Te Hiringa i te Mahara
Research and Evaluation
Linda Smith, Fiona Cram, Graham Smith & Megan Tunks
Funder: Gardiner & Parata Ltd
Timeframe: 1997-2001
Literature Review and Database Analysis, 1998
This is a report (downloadable below) on the literature review, survey analysis
and database establishment that was carried out for the Te Hiringa i te Mahara
project on Māori secondary teachers’ workloads. It is a summary of information
that has been written in a more comprehensive technical report. The report draws together three major sources of
information on Māori secondary teachers:
- Information
provided by Māori secondary teachers at the workshops organised for the Te
Hiringa i te Mahara project by Gardiner and Parata Ltd,
- Information
taken from an analysis of the questionnaires that Māori teachers completed as
part of the workshops
- Information
that already exists in the literature.
The literature review critically examines both
international studies relating to teacher workloads and the information and
material presented by Māori teachers. It is argued by the authors that Māori
secondary teachers describe their work in particular ways and that it is
necessary to understand the nature of their work and how it has been
constituted historically when trying to analyse their workload in today’s
environment. The ‘load’ aspect of these teachers’ work relates to a combination
of activities, expectations and challenges due to their being Māori as well as
to the hours of work they spend teaching. It is also argued in the literature
review and questionnaire analysis that there is a very strong relationship
between the motivations of Māori teachers that links their concerns for te reo
Māori me ona tikanga with their concern for Māori students. This relationship shapes
their workloads in powerful ways that make their role as Māori teachers
educationally and culturally important but problematic in terms of work
conditions and measures of satisfaction and well being.
The database was developed for the Te Hiringa i te Mahara
project and has been informed by other studies of teacher workload and
satisfaction and by a Kaupapa Māori approach that privileges Māori ways of
interacting and transferring information. The database was developed to enable
interventions to be designed, implemented and evaluated over a two year period.
It is different from any other studies of Māori secondary teachers because of
its emphasis on trying to identify pressures points or multiple sites to which
interventions can be targeted and then evaluated. A questionnaire was designed
and then quite literally ‘taken to the people’ through a series of national
workshops organised by Gardiner and Parata Ltd. Three hundred Māori teachers
have completed the questionnaire however due to the slow return rate of some
questionnaires the current analysis is based on a sample of 262 responses. The
analysis supports and strengthens many of the findings made in previous studies
by Bloor (1996) and by Mitchell and Mitchell (1993) which were based on smaller
samples. In comparison to non-Māori colleagues, Māori secondary teachers work
long hours on a range of cultural activities over and above their other more
‘typical’ teaching responsibilities.
Evaluation Report, 2001
Te Hiringa i te Mahara (Te Hiringa i te Mahara) is a two
year programme that aims to reduce workload pressures and improve the
professional experience of Maori secondary school teachers.This report (downloadable below) contains
a database analysis and the findings of the evaluation study of the Te Hiringa
i te Mahara project. The database provided the benchmark against which the
impact of targeted interventions can be measured. The overall significance of
Te Hiringa i te Mahara is discussed by bringing together the quantitative and
qualitative data collected in the process and outcome evaluation phases of the
research.
Two questionnaires were developed for each phase of the
evaluation. The intervention questionnaire invites teachers to give their
individual perceptions of how the course or programme they attended has impacted
or is likely to impact on their teaching experience. Data collection also
occurred through provider visits, provider interviews, participant observation
and focus group interviews. The data collected informed the process
evaluation phase of the research that documents the delivery of a
programme including the project’s history and development, the intended
audience, the audience’s perceptions of the programe, and the resource
requirements of the programme. This data was collected over the two-year period
of the evaluation. 1207 questionnaires were distributed to Maori teachers, 800
of whom are currently on the Te Hiringa i te Mahara database. 231 completed and
useable questionnaires were returned.
In 1998 a database was developed from a questionnaire to Maori
secondary school teachers to enable interventions to be designed, implemented
and evaluated. Sections covered included satisfaction and support, career and
employment, general health and teaching education and practice. The outcome
evaluation phase of the research has sought to update the 1998 findings
by way of a second comparative questionnaire distributed toward the end of the
two year evaluation period.
In the three years of Te Hiringa i te Mahara the overall results show a
developing professional engagement in teaching among the study’s participants.
At the start of Te Hiringa i te Mahara considerable effort had to be made to
identify Maori teachers and to involve them in initial workshops. Teacher
relief was provided so that schools would release teachers to attend. The
general wariness of the teachers was counter-balanced by a very enthusiastic
project team. Te Hiringa i te Mahara did have to prove itself to Maori
teachers. This was not an easy task. The process and outcome evaluations
together demonstrate that Maori teachers did participate and have benefited
from the interventions
