Week 28 Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness
Week 28 Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness
Culturally responsive pedagogy defined by Gay (2010) as 'teaching to and through(student') personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their prior accomplishments. Culturally responsive teachers contextualise instruction in cultural forms, behaviours and processes of learning familiar to students.' These definitions resonate with me as I think about how myself and teachers in my school view cultural responsive pedagogy.
Our school mission and vision - Kia Maia - Have Courage has to do with us all being courageous learners, teachers, students, community. Our school values which have recently been changed have beliefs and actions which staff collaborated on as guiding ways for the culture of our school. These ensure that we value and support students and families in our school community.
Teachers spend time at the beginning of the year getting to know the student and family/whanau. Who are they exactly? Where does the student come from each morning? What preferences do they have for learning? What aspirations does the family/whanau have for their child? Who is their family/whanau? This done along with observations of students needs, interests, relationships with peers and obstacles.
A Maori representative on the BOT and a whanau group help guide decisions about learning for our students. Our students are involved in visible cultural activities throughout the school but it is the invisible or as stated in Teaching Tolerance (2010) it is the invisible areas that some of our practice needs developing. Addressing some of our assumptions and beliefs about our learners.
Our teachers have worked really hard to accelerate the learning of our Maori students working alongside students sharing high expectations of each student and interacting with appropriate feedback and feed forward learning. Being in the first year of ALL (accelerated learning in literacy) contract which included a number of Maori students as part of the group, has shown the need to listen carefully to student voice and what strategies they find supportive for their learning. This is still a developing area of practice as teachers learn to create learning contexts that are more relevant to Maori and for teachers to become learners and students 'teachers' in some contexts.
Bishop (2012) notes one of the important factors for schools is the wraparound support is professional development. I think this is an important next step for staff at our school as for many it is a lack of confidence that is stopping some staff rather than a want to. A beginning and early step is the ability to speak Te Reo which is limited to simple commands with staff often hesitant to use it beyond the classroom. Further to this more involvement of the community as a fund of knowledge to support learning contexts. As I read the research from the TLRI (2011) I was thinking about the current learning focuses in our school and what a missed opportunity to develop tuakana teina with students and community sharing the teaching and learning.
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
Russell BISHOP retrieved from: 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
Culturally responsive pedagogy defined by Gay (2010) as 'teaching to and through(student') personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their prior accomplishments. Culturally responsive teachers contextualise instruction in cultural forms, behaviours and processes of learning familiar to students.' These definitions resonate with me as I think about how myself and teachers in my school view cultural responsive pedagogy.
Our school mission and vision - Kia Maia - Have Courage has to do with us all being courageous learners, teachers, students, community. Our school values which have recently been changed have beliefs and actions which staff collaborated on as guiding ways for the culture of our school. These ensure that we value and support students and families in our school community.
Teachers spend time at the beginning of the year getting to know the student and family/whanau. Who are they exactly? Where does the student come from each morning? What preferences do they have for learning? What aspirations does the family/whanau have for their child? Who is their family/whanau? This done along with observations of students needs, interests, relationships with peers and obstacles.
A Maori representative on the BOT and a whanau group help guide decisions about learning for our students. Our students are involved in visible cultural activities throughout the school but it is the invisible or as stated in Teaching Tolerance (2010) it is the invisible areas that some of our practice needs developing. Addressing some of our assumptions and beliefs about our learners.
Our teachers have worked really hard to accelerate the learning of our Maori students working alongside students sharing high expectations of each student and interacting with appropriate feedback and feed forward learning. Being in the first year of ALL (accelerated learning in literacy) contract which included a number of Maori students as part of the group, has shown the need to listen carefully to student voice and what strategies they find supportive for their learning. This is still a developing area of practice as teachers learn to create learning contexts that are more relevant to Maori and for teachers to become learners and students 'teachers' in some contexts.
Bishop (2012) notes one of the important factors for schools is the wraparound support is professional development. I think this is an important next step for staff at our school as for many it is a lack of confidence that is stopping some staff rather than a want to. A beginning and early step is the ability to speak Te Reo which is limited to simple commands with staff often hesitant to use it beyond the classroom. Further to this more involvement of the community as a fund of knowledge to support learning contexts. As I read the research from the TLRI (2011) I was thinking about the current learning focuses in our school and what a missed opportunity to develop tuakana teina with students and community sharing the teaching and learning.
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
Russell BISHOP retrieved from: 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
Thanks for posting Michelle, interesting to read how your school has successfully embraced your school mission of Kia Maia. You mentioned an opportunity of tuakana teina within your school. I wonder what steps would need to be taken to establish this?
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