Week 31 - Activity 7: Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness.

PRACTICE 2: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS

WEEK 31: Reflection - Activity 7

It is evident that Aotearoa New Zealand is a multicultural society and the reason why teachers have to be culturally responsible in order to cater for the culturally diverse learners they work with.

What?

My Pasifika parent friends had to give up their children’s legal names in years back only because of difficulty in pronouncing them. They were given English names instead. People are assumed to operate in the same way regardless of their different cultural background (Milne, 2013), thus causing cultural insensitivity in our practice.

The issue of too many surnames particularly the Samoan students had been handled professionally by the deputy principal of the school I previously taught. A Samoan teacher supported the staff in a series of 5 minutes lesson every Monday morning for the whole term. It was realized then why and how important to understand, the many titles have been bestowed to a man from his parents’ and grandparents’ families through a very important cultural ceremony, so, he and his kids have to respect this honour by carrying all these titles. Knowing the learners well enables respecting the holistic learners; their culture, language, emotions, and who they are. Gay (2001, p.106) sustains, the channels to effective teaching is “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives”. Collaborative learning through effective communication leads to ceasing misunderstandings thus changing perspectives and approaches.

So what?

At the beginning of every year, students and I had problems saying each other’s name. We took the whole term to learn how to say our names correctly. We allowed ourselves time and space to learn for it didn’t happen over night. Later on, we celebrated our success, the start of a learning focused relationship thus establishing and maintaining a safe learning environment.

In my current school, cultural responsiveness is one major goal of the COLs (Community of Learning Schools). The BOT consulted all stakeholders (parents, community, students and teachers) for their views regarding curriculum and school programs before confirmation. We are practicing various ways for students’ agencies in the classrooms.

We once a year celebrate an International Day where we celebrate all our school cultures. Only a few teachers but mainly the students are the tutors, the expert others who support all classes in learning about these ethnic groups’ culture. Embracing students’ cultural identities at every opportunity throughout curriculum and learning activities, school policies and events (Milne, 2017) is critical in enhancing the students’ leaning when their self esteems are boosted.

There’s an exchange of language week cultural resources to support teaching and learning throughout that particular week. It begins with an assembly conducted in their own unique language follows by a special presentation of their history, culture and custom using digital technology and concludes with cultural performances and a share of traditional food. Students are extremely proud to showcase their expertise in their own culture.

Now what?

Curriculums written and assessed in English is a serious issue across the country. Maori, Pasifika and other minor ethnicities are assumed to operate in the white people’s world. The national white driven policy dominates negating culturally diverse Maori and Pasifika learners although Milne (2013) maintains that it’s crucial for all young people in Aotearoa New Zealand to achieve their full educational potential regardless of their background (Milne, CORE Education. (2017, 17 October). It’s hurtful to think about the white space where we all don’t perfectly fit in as the New Zealand education system only caters for some but not all.

Milne (2017) comments that in this 21st-century era of connectedness, culturally sustaining practice has to take into account how to prepare students to be global citizens. To this instance, we teachers need professional learning developments (PLDs) to instill culturally responsive pedagogies, and to be critically aware of the holistic diverse learners’ needs of all sorts. It’s vital for PLDs to cover the content we lack, provide online ICT-related education resources and programmes for all teachers to collaborate by sharing and feed-backing to each other as done for Mind lab blogging.

References

Bishop, R., & Glynn, T. (1999). Culture counts: Changing power relations in education. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.

Castagno, A.E., & Brayboy, B.M.J. (2008). Culturally responsive schooling for Indigenous youth: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 78, 941–993.

Cothran, D., & Ennis, C. (2000). Building bridges to student engagement: Communicating respect and care for students in urban high schools. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 33, 106–117.

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

Milne, B.A. (2013). Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. (Doctoral Thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand). Retrieved from http://hdl. handle.net/10289/7868

Milne, A. (2017).Coloring in the white spaces: reclaiming cultural identity in white stream schools. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.