Interventions: Part 2

Introducing multilingual visuals, cultural practices, and inclusive resources is only the first step in the implementation their impact is just as important. In our school, we do this through a combination of classroom observations, participation tracking, and teacher feedback. Observations from team leaders help us see how students engage with visuals, Te Reo Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language, while tracking participation shows who is involved and who might need a little extra support and if they are valuable to learning.

Teacher feedback plays a key role too. Our staff are encouraged share what strategies are working well and highlight any challenges they notice, giving us a clear picture of what’s effective in real classroom settings. This will be more present and the end of the year when another survey is sent out. 

To keep everything fresh and meaningful, I have tried to review our resources and routines, ensuring materials remain accessible and engaging for learners. Reflective meetings and brief reports help us celebrate successes, address any gaps, and plan next steps. This ongoing process ensures that our focus on cultural capabilities isn’t just a one-off initiative or tokenistic, it's a sustainable, evolving part of school life. 

We will see how this goes and I will make adjustments if needed as the year progresses.

Causal Chain

 

My causal chain focus on the thought process behind creating my inquiry focus and what my interventions are going to be.  

What is the literature saying. ….

During my research I focused on the book “Teaching to the North East” by Russell Bishop. This book was mesmerising. It completely changed my viewpoint on education and made me have so many questions. Why is it that there are still toxic environments in education where students face marginalisation every day? Even though we are getting better there is still a huge gap in education. 

In Teaching to the North-East, Russell Bishop challenges educators to move away from deficit thinking that views the languages, cultural perspectives, and prior knowledge of marginalised students as barriers to learning. Instead, he argues these should be celebrated and utilised as powerful assets in the classroom. Central to his approach is relational pedagogy, which emphasises that strong, caring relationships between teachers and students are not optional extras, but the very foundation of effective teaching. Bishop describes the “north-east quadrant” as the optimal space where teachers achieve both high relational engagement and high quality interactive pedagogy, resulting in meaningful and fair learning experiences for all. He encourages teachers to create classrooms that operate like extended families, where power is shared, students’ voices are legitimised, and learning is co-constructed around their lived experiences. Importantly, Bishop highlights the need for teachers to continually monitor the impact of their relationships and teaching practices, making responsive adjustments to ensure every student thrives (Bishop, R. (2019). Teaching to the North- East. NZCER Press).  

Without this we face segregation, students who do not want to come to school and whanau are disengaged. “All students have a cultural fund of knowledge” (2022, The Education Hub) in classrooms this is what should be used and celebrated. In a classroom there is no room for cultural assumptions. 

With this all in mind I have thought deeply about what intervention would be useful to our school and how to support not only teachers in the classroom but creating a sense of belonging for cultures at Sommerville.

Teaching as Inquiry 2025

“Recognising and spreading sophisticated pedagogical practice across our community so that students learn in better and more powerful ways...”

The Manaiakalani Community of Learning is working together on this task using the expertise existing in of our community of learning.

In 2025 for my inquiry I have selected the following CoL achievement challenge 

#5. Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/key competency using language symbols and texts

The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2025 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.
The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.

I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Labels:

LEvidence, LScan, LTrend, LHypothesise, LResearch, LReflect,

 CPlan, CTry, CInnovate, CImplement, CReflect,

SPublish, SCoteach, SModel, SGuide, SFback, SReflect

Label Key:

LEvidence	Learn - Gather Evidence	CPlan	Create - Make a plan	SPublish	Share - Publish
LScan	Learn - Scan	CTry	Create - Try new things	SCoteach	Share - Co-teach
LTrend	Learn - Identify Trends	CInnovate	Create - Innovate	SModel	Share - Model
LHypothesise	Learn - Hypothesise	CImplement	Create - Implement	SGuide	Share - Guide
LResearch	Learn - Research	CReflect	Create - Reflect	SFback	Share - Feedback
LReflect	Learn - Reflect			SReflect	Share - Reflect