Purpose:

To provide an opportunity for innovative teachers to form a network for support and mentoring as they continue to explore ways to enrich the lives and learning of the young people they work with, their whānau and the wider community.


The Manaiakalani Programme has gained national and international credibility as an innovative approach to ensuring the foundation requirements of schooling are being met whilst offering young people the opportunity to learn in an environment which recognises the special character of our children as digital citizens whose world is very different from their teachers at the same age.

Over the nine years of the Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher programme we have had teachers who have taken this opportunity to investigate ways to accelerate learning outcomes for our young people via the Manaiakalani pedagogy. The most successful projects have subsequently become the foundation of classroom implementation for their colleagues within Manaiakalani and around New Zealand. The Manaiakalani Education Trust actively supports teachers who are challenging their own teaching practice through inquiring into innovative ways to meet our cluster goals and provide inspiration to their colleagues. This is a collaborative process using Design Thinking principles to guide us. To quote Michael Fullan 2/11/16, we are looking for "purposeful, focused and disciplined innovation".

2021 Cohort:

Manaiakalani Education Trust has offered 7 innovative teachers from the Manaiakalani cluster, including our Outreach clusters, the opportunity to

  • design an innovative tool tool to enhance their inquiry into one of the challenges facing Manaiakalani learners in 2021

  • design and implement this tool within their contexts (two days per term release)

  • receive ongoing mentoring

  • form a collegial network (one day per term release)

School leaders (APs, DPs, Principals, HoDs, Team Leaders) were invited to apply to join this group as they inquire into innovative ways of changing teacher practice as they implement the Manaiakalani pedagogy.

MIT21 teachers will

  • use the “Learn Create Share” model in their own journey of innovation

  • Network and collaborate with colleagues in the group online and face-to face at regular intervals

  • present to their Manaiakalani colleagues at the annual Principals' Wānanga October 2021

  • present to colleagues in the Cook Islands in the second week of the July holidays

  • have a cultural immersion experience visiting 7 schools in the Cook Islands

  • design a tool to use in their context and share with colleagues that supports the intervention agreed upon

  • use a public blog for ongoing sharing and reflection


Dates for 2021

Connect Hui Overnight: Hui Feb 25 - 27

Network Meeting Days: 29 March, 24 May , 30 August , 22 November (all Mondays)

Wānanga October

Conference July school holidays, Rarotonga

Hangouts online: see calendar

Release days organise yourself


Conditions of Participation

  • Agree to model "Learn Create Share" both in work with learners and throughout the MIT19 year

  • Outcomes to be publicly available online

  • Reflections to be available to Manaiakalani Google+ community, PLD team, MET, Principals and research team

  • Targets to be set and met each term in negotiation with MIT21 leader

  • Availability to attend and share at agreed hui and conferences - these will include overnight, and one will require a current passport!

  • Release time each term to attend MIT21 network sessions 1 x day each term

  • Release from class to focus on project 2 x days each term

  • Regular Meets online to network and support progress