Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko, the National Digital Readiness Programme, was a bilingual and bicultural programme designed to support teachers, kaiako, principals, and tumuaki to feel confident and well equipped to be ready to implement the new Digital Technologies and Hangarau Matihiko (DT & HM) curriculum content that had been added to The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, respectively.
Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko was funded by the Ministry of Education and designed and delivered by multiple organisations led by CORE Education. The programme contract began in April 2018 and ended in December 2020. Over 3 years, Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko designed and delivered online and face-to-face workshops, resources, learning opportunities, and support for teachers and school leaders in Māori-medium and English-medium settings.
NZCER was an embedded evaluation partner for Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko. Through the collaborative development of theories of change, the evaluation helped to clarify the ideas and assumptions that underpinned the design and delivery of Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko, identify the programme’s intended outcomes, and develop measures to track how the programme’s activities contributed to achieving these outcomes.
Based on our evaluation findings, we identified several key messages to support the Ministry of Education’s ongoing and future design plans for any nation-wide PLD support approach:
- Build future approaches based on the strengths of Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko, including the bicultural foundation of the programme’s design and implementation.
- Plan for sustainable change, recognising that schools and kura are at different starting points and will need different support at different stages.
- Co-construct a robust theory of change with providers, evaluators, and the school and kura sector, and use evaluation to iteratively test, revise, and improve the theory of change.
- Provide consistent support and stewardship from the Ministry of Education to ensure Ministry-contracted programmes will have the best chance of success. This includes working with programmes to ensure clear and consistent messaging to schools and kura, and clear guidance about expectations and goalposts.
Resources produced as part of the programme can now be found at Tātai Aho Rau Core Education | Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko | Digital Readiness (core-ed.org)