Te Kotahitanga: culturally responsive professional development for teachers

Te Kotahitanga is a research and professional development project that aims to support teachers to raise the achievement of New Zealand's indigenous Maori students in public/mainstream classrooms. An Effective Teaching Profile, developed from the voices of Maori students, their families, principals and some of their teachers, provides direction and focus for both the classroom pedagogy and the professional development. While the authors understand that there are many institutional changes necessary at the school level, this paper focuses on the professional learning opportunities developed for classroom teachers within this project to support the development of more effective classroom relationships and interactions with Maori students. This has resulted in Maori students attending school more regularly, engaging as learners and achieving to levels where they begin to realise their true potential.