Rachel Taylor graduated with a Masters supported by Jo Ellis.
19 tauira graduated as Early Childhood Teachers, Primary Teachers and others with Post Graduate Degrees on Saturday. Tauira, their whānau and friends assembled into the Kings and Queens Auditorium in Dunedin on Saturday to celebrate graduating from Te Rito Maioha, a bicultural tertiary education provider that celebrated its own 60th birthday last year.
“One of the things that is really different about our graduations, says tauira and lecturer Rachel Taylor, “is the role that friends and whānau play in the ceremony. It is these people that have supported our tauira through their learning journey that get to say how proud they are, or acknowledge the sacrifices the family might have made to make studying possible.”
“It’s fair to say that for our family, that pride is bubbling over. Because when I was at high school, seeing me here in this gown was not something my teachers or I would have thought possible. I wasn’t a tauira that found it easy, but standing here after graduating with a Masters, my dad, my sister, my husband and our two children (6 & 9) who have all been on this four-year journey, all know it’s a big moment for our family.”
Rachel completed her initial teachers’ education with Te Rito Maioha and then decided that a role teaching the teachers was her ultimate passion and began a masters, initially through course work but finally via a thesis.
“After being a teacher for 18 years, I wanted to give back and share my knowledge and experience. Being able to help grow the next generation of teachers is exciting and I’m very proud that I’m able to articulate my knowledge and share my experiences in with the next generation.”
“Working in ECE is challenging, but it’s also rewarding, and now as a lecturer, it’s great to see the tauira’ practice grow and develop over time. There is nothing more important than those first 1000 days of development for tamariki, so to be able to support our tauira to be amazing teachers is enormously rewarding.”
Rachel’s lecturer and mentor Jo Ellis agrees. “Ensuring our tauira are work ready with the skills and theory in place to teach our tamariki is so satisfying. Our tauira are able to read about the theory via their online platform of conversations and readings for learning, and then, because the tauira are studying while working (blended learning), they go into their centre and practice what they’ve just learned or read about. That can be such an ‘aha’ moment, putting into practice what you’ve just studied, and seeing how our tamariki react to teaching strategies.”
“One of the things we’re most proud of at Te Rito Maioha, is the pastoral care that we put in place to ensure the wellbeing of all tauira. That’s possible because we are so strongly embedded in our local communities with robust relationships with local stakeholders who really value that face-to-face connection with tertiary education providers,” says Jo.
Every Post Grad student has a supervisor and Rachel was supported at every turn by Senior Lecturer | Pūkenga Matua (Primary) Richard Edwards. So our tauira are supported in their educational pursuits and their wellbeing.
Te Rito Maioha has 11 regional offices throughout New Zealand, the Dunedin (Ōtepoti) Regional Education Centre is one of three in the South Island including Nelson whakatū) and Christchurch (Ōtautahi).
“What that means for us,” says Jo, “is that our tauira are local, and we’re placing them in local early childhood education providers from Invercargill to Central Otago. We’ve had some lovely messages from Early Childhood providers which makes today even more special. Knowing that even at the very start of their careers these tauira are valued, is wonderful.”
Media contact:
Rob McCann - Lead Communications Advisor | Kaitohutohu Whakapā Matu
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