Lets talk about teaching and learning.: February 2018

We come together with aroha
We value and acknowledge
Our diverse heritage and the places we come from
The integrity we bring to this team
The respect we have for each other and for the job we do
And the connectedness we feel
The strengthens and empowers us
To work together for a better world

Ka hui tahi tatou

i raro i te korowai o te aroha.

E hāpai ana i ngā uaratanga o tēna o tēna o tatou.

Ka tū kotahi tatou i raro i te ngākau tapatahi.

Te mārohirohi me te awe o ngā mahi.

ka priir pono,

ki te whakakaha me te whakamana tatou ki a tatou.

Mo te painga o te Ao.

Amine

What is a karakia?

This week I have been captured by the story of how the RTLB cluster's karakia was created.

I heard that the karakia was inspired by another karakia which came from Koraunui school, Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt in Wellington. When I taught at Koraunui school I enjoyed the imagery of the karakia and found the karakia to be the touch stone to my day. When I left Koraunui school, I then carried the karakia to my next school.
Ridgway School in Wellington.

For myself, karakia sets in motion whakapuake te mauri o te reo, like an opening in the understanding of the life force within Māori language.

I am surprised by the connection I feel to the RTLB Cluster 29 karakia and am wondering about karakia as a lived experience. For a karakia to be so part of practise that the essence of it imbudes thoughts and actions. The life force of the karakia, contributing to change in practice, where perhaps we can start seeing new possibilities.

If karakia is able to support us to see possibilities and work with metaphors that support us to see working together as a living system then it may be quite possible that karakia can support the conditions for living in this post-modern age of complexity. Where people coming together expereince emergent behaviours because working with people has limited predictability.

Does your work place have a karakia / prayer? How does the karakia connect with what you value and believe?

I’ve started a new role as an RTLB. (Resource Teacher Learning and Behaviour) you know that excited and terrified feeling when you start a new role and you realise that the more you thought you might know the more you don't?

One of the first publications I have started reading, is Kairaranga. The article I keep re reading is, The Art of Community … What Principles and Practices do RTLB need to Develop an Effective Community of Practice? Kairaranga Vol 18 Issue 1: 2017. I'm loving this article!

http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/departments/institute-of-education/research/kairaranga/kairaranga_home.cfm

The following words stand out...

“It is now recognised that change is not a simplistic or linear process, but a dynamic one that occurs in unpredictable and complex ways.”

From this article I think more about Teaching as Inquiry - experience tells me TAI is far from linear and we need to know what thinking and doing looks and sounds like when teaching / learning in complex spaces.

I am also reading through the RTLB Tool kit

http://rtlb.tki.ordg.nz/Professional-practice

I am captured by the words ‘Ecological approach’. I’m learning how this principle inter relates to the seven other principles.

“An ecological view is that:

Learning is an on-going, interactive and contextualised process.

I am excited as I read and have affirmed that working in the RTLB space is about learning to work in a complex space. I often wonder if in schools we give the complex space enough attention. TAI's are far from linear. I’m wondering if we sometimes approach a complex situation and treat it as either simple or complicated.

I have noticed in schools and education we use the word complex in many situations that actually in my guess are actually just complicated. By this I mean there is some expertise required to untangle the jigsaw and with the right amount knowledge, skill and or attitude the problem will be solved. However, what about the situations where there is no clear solution? Where no amount of working smarter is going to solve a problem. These to me are complex, where the pathway to a solution is multi faceted and it may be difficult to identify one thing as the antecedent. Where if we just ‘get our ducks in a row’ work hard enough - work smart enough we will be able sort the situation at hand.

So, it is my hope as I keep learning with the team that I keep experimenting and learning about what working in complexity might look and sound like in schools and education.

One more thing.... I have noticed a few conversations that explains different rolls in schools and education as a cog in a larger machine. I'm wondering about this becasue if we are saying we are working in a complex space and we need to work in relation to each other in processes that are not linear. Then a machine metaphor does not work for me. This is mainly because complexity and an ecological approach must engage with ambiguity and unpredictability. Two things I do not associate with machines.
Would appreciate hearting what others think about the use of machine as a metaphor. Our mental images are important right?

The Art of Community … What Principles and Practices do RTLB need to Develop an Effective Community of Practice? Kairaranga Vol 18 Issue 1: 2017

Coppieters, P. (2005). Turning school into learning organisations. European Journal of Teacher Education, 28(2), 129-139

Garvey Berger, J., & Johnson, K. (2015). Simple Habits for Complex Times.