Taki Hono
The Taki Hono / Leadership mentoring programme has achieved high levels of support from participants for two reasons. Central to the programme is Maori kaupapa, the collective wisdom generated from strong relationships with others and the values these relationships are based on.
This collective wisdom has been employed to illuminate both Maori student needs and the potential contribution of Maori educational leadership in response to those needs. It has reinforced Mana Maori with intensive one-to-one mentoring based on the mentors' experience and significant time expended in relation to individual participants. The interaction and integration of these two processes have provided something unique.
As Ngaire Ashmore Principal Tangaroa College Otara said:
'This programme has been a fantastic opportunity that has provided a combination of expertise, experience and professional development for my up and coming Maori teachers who are looking to move into more senior positions. The success of this programme I believe is its unique setting and context - which is making those important connections for Maori succeeding as Maori in Education, an excellent springboard into leadership and influence. I am excited about the prospect of many more of my Maori staff having the opportunity to participate.'
The Taki Hono/ Leadership Mentoring programme focused on identifying potential Maori education leaders and mentoring them to apply for leadership roles in schools. The pilot programme that was run in 2010- 2011 engaged seven senior Maori teachers, the majority of whom have begun to apply for senior positions above their current role.
The programme has exceeded expectations as more than the target number of five Maori teachers were recruited for the pilot programme. They have been challenged with a series of workshops with topics including:
- being a Maori Principal
- governance and the role of the principal and Board of Trustees
- school management and compliance issues
- changing a school culture,
- financial literacy and school accounting,
- education and industrial law,
- student management,
- collecting ,analysing and reporting student achievement data,
- performance management and developing a 'continuous improvement' learning community
- school organisation as a tool to raising student achievement
- dealing with the media
Alongside the workshops an intensive programme of individual mentoring has taken place with these sessions being tailored to individual needs and mainly focused around writing CVs, the application process and interview techniques.
We are pleased with the progress made by every participant as they have acquired accounting, management and leadership skills and engaged in pathways to the next level of employment. This will result in more Maori in senior education roles and additional Maori role models for our young people. The Maori teachers have gained confidence and acquired an improved understanding and knowledge of the pathways to becoming principals.
The target group for this programme has been senior Maori teachers. The indirect beneficiaries of this programme will be some of the 37,000 Maori students in the Auckland region who will benefit from having more cultural role models in leadership positions. The programme will have on-going influence in developing future leaders within the education sector and the achievement of Maori students within our schools. This will also depend critically on whether the lessons learned from the pilot project are applied more widely, and on the relationships established between capacity building and the removal of systemic blocks in education identified on the pathway into principals' positions for Maori senior teachers.
