Tātaiako will flourish with community engagemen

Media release – 10 July 2012

Tātaiako will flourish with community engagement

The Teachers Council supports the call by Dr Toby Curtis of Nga Kura-a-Iwi o Aotearoa to give greater prominence to the implementation of Tātaiako in schools and early childhood education services.

“Although Tātaiako is principally a Ministry of Education initiative originating from the Office of Dr Pita Sharples, the Council has taken the kaupapa on board and we’ve woven it into many of our professional development programmes,” said Dr Peter Lind, Director of the Teachers Council.

“As the professional registration body for teachers, we saw the value in building a framework of cultural competence, aligned to the Graduating Teacher Standards and the Registered Teacher Criteria.

“It is very important that teachers are given professional learning opportunities and assisted in implementing this initiative into their daily work. So, Tātaiako has been incorporated into our current programmes of professional development, including the induction and mentoring of newly qualified teachers and the appraisal of experienced teachers as part of the registration cycle.

“Tātaiako is only a policy document and is therefore a starting point for schools and ECE services to develop or lift their cultural competence.

“Experience shows that implementing a policy needs to come from the flax root level.

“The key success factor for Tātaiako is having constructive engagement between whānau, hapu and iwi, together with schools and ECE services, to determine what the cultural competencies should look like for their communities.”

Visit our website via http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/required/tataiako.stm for further information.

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