Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness Week 28

Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness - Week 28

Relationships, a belief in potential and high expectations are at the core of indigenous knowledge, cultural responsiveness, and good teaching practices.  Building relationships in the class requires an association between the teacher and student. This relationship can range from brief and surface to deeper depending on the teacher's knowledge of the child’s culture. “Caring for students as culturally located individuals within a framework of positive student–teacher relationships is considered beneficial for all students, but particularly so for Maori” (Savage, Meyer, Hynds, Penetito and Sleeter. 2011).

At the core of my teaching is the belief that to be effective and a change agent I need to get to know my students as mathematicians, as readers as writers. To be culturally responsive I need also to get to know my Maori students as Maori and make the social commitment to be able to care for Maori students as Maori. To be able to do this is dependent on the teacher’s knowledge of Tikanga. This is what makes teachers highly or less effective to be culturally responsive. To be able to create authentic learning contexts that acknowledges and builds on the cultural capital that the child brings to the class. To be what Bishop ( Edtalks, 2012 ) calls a cultural translator and bridge builder. To make connections with the child about what they know and what it is they need to know in their learning. You need to know where you need to take them/

In his video ( Edtalks, 2012) Bishop states that teachers need to be supported to work collaboratively and cooperatively. Culturally responsive teachers know both what to do and how to do it. They do six things well.

1. On a daily basis, they care for students as Maori. The name of our class is Ako. Ako is grounded in Māori ideology and is a principle of reciprocity. We strive to implement the philosophy of Ako throughout all areas of classroom practice.
2. They have high expectations for Maori students. We do this well in our school. John Hattie (2012) states that teacher expectations are on the top of the list of positive effects on student achievement. Our annual school goals and targets identifies individual students who are our priority learners. These students are our Maori students. We get to know these students well and monitor their progress and achievement. We signal that we have high expectations for both the students and their whanau.
3. Pedagogy promotes visible learning and context. We have a strong team that provides leadership for Maori education. With guidance from the local Maori community, our children have developed a school haka, waiata and whakatauki specific to our school. The concept of tuakana teina is normal practice in our school, every child visits a Marae and Te Reo Maori and Tikanga planning is closely monitored and integrated throughout the curriculum.
4. Interactions with Maori that provide them with academic feedback and feedforward. Our students co-construct their learning, as opposed to a transmission model. They monitor their own progress as we teach them to be assessment capable, they write their own reports, reflect on their own progress and identify their next goals.
5. Promoting collaborative learning. My Literature review and community informed practice assignments were on collaborative learning. On reflection from my literature review, I came to the conclusion that collaborative learning has many definitions. Many times it is confused with cooperative learning. It needs to be carefully researched and planned to teach children how to work collaboratively. It is not just children ‘working together’. This is a learning activity that we can improve on as Savage et al (2011) suggest that customs and values of the minority culture (Māori) in a New Zealand classroom are devalued and ignored. In order for Māori students to survive and be valued for being Māori, there should be a culture of deep reciprocity. Therefore our research and community informed practice that we are going to implement in Term 3 is To monitor the effectiveness of teaching and learning collaborative writing.
6. Use evidence of student performance to guide where to take their learning to next. We allow significant classroom time teaching assessment capability in a formative way.

All children need to be guided to build upon their own funds of knowledge and bring this to the classroom. They do not leave their culture at the door. For Maori students, we need to ensure that we are responsive to learning about Maori culture so we know how and where to bring them further in their understanding of their culture.


References

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

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.

Savage, C. Hindle, R. Meyer, L. Hynds, A. Penetito, W and Sleeter, C. (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teaching Education Vol. 39, No. 3. 183-198.