Cultural Sensitivity......

Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

The following continues the reflections that are assigned to us and relates to Maori, Pacifica, and refugee nations; the latter whom are non english speaking and who attend our school.

In my context showing “Tuakana teina” is imbedded into our appraisal system - linked by the works of Professor Angus Hikairo Macfarlane.

We are an Intermediate, with  Year 7 and 8 students, which draws on the whanau (family) from differing contributing schools.

My classroom is a Hard materials workshop, where ‘design and make’ are the order of the day.

The classroom is, of course, the daily lived experience of students; thus validation of students’ cultural identities and valuing of the cultural knowledge students bring with them to school have the potential to make a difference (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003; Sleeter & Grant, 2009).

Things we know - the effective teaching profile which developed out of Te Kotahitanga and the research work of Bishop and Merryman (2006), shows learning and achievement improves when teachers put aside deficit thinking and focus on building positive relationships and setting high standards.

Recently at a Conference (Nelson 2017) M Berryman who was apart of the above development said ‘Relationships first, culture second and structure third’. She said the students felt the most important thing to them was that the teacher really cared about them.  She was talking about the pedagogy of relationships - interactions emerge from relationships; culture counts (it’s important) and power is shared between self determining individuals with no dominating relationships of interdependence.

Pedagogy = responsive and interactive .

Learners / Teachers are connected through a common purpose/vision and reciprocal responsibility.

In my own practice I am fully aware that my relationship building comes first, mutual respect - being able to laugh at myself (slightly self deprecating without losing face), wait for the response - don’t hurry the “korereo”(conversation/talk), or push questioning, remain calm/open. I have  a design brief to help draw out cultural inferences and influences which often opens the lines of reciprocal acknowledgement.

We also know teaching is determined by the quality of inquiry into the relationship between teacher actions and student learning. Effective teachers inquire (reflect) into what they do (outcomes), along with what happens to students (learning), and then they take actions in what they do to improve the outcomes for students (Aitkin 2007).

Hence our inclusion, pardon the pun, with teacher appraisal linked to Hikairo (Professor Macfarlane).

(Hattie 2009) presented evidence that teachers who are passionate about making a difference are more likely to make that difference. Teachers who are “activators” and provide quality feedback for students are far more effective than when teachers act as “facilitators”.

The four most effective methods from Hatties effect size analysis work that need to be remembered are - feedback, instructional quality, direct instruction and remediation/feedback, presupposes that you already have a cultural responsiveness in place.

Differentiated learning (Bloom 1974) recognises the prior learning we all bring to a task and that all individuals require different levels of challenge, pace, context and content.  The Ministry of Education study on “Student participation and achievement in Science” (which essentially is what my technology classroom is), stated that they are a social justice and equity issue because of the roles science and its applications play in addressing many of the challenges and exploring the opportunities facing society today (Ministry of Education, 2007).

New Zealand primary classes increasingly include students with diverse cultural, linguistic and experiential backgrounds. For some of these children their home and cultural background, ways of interacting, and making sense of the world allow them to fit easily into school science. Others, although their knowledge and experience are just as rich, struggle to find a way to engage and participate in classroom science learning.

We successfully operate a bilingual Maori classroom, we have a schoolwide - all cultures Kapahaka performing group. Pacifica this year formed their group for singing dance and Sasa, and the Refugee nations have begun to develop the school gardens for the growing and sharing of vegetables for all.

Importantly like the other teachers, I still where  indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness consider myself a Learner.