Did connecting with whanau support student learning during the lockdown?
The lockdown was a chance to connect with whanau on a another level. Before the lockdown, students were sent to school for their learning and that was that. During lockdown, students pretty much brought their homes, lives and families to ‘school’ with them when they were forced to shared their learning spaces with their teachers. I was interested in how our students handled this and I found an article that talks about the vā, the relative space between people and their relationships.
“The vā that binds: a Pasifika education story during Covid-19” describes the vā as a sacred space that online learning interrupted. Teachers were invited into the sacred spaces of our kids in their homes. In that space, the divide grew wider or got closer, depending on whether the kids trusted you or not. At the start of the lockdown, my seniors were all for it turning up to online classes religiously. But nearer the end, they were rarely there. There would be a few reasons for this. Much of the school work they were doing was individualised research which required basic checking in and quick discussions and they were off. Another reason for a lack of attendance was that many students either worked, babysat or were expected to contribute to the household chores and rarely had time to login(see a recent blog post).
The juniors on the other hand were there everyday, ready to learn. In the 9AK project based class, I had at least 75% attendance on average from my year 9's and it was really enjoyable connecting with them in this way. Most of the time, they had their screens off and mute buttons on.
I'd like to highlight one student who regularly invited me into his whanau ’space' whenever our classes were on. Below are the interactions we had from the lockdown (I have changed the boys name to Adam).
Week 1: Adam introduced his little brother to the class and was feeding him whilst taking part in the lesson.
Week 2: Adam’s mum joined the class kahoot with us and beat Adam in a couple of the questions.
Week 3: Mum helped Adam brainstorm capabilities when he was stuck (see video 11 mins - 11.45 secs).
The week before we went into level 1, Adam’s mum had described to me online her worries about sending her son to school. I reassured her that she didn't need to send him to school until she was ready and he wouldn't miss anything as we were still online as well as in the classroom. She seemed happy with my response.
Now that we are pretty back to normal teaching and learning in the classroom, I feel that I have a better relationship with Adam compared to before the lockdown. If he gets distracted during the lesson, I just call out his name and give him the 'look' and he apologies and refocusses. I feel there is an unspoken respect and trust that has been formed as a result of connecting with his mum during lockdown.
The fact that these small connections occurred closes the gaps with the vā. My wonderings are that if we can shorten the va’, how do we continue the momentum? I am excited to learn more about developing better connections with our whanau to support our student learning.
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