Resetting my inquiry take #1: Taking up the Year 13 Challenge

Here were the two drafts of my inquiry:

Draft #1:  Can I develop the capabilities of my staff to accelerate learning through understanding and applying the Tapasā in a year 10 Social Studies class?

Draft #2:  How does taking teachers on a journey of growth in Tapasā affect their pedagogical implementation?

Review of the inquiry points:

I originally started my inquiry basing it on supporting non-Pasifika staff in my department to implement strategies from the Tapasa as I found there were times when they struggled to connect with their Pasifika students in the classroom and these struggles led to disengagement and sometimes misbehaviour.

Reasons for the change:

I did discuss the opportunity to be part of my inquiry to members of my team and although they were happy to take part, finding the time became too much of a barrier.  This was bad planning on my part as a number of classes that I wanted to observe, I was teaching.

Another reason was right in front of me.  I have a huge year 13 class who I could potentially see were going to be a struggle to engage and motivate.  Having taught year 13’s for a number of years, our department has always struggled to find ways to motivate them to the end and it has become a pattern of failure over the years.  I have been reluctant to inquire into knowing the real why and how to address it into what could work with this group as my own biases have been a barrier and I have in the past put it into the too hard basket.  I feel I have to take up the challenge and I felt that I was doing a disservice by trying to help my non-Pasifika staff apply the strategies of the Tapasa to raise achievement when my own class was failing.

The majority of my class are Pasifika students and I want to be able to be inclusive of their identities in my teaching and their learning as I can be without leaving out our Tagata whenua and other cultures.  So I am thinking about applying the strategies that I have not used or tried to use with my year 13 class in an attempt to keep them focused and motivated and to raise achievement.

Final Inquiry #3  Can I raise student achievement in my year 13 Social Studies class by applying holistic approaches found of the Tapasa?

In my next blog, I will look at how I will approach this inquiry change.