Week 28: Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

Last year my classes had high numbers of Maori and Pacifica students. I felt I needed to take a serious look at how ‘culturally responsive’ my teaching practice was. Through reflection I found that while I understood many of the protocols around being on a Marae, school powhiri and had knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi these didn’t really translate into my day to day teaching practice. I knew my mihi and could sing the school waiata but hadn’t incorporated a cultural perspective into the units that I taught. I started working on a project with Ngai Tūāhuriri Rūnanga. It was designed to increase the use of effective critical thinking strategies by supporting Māori students to use their own cultural knowledge as a framework to critically analyse information. The diagram below shows the four strands that make up the Poipoia te Kōhaka project which translates as ‘to nurture the nest’.

The four strands of Poipoia te Kōhaka project

We can think of the nest as being a nest of learning, but it is also a reference to ‘te Kōhaka o Tūhaitara’, where Tūtaepatu Lagoon is located. The pūtaiao (science) aspect of using Tūtaepatu Lagoon was to form closer relationships with a place that is of significance to Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and to help build student self-efficacy around the extent to which critical thinking played an important part in mahinga kai and pest eradication

We started small, introducing some basic Te Reo into our classroom language, looked at the range and type of activities, role models and resources and then worked collaboratively with the students to design a unit. At the start I couldn’t understand how incorporating a few words of Te Reo into my classroom would make any impact on the students learning particularly as my Maori students they were very much ‘urban Maori’ and spoke little Te Reo themselves. How wrong I was! My students simply appreciated the effort. By positioning myself as a learner I was able to strengthen my relationship with the students. I was trying to develop their collaboration and critical thinking skills but actually it was me that learnt the most about collaboration and the concept of reciprocal learning and ako.  I gained a much greater appreciation of the concepts of Ako, Wānanga and Kotahitanga outlined in Tataiako and am still learning, Ministry of Education, 2011.

My schools vision, mission, and core values in relation to culturally responsive practice.

This year I have moved schools. The girls’ school I am teaching at only 5% of the students are Maori, in fact across the five classes I teach only two students that identify as Maori. I assumed that because there are fewer Maori students that the school would be less ‘culturally responsive’ than my previous school. This is not the case, in many aspects respect for Maori culture is perhaps more strongly embedded and prominent in the school. 

There are many tangible examples of culture that are respected and displayed (Gay, Teaching Tolerance, 2010). At the centre of our rebuild after the earthquake is Mana Wahine meaning “Strong Women” a building that houses student services, social studies and Maori studies. This building was designed to incorporate aspects of Maori and colonial NZ culture by including unique Maori carvings by Riki Manuel and featuring aspects of both cultures in the design. Students refer to all of the spaces by their Maori name and the break out spaces and facilities have been designed to allow for greater collaboration.  The kapa haka group is a strong, positive force in the school that is celebrated and is comprised of both Maori and non-Maori students. This group supports the staff as they continue to learn aspects of Maori culture helping to take the weekly waiata practice for staff.

The school values are:

Respect – for ones self, for others and for the environment
Aroha – a sense of inclusiveness, a sense of trust and belonging
eNdeavour and eNthusiasm – commitment, discipline and passion
Generosity of spirit – service to others, compassion, tolerance, unselfishness
Integrity and honesty

Our values are integrated across the curriculum and supported by staff and students. These values are less tangible but are seen in the support students give to each other. The sense of family and belonging that our international students and our boarders feel. As I type our Indian exchange students are showcasing Indian dancing in the collaboration space across from my lab, the applause is loud and the comments supportive and encouraging. I believe one thing our school does well is build a sense of Aroha and celebrate the diversity within our school.

Planning and assessment in relation to culturally responsive practice.

The diversity of our students is taken into account with a strong student learning and support center and ESOL teacher. My goal this year is to develop resources within Science that are more culturally relevant to the students that I teach. For my international students this means revising the assessment instructions so that they can be more easily understood. For others consideration of the context of the tasks. Allowing for a greater range of assessment modes to “provide different entry points into Science learning – ways to gain feedback”, Cowie, Otrel-Cass, Glynn, Kara, et al (2011). Ideally tasks and assessment opportunities would provide greater opportunities for students to contribute to, build on and extend their knowledge. Bishop (EdTalks, 2012) said that teacher’s interactions should lead to “feedback, feed forward and negotiated co-construction of learning” creating community of “learners among learners” which is something to aspire to.

References

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9268_cowie-summaryreport.pdf

Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Teaching Tolerance. (2010, Jun 17).  Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8

Ministry of Education. (2011). Tataiako: Cultural Competencies for teachers of Maori learners. Wellington. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/required/Tataiako.pdf