Action Plan for Pacific Education 2020-2030

The NZ Ministry of Education has published (in July 2020) an 'Action Plan for Pacific Education 2020-2030: Supporting research and community voice', available here.

Quoting from Education Counts here:

The research and voices from Pacific communities that we have included here helped us to shape the five key shifts and the measurement framework in the Action Plan.

Excerpts follow from page 11 of the 'Action Plan for Pacific Education 2020-2030', available here:

Key Shift 4
Partner with families to design education opportunities together with teachers, leaders and educational professionals so aspirations for learning and employment can be met.

Education research is clear that educationally powerful relationships with learners, families and communities are critical for gaining the knowledge and understanding required for quality teaching and learning.¹⁴  We know that engagement and partnerships with Pacific families and communities are crucial to support the learning and wellbeing of Pacific learners. When partnerships with Pacific families are built on mutually respectful relationships, where the knowledge and expertise each party brings to the partnership is equally valued, families and learners are empowered and educators and leaders are more aware of how they can support their aspirations.

"We need an intergenerational learning environment. Who is the learner? Not just the child - support parents and families to support their child." Pacific adult, Lower Hutt fono, 2018

Excerpts follow from page 12:

Communities have shared positive experiences with programmes that bring families and communities into education, like Talanoa Ako and Reading Together®. ...  Evaluations of Reading Together® demonstrate significant positive impacts for children and families, for children’s reading progress and for relationships between Pacific parents and teachers. Pacific families want long term, sustained spaces and programmes like these that are led by Pacific people. Section 2.2 of the Pacific Evidence Brief delves deeper into the research in this area.¹⁷

"Reading Together® has been fully embraced and extremely valued in the community. This programme needs to be built on - can the ministries next PEP [Pasifika Education Plan] focus on the home/family." Samoa heritage parent, Christchurch fono, 2019

Further Information: Best practice for teaching Pacific learners: Pacific Evidence Brief 2019