Mindlab - Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness

Activity 4 - Indigenous knowledge & Cultural responsiveness in my practice

“Culture is not merely a question of ethnicity, but also beliefs, spirituality, age, gender, and sexual orientation.(Shaw, White & Deed, 2013, p. 6-7).

Earl et al (2008) states that, “cultural responsiveness is much more than introducing myths or metaphors into class. It means interacting with their families to truly understand their reality; it means understanding the socio-political history and how it impacts on classroom life; it means challenging personal beliefs and actions; and, it means changing practices to engage all students in their learning and make the classroom a positive learning place for all students”. They also state that cultural responsiveness is a way of being and of thinking that requires teachers to confront their own personal beliefs and their relationships with students and with communities, as well as to learn new customs and new languages. 

Vision, Mission & Core Values

Our school represents a wide range of ethnicities.  

A roll of some 450+ students and includes Maori (27%), Samoan (14%) European ( 14%) Indian

 (12%), Tongan (9%), Niue (5%) Filipino (5%),Cook Islander (3%)  Fijian (3%) ,African (1%) Chinese (1%) Other Asian (1%), South  East Asian (1%), Middle Eastern ( 1%) and others Combined(2%).

As our school is growing, we have more  and more  nationalities on our roll. It important to be culturally responsive to those students too, whether they are Māori, Pasifika, Indians, Africans...

Our school acknowledges the different cultures within our community but the question I ask -

Is the school being culturally responsive to all of those students?

In the last three terms, I have been at my school, I have experienced a change within the school to be working towards being culturally responsive. We have new staff who have joined our practice and have embraced roles to lead areas such Pasifika, Kapa Haka and Bollywood groups. 

Our school vision and values state that," we serve a community by preparing our students to be participating and contributing members of the community".

In my thoughts I feel there needs to be a defined focus on how the school promotes cutlural responsiveness.  There is a need to weave this into the Vision and the School Mission statements. 

 

Cultural Responsiveness in my community of Practice - School Wide

Recently we had a school wide focus on Samoan Language Week. This was led by a group of teachers who felt strongly about their own cultures and that of their students. They believe that all languages need to be celebrated. They also wanted community engagement with Whanau.  This, I believe is the beginning of an exciting  journey moving  our school towards becoming more Culturally responsive.

Recent Samoan Language week 2016

Cultural performance by our BRS Pasifika Cultural group

Our school is working towards our school song - Maungarei (Na Anaru raua ko Aperehama.) Our music teacher takes small groups throughout the week and teaches our students to sing in Te reo.

Even though I have lived in New Zealand for 25years, I still believe I have a lot more to learn about the history and the people. Within my personal journey,  I often challenge myself to integrate Maori and Pasifika concepts into my teaching programme. I am always trying to find how I am able to meet the requirements for the Practising Teacher Criteria 3: ‘demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand 
 i. demonstrate respect for the heritages, languages and cultures of both partners to the Treaty of Waitangi’ .

It is important to me that I  get to know learners. It is also key that I share my cultural background with my students. The student-teacher relationship is the foundation for cultural responsiveness (Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh and Teddy (2007). To know our students' culture can only be achieved by knowing our students. Building these strong relationships with my students is the heart of my practice. 


References:
Earl, L. M. with Timperley, H., and Stewart, G. (2008). Learning from QTR&D Programme: Findings of the ExternalEvaluation3 Ibid, page 1

Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T., & Teddy, L. (2007). Te Kōtahitanga Phase 3 Whānaungatanga: Establishing a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations in mainstream secondary school classrooms. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Shaw, S., White, W. & Deed, B. (2013) (Ed.). Health, wellbeing and environment in Aotearoa New Zealand.South Melbourne, Australia:Oxford University Press.