Guiding the Way: Reflections from a Mantle Journey – Introduction
Mā te kimi ka kite, mā te kite ka mōhio, mā te mōhio ka mārama.
Seek and discover. Discover and know. Know and become enlightened.
Kia ora and welcome,
My journey with Dramatic Inquiry and Mantle of the Expert began in 2020, during my final year of teacher training. My wonderful Associate Teacher, Michelle, introduced me to this powerful approach to teaching and learning, and it immediately captured my imagination. Here was a way of teaching that placed students at the centre of meaningful work, encouraged authentic problem-solving, and brought curriculum learning to life through story and purpose.
Since then, I have continued to learn and grow through professional development opportunities, including four Winter Schools in Hamilton and workshops led by Tim Taylor and Viv Aitken. While I would not describe myself as an expert in Mantle of the Expert, I am deeply passionate about teaching in this way and continually reflecting on my practice to improve my understanding and capability.
For the first 5 years of my teaching career, I worked as a Year 4 and 5 classroom teacher. During that time I taught a variety of different Dramatic Inquiry and Mantle of the Expert units, with varying levels of success. I recently stepped away from teaching to go on Maternity Leave and have since returned in a part-time capacity, providing classroom release cover.
With the move this term to being a CRT teacher, it has presented a new challenge and opportunity. All of my previous experience has been with older primary learners, so for the first time in my career, I have found myself working regularly with five-year-old students. I decided very early on that I wanted to run a Mantle of the Expert Unit in each of the classrooms that I am covering. This has been both exciting and daunting. I have three different classrooms that I am regularly in. I wanted to connect to the draft Social Sciences curriculum. But the biggest challenge has been to think differently about how young children engage with story, inquiry, play, and responsibility.
With that in mind, I thought it might be valuable to document the journey I have undertaken with teaching a Mantle of the Expert Unit with our youngest New Entrant class. Over the coming weeks, I will share some of my planning, reflections, successes, surprises, and challenges as I teach a Mantle of the Expert unit with a class of five year olds. My planning and teaching are by no means perfect, nor do I claim to have all the answers. Instead, I hope these reflections provide an honest account of what it looks like to experiment, adapt, and learn alongside young children.
If these posts encourage even one teacher to explore Dramatic Inquiry, take a risk, or view their classroom through a different lens, then sharing this journey will have been worthwhile.
So, let's begin.
