INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN MY PRACTICE

BLOG POST 4

WEEK 28

INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN MY PRACTICE

In order to discuss culturally responsive pedagogy, it is important to first address what this means. Gay (2002) defines culturally responsive pedagogy as teaching ‘to and through [students’] personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their prior accomplishments.  Gay (2002) also explains culture as being made up of two elements.  These elements are visible culture and non-visible culture.  Visible culture includes the crafts, music and technology the can be seen while the non-visible includes beliefs, perspectives, feelings and opinions – the things that cannot be seen or touched.

In New Zealand schools, we have a moral obligation to be culturally inclusive of all students, and this is especially highlighted for our Maori students in the Treaty of Waitangi.  Cowie et al (2011) highlights the fact that if we continue to create educational opportunities based on a European, white, English speaking model, then we would be doing a disservice to our students from diverse backgrounds.  There are many things that we can learn from our indigenous cultures including that all people are connected by humanity even though we are all different, the importance and value of human relationships, the importance of spirituality, the value of our land and the need for it to be respected.  In today’s education system, we need to have some knowledge of Maori and indigenous cultural practices if we are to be culturally responsive teachers.

Jacqueline Jordan explains that culturally responsive pedagogy has at its heart “culture”   It is about world views, beliefs, language and values. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8)

For me personally, I believe that it is about having an understanding of and an appreciation of the ethnic diversity and the rich knowledge each of our students bring to our learning spaces and being responsive to this is vital in helping these students learn and grow in an environment that nurtures these cultures.   As teachers we need to be culturally responsive to our children.  Positive Relationships with students and with communities are paramount to becoming culturally responsive as well as a willingness to embrace new languages and customs.  We need to ensure each child can feel valued and respected in their learning environment if they are to become engaged learners.  (Cowie, et al 2011) acknowledge that teachers need to seek out and affirm student and community knowledge.  In order to do this teachers need to be comfortable to share the learning and to also take a turn at becoming the learner as is modelled in the tuakana teina model.

There are several facets to being culturally responsive.  Like any aspect of teaching, we need to be reflective of our practice.   If I use the Mauri model to reflect on our school wide activities, I would put us at the e Manawhanui ana level (highly motivated). (Potahu, 2011).  We are a new school so becoming culturally responsive is still in the developing stages, however I believe that our students and staff are offered a wide range of activities.  Our Kapa haka group is very active.  We employ kaiako of Kapa haka and the large number of children who actively participate in this is impressive.  We have students from many cultures involved in Kapa haka.  We have a strong presence of Maori language in our school.  Children and staff are actively involved in Liturgy in our school which has a strong element of Te Reo.  The staff and parents have been given the opportunity to study Te Reo at school on a weekly evening class.  This includes two marae overnight visits.  The staff, have a Te Reo lesson on a fortnightly basis and we are given resources to use in our classes.  As always, we can improve on these school wide activities, but given we are a school that has not even been open two years, I feel this is certainly an area in which we are at the very least, on track for.

I know that there are many elements of my practice and within the school where we can and should improve. The use of Te Reo Māori within my class comes quickly to mind.  It is often said that our students are our most valuable resource and we need to utilise their expertise.  As teachers and a school we need to nurture their confidence in their own abilities to take the lead and make good use of the Tuakana Teina model.

REFERENCES

Cowie, B.,  Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., Kara, H., with Anderson, M., Doyle, J., Parkinson, A., Te Kiri, C. (2011)Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki

Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2) 106-116.

 Potahu, T. W. (2011). Mauri - Rethinking Human Wellbeing. MAI Review, 3, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/MR/article/v...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8 -culturally responsive pedagogy