The Mana Model: An Aotearoa-centric approach to ensuring young people's success
The Mana Model is a true taonga for school, kura and ECE leaders and teachers seeking to actively embrace the spirit and intent of Te Mātaiaho to support ‘enacting Te Tiriti’ as legislated for in the Education and Training Act 2020. It is a powerful reminder of the voice of the student and the conditions that best supports them. It is positive, uplifting, and compelling, and has the potential to impact professional practice and create the fertile conditions for young people to flourish.
School leaders, teachers and educators will be experiencing some uncertainty about the implications of the Government’s new learning priorities in our schools. Many will be wondering about the status of Te Mātaiaho and the ongoing curriculum refresh. With its focus on ‘giving effect’ to Te Tiriti, Te Mātaiaho recognised the unique identities, languages and cultures of all students, acknowledging that learners are diverse, and possess varied strengths, interests and aspirations. Whatever the ultimate shape of the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, a deep commitment to culturally sustaining practice is fundamental to the work of schooling.
Professor Melinda Webber’s (Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland) recent research investigating how students learn, succeed, and thrive at school encapsulates the ‘learner at the centre’ vision that is core to Te Mātaiaho. Webber’s research included surveying large numbers of students, whānau and kaiako from primary and secondary schools across Aotearoa, with the aim of understanding what enabled students to thrive and succeed.
Significantly, the Mana Model frames student success and thriving from a Māori worldview, making it unique to Aotearoa. It suggests five optimal conditions for Māori student success:
Mana Whānau (connectedness to others and collective agency)
Mana Ūkaipō (belonging and relationship to place)
Mana Motuhake (positive self-concept and embedded achievement)
Mana Tū (social–psychological competence) and
Mana Tangatarua (a diverse knowledge base and skillset).
Figure 1: Mana Model diagram
While not linear or sequential, the five optimal conditions are interrelated and flourish depending on the learning environment.
This strength-based focus of the Mana Whānau condition for learning stresses that students are motivated to learn when they feel others believe in them, see them as capable of succeeding, and as a contributing member of a collective. Mana Whānau is thus seen as a foundational base for the other four optimal conditions.
The interrelationship between the five mana can be further seen in Mana Ūkaipō, again emphasising ‘belonging and connection to place’, turangawaewae, and the notion of ‘being sustained and nourished through a deep connection to the land’. For this mana to flourish, students need to know that their cultural identities and histories are valued.
Similarly, Mana Motuhake develops when students know that success is not only dependent on their achievements or capabilities at school, kura or centre, but that in addition, they have internal belief that their innate strengths including cultural knowledge, language and beliefs are also valued.
Mana Tū are the social-psychological competencies that students need to be academically persistent and successful. With these competencies, students develop resilience enabling them to be self-reflective, self-disciplined, and able to make good choices conducive to their learning and life goals.
Mana Tangatarua develops as students acquire the skills, knowledge, and confidence to navigate multiple worlds with cultural competence, an inclusive mindset, and a sense of wellbeing. Walking in multiple worlds requires students to have developed their own cultural self-efficacy so they are comfortable and curious about others’ cultures to then seek knowledge, and to interact.
Benefits for leaders, teachers, schools, kura and ECE
The Mana Model is a true taonga for leaders and teachers seeking to actively embrace the spirit and intent of Te Mātaiaho to support ‘enacting Te Tiriti’ as legislated for in the Education and Training Act 2020.
The model is not just significant in terms of its educational philosophy, but also in its practical pedagogical implications for teaching and leading in the day-to-day life of the organisation.
Webber points out that ‘the mana of all students is always present, ebbing and flowing in response to classroom content, conditions, and contexts for learning,’ so teachers and leaders viewing the student through these new lenses offers huge potential for schools, kura and ECE to refine learning cultures to actively create learning environments that foster the innate mana of their students.
We know that culturally responsive and relational leadership and teaching:
promotes the language of potentiality about students and their whānau,
sees cultural capital as a gift that makes the culture of the student visible,
uses strength-based language, thinking and dialogue,
challenges assumptions, deficit thinking and unconscious bias about students and their whānau,
values and is invitational of power-sharing interactions between teachers and students, and repositioning whānau as teachers - seeking their advice rather than giving it.
Melinda’s work in the Mana Model is a powerful reminder of the voice of the student and the conditions that best supports them. It is positive, uplifting, and compelling. It has the potential to impact professional practice and create the fertile conditions for young people to flourish.
Melinda’s work is unique to our country, our circumstances, our mokopuna.
I recommend the Mana Model to every school, kura, ECE and every educator keen to identify the conditions to truly support young people to succeed. It is compelling research and vital if we are to continue to deepen our commitment to success for both Māori and non-Māori.
The brand-new Mana Model PLD endorsed by Melinda herself, is now open and available to every educator to access.
To learn more, visit our Mana Model PLD page and express your interest, and one of our team will be in touch to discuss how to best utilise the Mana Model for your needs.
Martin is a leadership consultant and facilitator in the Educational Leadership team at Tui Tuia | Learning Circle. He has extensive facilitation experience supporting principals and leadership teams through his wide knowledge of the education sector.
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The Mana Model: An Aotearoa-centric approach to ensuring young people's success
School leaders, teachers and educators will be experiencing some uncertainty about the implications of the Government’s new learning priorities in our schools. Many will be wondering about the status of Te Mātaiaho and the ongoing curriculum refresh. With its focus on ‘giving effect’ to Te Tiriti, Te Mātaiaho recognised the unique identities, languages and cultures of all students, acknowledging that learners are diverse, and possess varied strengths, interests and aspirations. Whatever the ultimate shape of the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, a deep commitment to culturally sustaining practice is fundamental to the work of schooling.
Professor Melinda Webber’s (Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland) recent research investigating how students learn, succeed, and thrive at school encapsulates the ‘learner at the centre’ vision that is core to Te Mātaiaho. Webber’s research included surveying large numbers of students, whānau and kaiako from primary and secondary schools across Aotearoa, with the aim of understanding what enabled students to thrive and succeed.
Significantly, the Mana Model frames student success and thriving from a Māori worldview, making it unique to Aotearoa. It suggests five optimal conditions for Māori student success:
Mana Whānau (connectedness to others and collective agency)
Mana Ūkaipō (belonging and relationship to place)
Mana Motuhake (positive self-concept and embedded achievement)
Mana Tū (social–psychological competence) and
Mana Tangatarua (a diverse knowledge base and skillset).
Figure 1: Mana Model diagram
While not linear or sequential, the five optimal conditions are interrelated and flourish depending on the learning environment.
This strength-based focus of the Mana Whānau condition for learning stresses that students are motivated to learn when they feel others believe in them, see them as capable of succeeding, and as a contributing member of a collective. Mana Whānau is thus seen as a foundational base for the other four optimal conditions.
The interrelationship between the five mana can be further seen in Mana Ūkaipō, again emphasising ‘belonging and connection to place’, turangawaewae, and the notion of ‘being sustained and nourished through a deep connection to the land’. For this mana to flourish, students need to know that their cultural identities and histories are valued.
Similarly, Mana Motuhake develops when students know that success is not only dependent on their achievements or capabilities at school, kura or centre, but that in addition, they have internal belief that their innate strengths including cultural knowledge, language and beliefs are also valued.
Mana Tū are the social-psychological competencies that students need to be academically persistent and successful. With these competencies, students develop resilience enabling them to be self-reflective, self-disciplined, and able to make good choices conducive to their learning and life goals.
Mana Tangatarua develops as students acquire the skills, knowledge, and confidence to navigate multiple worlds with cultural competence, an inclusive mindset, and a sense of wellbeing. Walking in multiple worlds requires students to have developed their own cultural self-efficacy so they are comfortable and curious about others’ cultures to then seek knowledge, and to interact.
Benefits for leaders, teachers, schools, kura and ECE
The Mana Model is a true taonga for leaders and teachers seeking to actively embrace the spirit and intent of Te Mātaiaho to support ‘enacting Te Tiriti’ as legislated for in the Education and Training Act 2020.
The model is not just significant in terms of its educational philosophy, but also in its practical pedagogical implications for teaching and leading in the day-to-day life of the organisation.
Webber points out that ‘the mana of all students is always present, ebbing and flowing in response to classroom content, conditions, and contexts for learning,’ so teachers and leaders viewing the student through these new lenses offers huge potential for schools, kura and ECE to refine learning cultures to actively create learning environments that foster the innate mana of their students.
We know that culturally responsive and relational leadership and teaching:
promotes the language of potentiality about students and their whānau,
sees cultural capital as a gift that makes the culture of the student visible,
uses strength-based language, thinking and dialogue,
challenges assumptions, deficit thinking and unconscious bias about students and their whānau,
values and is invitational of power-sharing interactions between teachers and students, and repositioning whānau as teachers - seeking their advice rather than giving it.
Melinda’s work in the Mana Model is a powerful reminder of the voice of the student and the conditions that best supports them. It is positive, uplifting, and compelling. It has the potential to impact professional practice and create the fertile conditions for young people to flourish.
Melinda’s work is unique to our country, our circumstances, our mokopuna.
I recommend the Mana Model to every school, kura, ECE and every educator keen to identify the conditions to truly support young people to succeed. It is compelling research and vital if we are to continue to deepen our commitment to success for both Māori and non-Māori.
The brand-new Mana Model PLD endorsed by Melinda herself, is now open and available to every educator to access.
To learn more, visit our Mana Model PLD page and express your interest, and one of our team will be in touch to discuss how to best utilise the Mana Model for your needs.
