Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa,

Piki atu ki te taumata o tōku maunga, ka kite au i te mana, i te iho o te whenua nei nō ōku tūpuna; I climb to the summit of my mountain to see the lands of my ancestors.

I had an amazing few days last week at the national primary principals’ conference in Queenstown. It was a really good chance to connect with other tumuaki across the motu, share experiences and learnings, and listen to some fabulous speakers. It was also a great opportunity to slow down and spend some time up on the metaphorical balcony (gaining perspective) rather than spending your time on the dance floor amidst all the action. Often we spend so much time sorting and doing things, that we don’t get to reflect and think about what we are doing, how and why we are doing it and whether there are other approaches to consider. Last week was a good chance to do this.

Pasi Sahlberg is a Finnish educator, author and scholar, and he shared two keynote presentations at the conference about equity and excellence. His key messages were very timely, as he focused on the messages currently being shared nationally and globally about a crisis in education. Professor Sahlberg reminded us of other times in recent years when this same message had been shared, and he looked at a brief history of changes made across the world in education in the past fifty years in response to these messages. As part of this, he looked at the difference these changes made to education standards - essentially, none. Levels of student achievement have been slowly decreasing around the world for the past 60 years, and the inequity gap between richer and poorer ākonga has stayed the same, despite different strategies and policies targeted at closing the gap.

However, despite all of this, Sahlberg’s key message was one of optimism, not despair. He pointed to the need to move away from ‘tweaks’ to the system and from applying similar strategies that have been tried in the past and have not made a significant difference to student achievement. Sahlberg’s strongest message was of the need for optimism, not despair, of the need to avoid toxic narratives about education and instead to be hopeful and re-imagine what learning could look like.

The need for hope and optimism really resonated with me, and I am still chewing it over in my mind. It is important that as leaders we remain hopeful and passionate about what we can achieve and the possibilities we can create.

Hope was also a key theme for another key speaker at the conference, Professor Patrick Carmingagan. He spoke about humanising education and, similar to Pasi Sahlberg, about reducing the inequity gap and moving students from coping to hoping. Professor Carmangian spoke of hope as a sense of control over your life, and of the need for critically caring relationships in creating this hope.

All in all, a very worthwhile and thought provoking few days, aided by the staggeringly beautiful backdrop of Queenstown. There was a lot to ponder over, and I will continue doing so over the weeks and months to come.

In the meantime, I am looking forward to St Brigid’s Kapa Haka Festival on Saturday - I hope to see many of you there. Kia pai te rā whakatā, enjoy your weekend and hopefully you all find a wee bit of time to keep mulling over ideas that are circulating in your head, as I will.

Ngā mihi, 

Urs Cunningham