Social Studies / Tikanga-ā-Iwi • Aotearoa Histories • Years 7-10

Migration & Movement

Explore why people move, how movement reshapes identity and community, and how to discuss migration with accuracy and manaakitanga. This handout avoids deficit framing and gives students a respectful way to compare push factors, pull factors, and lived perspectives.

Ingoa / Name
Akomanga / Class

Best for

Years 7-10 social studies and Aotearoa histories units looking at movement, identity, settlement, diversity, urbanisation, or the way communities change over time.

Kaiako use

Use before a case study, oral-history task, migration text set, or local inquiry into why people move to, from, or within Aotearoa. The page is designed to avoid forcing students to reveal personal family stories.

Ākonga use

Students sort movement factors, compare viewpoints, and explain how migration can bring challenge, opportunity, loss, adaptation, and new connections at the same time.

Free migration inquiry page, premium localisation path

The worksheet is ready tomorrow. If you want to turn it into a local oral-history pack, bilingual migration timeline, or differentiated source-analysis task, Te Wānanga and Creation Studio can adapt it without losing the print-safe design.

  • Localise the case studies to your region or unit focus.
  • Create support, core, and extension versions for mixed-readiness classes.
  • Save adapted histories resources to My Kete for future inquiry cycles.
Adapt this in Te Wānanga Open Creation Studio Compare paid workflow options

Kaiako planning snapshot

  • Use length: 45-60 minutes.
  • Grouping: Start with class discussion, then move into pairs or trios.
  • Prep: Decide whether to keep the inquiry at case-study level or connect it to a local movement story that is already publicly appropriate to teach.
  • Teaching move: Keep the language precise. Students should talk about migration patterns, policies, pressures, and belonging, not reduce people to stereotypes.
Perspective Belonging

Resources already provided

  • Case-study prompts
  • Push-pull analysis table
  • Respectful-language scaffold
  • Perspective comparison space
  • Teacher-only curriculum companion

No extra report, cards, or teacher-made prompt sheet is required.

Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions

  • We are learning why people move and how movement can reshape communities.
  • We are learning how to compare migration from more than one perspective.
  • We are learning how to discuss migration respectfully using accurate evidence and language.

Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria

  • I can explain at least two reasons people might move.
  • I can describe how a movement story may look different from different viewpoints.
  • I can use respectful, evidence-based language when discussing migration.

Curriculum integration / Te Mātaiaho alignment

This handout is strongest where students are learning that relationships and movement across boundaries shape Aotearoa New Zealand histories, and where discussion requires respectful attention to difference and belonging.

Aotearoa histories Belonging and diversity Respectful discussion
Open curriculum companion

Why this matters in Aotearoa

Movement is central to the story of this country: Pacific voyaging and settlement, migration to and within Aotearoa, rural-to-urban shifts, refugee journeys, labour movement, and whānau moving for study, housing, safety, or work.

A mātauranga Māori lens reminds us that movement is not only about economics. It is also about whakapapa, tūrangawaewae, displacement, reconnection, and the responsibilities that come with entering or caring for a place. Teach this with care: invite students to analyse public stories, not to disclose private family information unless they freely choose to do so.

1. Movement stories in Aotearoa

2. Push, pull, or both?

3. Compare perspectives

4. Speak with manaakitanga

Differentiation and support

Keep the task chunked and optional where personal stories could surface. Students can respond through diagrams, bullet points, or partner kōrero before extended writing.

Keep the histories inquiry moving

Once students can compare perspectives respectfully, turn this into a timeline, oral-history investigation, or source-analysis sequence. Te Wānanga can generate those next layers while keeping the inquiry sensitive and classroom-ready.

Generate a migration inquiry pack Open My Kete

Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment

Mathematics — Pāngarau

Level 3–4: Apply number operations, statistical analysis, and mathematical reasoning to solve real-world problems; represent data using appropriate tools; interpret and communicate mathematical findings clearly.

Social Sciences — Tikanga ā-Iwi

Level 3–4: Understand how mathematical data and statistics are used to describe and analyse social, economic, and environmental patterns; recognise how data can reveal or obscure inequality.

Aronga Mātauranga Māori

Mathematics has always been part of mātauranga Māori — in the navigation of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, in the architectural precision of wharenui, in the sophisticated storage and accounting systems of rua kūmara, and in the patterns of kōwhaiwhai and tukutuku that encode mathematical relationships in visual form. When Māori students engage with mathematics, they are not encountering something foreign: they are meeting a domain of knowledge that their tīpuna practised with extraordinary sophistication. Framing mathematical learning through whakapapa — connecting concepts to real Māori contexts — is not "cultural add-on" but recognition of where much mathematical knowledge lives in this land.

Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials

This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. Related resources from the same unit are linked in the unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.

📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot

Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions

Students will engage with this resource to apply systems thinking to real-world civic and community challenges — analysing feedback loops, leverage points, and emergent properties within social, environmental, and governance systems in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria

  • ✅ Students can identify system components and their interactions within a real-world context.
  • ✅ Students can apply indigenous systems thinking principles to analyse and propose community action.

Differentiation & Inclusion

Scaffold support: Provide systems mapping templates and sentence starters for entry-level access. Offer extension tasks asking students to identify a second-order effect or design an intervention at a leverage point within their chosen system.

ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach systems thinking vocabulary (feedback loop, leverage point, emergence, interdependence) using visual diagrams. Allow students to annotate systems maps in their home language first.

Inclusion: Use visual, spatial, and collaborative formats wherever possible — systems maps are inherently accessible for diverse learners. Neurodiverse learners benefit from structured inquiry steps and chunked analysis tasks. Ensure group roles are clearly defined.

Mātauranga Māori lens: Systems thinking has deep resonance with Te Ao Māori. Whakapapa is a relational map of systems — tracing connections between people, place, and time. Kaitiakitanga frames our responsibility within systems. Mauri provides a measure of system health. These indigenous concepts enrich Western systems thinking frameworks.

Prior knowledge: Students should have completed foundational systems thinking lessons (phases 1–2) before engaging with phase 3 inquiry tasks. No specialist prior knowledge required for standalone resources.

Curriculum alignment