Relationships First
Equity and excellence for all.
Cognition Education’s Relationships First programme focuses on accelerating and sustaining the achievement outcomes of indigenous and other marginalised students, to maximise achievement of all learners.
Since 2012, in Aotearoa we have worked with 16 Kahui Ako, 175 schools and 3,850 teachers – impacting approximately 42,000 students.
We have also worked with approximately 80 schools and 1,440 teachers in Relationships First projects conducted in other countries.
What is Relationships First?
Relationships First is a fresh and proven approach for education departments, tertiary organisations, and individual schools/education providers. It offers new places to look for answers, new ways to evaluate information, and new teaching, leadership, and system practices.
Developed in collaboration with Emeritus Professor Russell Bishop, Relationships First is an evidence informed wrap-around framework that works to increase equity through transforming classroom, leadership and system practices, creating a culturally responsive context for learning.
Relationships First supports educators to build relationships with students, with a specific emphasis on marginalised students. Cognition Education’s programme is based on over a decade’s worth of research into what works best for indigenous and minoritized students, looking at the factors necessary to transform their schooling experience from one of failure, to one of success. This research is considered to be one of the most powerful contributions to educational research and practice in the past 50 years.
How Relationships First works?
Relationships First is underpinned by the evidence that it takes all parts of the system to make significant, meaningful and sustainable change.
Cognition takes a coaching and mentoring approach, guiding stakeholders through iterative cycles of development and change, with an ultimate focus on building capability.
Our team helps your team to grow Relationships-based Leaders of Learning; leaders who know how to build a culture of success and promote effective learning. Ultimately, leaders engaged in Relationships First walk away from the programme with the pedagogy and skills to create unprecedented change for minoritized learners.
Case Studies
Grounded in evidence of success
Relationships First is underpinned by the research of Emeritus Professor Russell Bishop and Laureate Professor John Hattie, in respect of their research on ‘what works’ to ensure successful learning and achievement outcomes for all students.
Emeritus Professor Russell Bishop’s research focuses on the importance of learning-focused relationships in bringing about educational success, particularly for indigenous and other marginalised students. Emeritus Professor Russell Bishop has published many reports, articles and books that provide evidence for the approach underpinning Relationships First. Read the most recent publication, Teaching to the North-East: Relationships-based learning in practice here.
Emeritus Professor Russell Bishop’s work describes the findings from more than a decade of research into those classrooms where differential power relationships and traditional teaching methods have failed to support indigenous learners, and how they might be changed for the betterment of all involved.
Today, Emeritus Professor Russell Bishop continues to lead his own ongoing research and guide Cognition development initiatives that explore how to improve educational outcomes for marginalised peoples. Cognition’s Relationships First programme is a visible manifestation of that work.
For more information on Relationships First
