Using
Rolfe’s model of reflection:
Step 1 (What):
Culture is
central to learning. I believe that it not only helps in facilitating
communication, but also shaping the thinking process of groups or individuals.
A pedagogy where there is cultural disconnect often leads to poor self concepts, academic outcomes or behaviour
problems for ethnic minorities. New Zealand being a home for many different
cultures and ethnic groups, therefore, a pedagogy that is culturally responsive
is fundamental. Gay (2001, p.106) defines, culturally responsive pedagogy as“using the cultural characteristics, experiences and
perspectives as conduits for effective teaching”. It’s reflected in knowledge
about cultural diversity, the culturally integrated content in the curriculum,
the development of the learning community, the ability to communicate with
culturally diverse students and culturally responsive delivery of instruction.
According
to Bishop (2012)
and also the research from the Te Kotahitanga project (2001) suggests that, it
is the agentic teachers who are the key of making difference to the Maori
students. These teachers creates learning context where the Maori students can bring themselves,
their experiences, their own cultural understandings to the learning
conversation.
I will consider how my school practice has been informed by
indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy in two areas :
·
Vision,
mission and core values
·
School-wide
activities
.Step 2 (So what):
Vision, mission and core values
Our school has a clear vision of our school whakatauki/
motto, ‘Whakapono kia koe’ meaning ‘believe
in yourself’’ to prepare our students to be successful learners. Every
letter of ‘WHAKAPONO’ represents our
school value.
SCHOOL VALUES
These values are taught in the classrooms and is also
embedded in our school culture.
Our school population mainly consists of Maori and Pasifika
students. The school curriculum strongly affirms the identity of Maori and
Pasifika learners. Our Maori and Samoan bilingual units demonstrate our school
strong commitment to biculturalism and bilingual education. He
Pua Mai i Rangiatea provides a cultural setting where students are immersed in
te reo Māori me ona tikanga. Students take pride in the recognition and
acknowledgement of Māori values and tikanga. They proudly participate at school
pōwhiri, with senior students leading whaikōrero, waiata and haka. The
Samoan units similarly affirm students’ home languages and cultural identity.
Parents actively contribute to the school’s curriculum and frequently visit
classrooms to support their children’s learning.
School-wide activities
We also
have minority students from other culture and our school celebrates different
language weeks to appreciate and value these cultures. But Milne (2017) argues that cultural identity is not a thing
that needs to be celebrated on certain occasions such as cultural weeks, rather
teachers and school should embrace student cultural identity at every
opportunity throughout curriculum and learning activities, school policies and
events.
Using Pohatu’s (2011) Mauri model , I would place my school’s
vision, mission and values at the Mauri
Ora (highly motivated and committed) whereas
the school wide activities is at Mauri
Oho ( has begun to participate and engage).
Step 3 (What next):
I think that other cultures and ethnicities should be
acknowledged and valued the same way as we do it for our Maori and pasifika students. We can
develop our culturally responsive pedagogy further by not just limiting ourselves to celebrating only different language weeks, but also incorporating these cultures into
everyday teaching practices and learning activities. Reflecting on what Milne
(2017) mentioned in ‘colouring in the white spaces’, we as the mainstream teachers need to change
the colours of the space, so that
the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.
This will help to nurture and sustain the
cultural identity of the students.
REFERENCES:
Bishop,
R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T. & Teddy, L. (2009).Te Kotahitanga:
Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5),734–742.
Edtalks.(2012,
September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video
file].Retrieved from https://vimeo. com/49992994
Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally
responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.
Milne, A.(2017).Coloring in the white spaces:
reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. New York: Peter Lang
Publishing, Inc.
Pohatu, 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...
I have enjoyed reading your blog. Sounds like you work in an inclusive school that does exactly what Rowandale School does. We follow the kaupapa of Culture Counts and the Responsive Pedagogy that is what it should be. We too celebrate language weeks and this also shows our families the celebrations of what their children are doing. Thank you for the care you have placed in your teaching practise.
ReplyDeleteTēnā koe, he mihi maioha ki a koe e pa ana ki ōu mahi. I enjoyed reading your blog. It's great to hear that the core values and the culture of your Ākonga are visible in your kura. In our kura (Year0-8), we strive and work really hard at embracing these too. Throughout our journey, Kaiako unpacked the values, so that we ALL had a clear understanding, as one persons interpretation and understanding, could be different to that of someone else. At the beginning of every year Kaiako work with the Ākonga and unpack the values and identify what they 'look like' and 'sound like'. They explore how these are relevant to them through their eyes and understanding. We do this along side the Tuakana of our school, to help their peers.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great to hear some insights within your kura and whether you are, or have started to self-review the great mahi you are all doing. Nei ra te mihi.
I enjoyed reading your blog. I agree with your concepts in the what next, that we should be not just having token events but it needs to be genuine and embedded in the everyday practice and all cultures within the school/class should be acknowledged. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Gurpreet, thank you for sharing your blog. In many cases, like my school, we are not just bi-cultural, but multi-cultural. We do need to reflect our teaching pedagogy to create an inclusive and agentic environment. Every year I ask my students to tell me their ethnic background and from where themselves and/or ancestors migrated. I ask them to mark on a world map with a drawing pin. Next year I am planning to extend this by asking students to contribute an image on a montage using Google Slides based on the design theme, e.g. Level 1: International Style, Level 2: Art Deco. A L2DVC student who identifies as Indian and New Zealander might choose to add Auckland Civic Theatre as an example of Art Deco architecture. I am going to ask students to incorporate the cultural aspect within their designs. At L3DVC, Students are encouraged to look at their own cultures, especially but not limited to the Māori culture, legends and myths to inspire their project during the year.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading your blog. Sounds like you work in a truly inclusive and respectful environment. We too celebrate language weeks and this also shows our families the celebrations of what their children are doing. At Papakura Normal school we also have cultural days where each culture is celebrated. Thank you for the care you have placed in your teaching practise.
ReplyDeleteWow you school sounds like they are doing a great job at cultural responsiveness and it is clearly embedded into the culture of the school. Our school implemented many passion projects that incorporated a cultural lens and was about developing our capacity as educators. We also led by example in that all teachers developed their own digital mihi. We have a mihi project that shows a small progression within each year level. Schoolwide reo lessons have been taught. We visited another school who had successfully raised student achievement by becoming more culturally responsive. It is good to see schools deliberately making a choice to change perceptions.
ReplyDeleteKa pai Gurpreet Kaur, it is so refreshing to see a teacher who clearly has her own culture, quite different from Aotearoa sharing in such a culturally responsive way. As a teacher who has always worked in Maori medium, I salute you. Your school certainly seems to be embracing a culturally responsive set of values.
ReplyDeleteI too, believe that culture is central to learning and recognise that Aotearoa is culturally diverse. Thank you for sharing your blog, I enjoyed reading your thoughts.
Hi Gurpreet. Thank you for sharing your blog. I enjoyed reading about how your practice has been informed by indigenous knowledge, and culturally responsive pedagogy. I was interested to read about the school wide activities you have at your school, and the fact that you celebrate different language weeks. At the school where I teach, we celebrate Maori language week and Matariki, but in my time at the school we haven't ever celebrated any other cultural event. New Zealand European and Maori are the largest ethnic groups at my school, but there are also 12 other ethnicities represented. All students and cultural groups need to acknowledged in my opinion. We shouldn't only celebrate a particular culture, and we shouldn't only celebrate on one day or or for one week of the year. Cultural responsiveness isn't about having token events. I agree whole-heartedly with Milne(2007), that cultural identity is not something to be celebrated only on certain occasions, but that our schools should embrace student cultural identity at every opportunity throughout year. We also need to remember that our students are individuals. If we make culture a trait of a student based on their membership in a particular cultural community, we run the risk of deficit theorising, and can easily slip into a one size fits all mentality. The key I think to cultural responsiveness is caring for people and building relationships.
ReplyDelete