny to make people happy. In my family my Dad is the leader.” (Franchi)
“They follow the people. No pushing. I’m
the leader of my Mummy and Dad. When I was camping with my Mum and Dad I found
the way to the beach and showed them.” (Sadie)
“A leader just knows how to make a
circle. They be leaders at kindy and at the Nature Programme.” (Max)
“They properly have good behaviours aye.
Just being good is good.” (Nyla)
“Ummm, they are nice and care for
people.” (Mercia)
“They have good behaviours. They help
people. Them get good behaviours by learning them and then use the behaviours
to help people. I know Roman, he is a leader because he is on the Nature
Programme. It makes you a leader because you do leader stuff on the Nature
Programme. You just do normal stuff but are a leader at it. I’m a leader
because I help people when they are getting sad and ask them to play with me.”
(Tyler)
“Ummm, it’s a got to share person. My
Mummy is a leader, my Daddy is a leader and my Nana Sue is a leader.”(Lali)
“On the Nature Programme there are
leaders, they talk very nicely, like Sharlotte, because she has been there
before, longer than me.” (Reese)
From
our discussions and feedback from children we realised that they already had many clear ideas about what leadership can be. We wanted to extend their thinking about how
they view themselves as leaders by including the voices of their whānau. We
sent home a reflection form with all of our children, which said,
“Dear
Parents/Whānau,
In
term two we are going to be focusing on the different qualities of leadership
with the children.
The
Māori kupu (word) for leadership is Rangatira (a leader) or Rangatiratanga
(leadership). In early childhood there are many different ways to be a leader.
For instance caring for others, being helpful, self-regulation (being able to
recognise and control emotions) or role modelling are just some ways that
children display leadership qualities.
We
would love you to share with us some of your child’s leadership qualities at
home. Please use this form provided to document an aspect of leadership that
you recognise in your child’s character.
Although
we have given a couple of examples, leadership can be viewed in many ways. We
look forward to hearing more about your child’s leadership’s strengths at home.
This
information’s will be going in your child’s portfolio. Please have them back to
us at the beginning of term two.
Thank
you for your time.
Ngā
mihi nui,
Christine,
Kim, Zair and Susie”
-Ko te kai a te rangatira he korero- The food of
leaders is communication
Initially
we thought that when these family reflections were returned that we would just
place them in their portfolios as a form of assessment to support the ranagtira
learning journey. However every time a family would bring one in the words that
they shared would light up our hearts.
Some
of the reflections were,
“Grace shows leaderships qualities at home
by: Caring for her baby sister, she looks out for her daily and tells us when
she needs something; she is often watching over her and getting her toys,
clothes, nappies etc. She shows concern for her sister if she is distressed and
likes showing her to other people and is very proud of her.”
“He loves to help – with anything and
everything. If something is being done, Tanner likes to be there helping. This
ranges from helping with building, tiding the shed, moving cows, mowing lawns,
gardening, preparing meals, helping to carry things (e.g. groceries), feeding
animals –anything!”
“It’s good for me as a parent to
recognise that these are leadership qualities emerging, thank you for this opportunity
to grow and learn with our children.”
We can't express enough as teachers how much we value this kind of family involvement. This
meant a change of plan and instead of just going in their portfolios they would
also be displayed on the wall for all to see. We had such a huge response that
we ran out of wall space and had to start a book that sat in the same area.
Children and their whānau would read each other’s reflections and children
would point out to others their own reflections saying things like, “Look
that’s me being the helper” or “You know that’s me looking after my baby sister.
My Mum says I’m good at that!”
Having
this documentation in the children's play space created many opportunities for them to
revisit and reflect on the leadership qualities that they display. It shows
how the important people in their lives value who they are which is incredibly
empowering for them. We reflected as a team about how the children display similar leaderships traits at kindergarten and through our assessment processes we made these connections visible. For example Jazmine's whanau acknowledged her caring nature and how she was always looking out for her brother and helping him out. This was a 'way of being' (Te Whatu Pokeka) that Jazmine displayed at kindergarten and was documented accordingly, linking it to her rangatiratanga reflection. We also shared some of the family reflections at whanau times. The children were invited to sit up the front as we read their families words. The children would just be bursting with pride and you could tell that this was a very empowering and meaningful experience for them.
“When
documentation is incorporated into the classroom it can be a valuable teaching tool.
The reflection that a child is encouraged to participate in when viewing
documentation can teach the child to be more aware of his/her own learning.” (Deibert)
This
was a moment when we realised that our tamariki where realising their learning
potential as rangatira/leaders through our assessment practices. Having their
family’s reflections on display at their eye level was powerful and created
lots of reflection and discussion amongst the children.
This
then lead into our other initiative that we decided to implement to support our
research question. The creation and implementation of a Rangitiratanga stamp. Roimata kindly asked
her nephew, who is an artist, if he would be happy to draw a picture that
represented rangatiratanga for Mairtown Kindergarten. When we received the
picture we had it made into a large stamp.
The stamp is used to recognise wonderful displays of rangatiratanga qualities
amongst our children. If the teachers see anyone displaying these qualities
then they are awarded the rangatiratanga stamp in front of the whole group at a
gathering. The teachers acknowledge and explain to the rest of the group exactly what the child receiving the stamp has done, then they are
presented with the large stamp and walk round showing it to all their peers.
The other children give them a round of applause and often shout out things
like, “Great work, I'm so proud of you.”
“I
have always admired people who I perceived as having excellent leadership
skills. At one time, I thought that these skills came naturally, but I’ve
learned that we all have the potential to develop leadership skills. We need to
be encouraged, role modeled, and nurtured to develop these skills and it should
begin in childhood.” (psu.edu.com, 2012)
We
also document every time a child receives a stamp to go in their portfolio.
This page is often shared amongst peers and discussion arises from there about
how they are being good leaders at kindergarten.
Recognising
and celebrating the fantastic actions of our tamariki is empowering and an
authentic way to help them recognise their learning potential. This celebration
is enabling them to view themselves as valued contributors within our learning
community.
It
is a beautiful process and the response and flow on effect of this recognition
has been hugely beneficial for our kindergarten. We often hear children talking
about the rangatiratanga stamp saying, “Im going to do so much tidying up so I might
get the stamp.” Or “That rangatira stamp is choice, I have had one because I
made so many good choices and helped my friends.”
We
have noticed the positive on-going effects on children who are celebrated for their great rangatira
behaviours, for example one of our boys Max got a rangatiratanga stamp for
helping a friend who was hurt, by giving him a hug and getting him help. Now every
time he sees someone hurt themselves, he rushes over and gives them a hug and
asks if they are alright. He has proudly shown his portfolio entry about this
to others and re-tells the reason why he received his stamp. He just radiates
with pride.
Franchi and Madison take turns at being rangatira, making sure they both take on the role of spinner of the barrel. They have learnt that by the act of giving they are creating joy for each other, which is reflected in their faces in these photos.
Our team continues to be led and inspired by this learning journey; it has been really successful in
terms of cementing a strong centre culture of leadership. These
skills and traits that we are celebrating and acknowledging are enormously important for lifelong learning. Our tamariki now recognise that being a leader doesn’t just
mean to ‘be first’ or to ‘be in front’. They recognise that leadership is also about being helpful, caring, empathetic and making good choices.
We are excited about influencing strong and
caring rangatira of the future.
Te piko o te māhuri, tērā te tupu o te
rākau
The way in which the young sapling is
nurtured (bent) determines how the tree will grow
Noho ora mai rā,
Zair
