Activity 9 - Evaluations of cultural responsiveness in practice

My own understanding of indigenous knowledge and which is defined by UNESCO is that it is ‘the knowledge that is unique to a given culture or society’ Home Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future. (n.d.). However, until now I had not really given it any more deeper reflective thought than this.
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As I have inquired further into this area though, I now understand that it is a knowledge that is passed down through the generations through word of mouth and cultural rituals, ‘ and has been the basis for agriculture, food preparation, health care, education, conservation and the wide range of other activities that sustain societies in many parts of the world.’  Home Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future. (n.d.).

Looking at the word ‘indigenous’ in its own right, I have to admit to never really knowing what constitutes an indigenous community. When I think of this word I think of the Aborigines, Maori, Inuits or a tribe of people living in in a hostile environment. I have since inquired into this further and found a UN fact sheet called ‘Indigenous People, Indigenous Voices’(Pacific, Islanders, & Zealand, nd.) which explains the definition very succinctly. It states that Indigenous peoples ‘Practice unique traditions, they retain social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Spread across the world from the Arctic to the South Pacific, they are the descendants - according to a common definition - of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.’

The document also states that there are approximately 370 million indigenous people in the world living in roughly 70 different countries and identifies the Maori as part of the indigenous peoples of the world.
This leads me on to talk about my own views of being culturally responsive in the classroom and the pedagogical approaches I take when teaching these students.

Pedagogical Approaches

I teach in quite a diverse school and my current class is made up of the following cultures:
Filipino, Egyptian, Korean, Chinese, Indian, South African, Samoan, Maori, NZ Pakeha, Japanese, Sri Lankan, Russian and Russian.

The one Maori child I have does not know any of the Maori language and the Samoan boy joined my class last week having come straight from Samoa.

The reason I mention these two cultures in particular is because they are the only indigenous students I have in my class, (according to the UN definition mentioned above) and they are representative of the two cultures that the Ministry of Education has determined as failing at an ‘academic level’ in the NZ education system.

So how do I currently cater for these indigenous learners as well as all other cultures I find in my classroom? Well in the article ‘Building on the strengths of Maori students at the university of Waikato’ (Barkat, 2002) the following quote is referenced and is a quote I have heard on numerous occasions within the classroom “What is good for Māori is good for all.” The article goes on to quote that the common response from respondents to an interview, was that students ‘found that having teachers adapt their practice to take cognisance of the special abilities and strengths not only of Māori, but of all their students, has boosted the engagement, retention and frequently achievement of most students.’

The trouble is I still do not understand how Maori learners learn and until I do, I feel somewhat troubled by my lack of knowledge in this area. However, with the knowledge that I do have at my disposal I have draw up the following table of my perceived strengths as well as areas that I need to work on.

What I do well

• Getting to know my learner in detail
• Talking about our cultures in class
• My Maori knowledge and correct pronunciations
• Tailoring reading lessons to the students culture. Eg. I will find a journal with an Indian story if I have an Indian student within my group
• Co-construct maths problems with the children based on their culture. Eg. In the Philippines there is a kids favourite restaurant called Jollibees so we write maths problems around that.
• Art - reflecting the cultures of our room
• Writing - the children write what interests them. We will try and tap into their culture as well
• We play different games local to the students culture
• Ako—a two-way teaching and learning process (Strategy, 2017)

What I need to work on
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• More in-depth knowledge of the cultures and traditions of my learners - Students’ well-being is strongly influenced by a clear sense of identity, and access and exposure to their own language and culture. (Strategy, 2017)
• Basic sayings - in the languages of the students that I have in my class
• How indigenous cultures best learn
• How e-learning can facilitate the learning of indigenous cultures

How my school addresses cultural responsiveness

Community Evenings

One of the ways in which our school addresses cultural responsiveness in a positive way is through our community evenings that are held throughout the first term of the new school year. Each week, all of the teaches host an evening targeting a specific culture. This year we have so far held the following evenings:

• Filipino
• Indian
• Maori
• Pasifika

Before the end of term we will be hosting the following evenings:

• NZ European
• All Others

The format of the evenings this year is working with the parents to devise a cultural afternoon celebrating their particular culture. The evening is hosted by our community cultural leader and we think of activities that we could do with the children that will highlight and teach them about their culture. At the end of the evening we have a meal with the parents who have bought along food (specific to their country) that they have cooked.

We recently had our first cultural Filipino afternoon where the teachers split off into groups with the parents. The children, (in their houses) rotate to each of these different activities. The following activities were performed last week:

• Learning the Filipino language
• Sport
• Songs & Dance
• History of the Philippines

The afternoon is initially kicked off with a Filipino lunch which the children have ordered and paid for beforehand, so they get to experience Filipino food too.

It is a fabulous way of bringing our community into the school for an authentic experience and shows them a glimpse of how the teachers work, interact and teach the children within the school. It is very much a bonding experience as well, and the teachers get to work closely with the the parents in a relaxed and fun way. On the day in question I was working with one other teacher and two parents to learn the number system, basic greetings and naming the body parts through song. The parents and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as did the children.

I personally think that this is a great strength and original idea of the school that demonstrates our commitment to be culturally responsive.

Understanding our Maori and Pasifika Indigenous Cultures

At our recent leadership meeting I brought to the table this latest assignment and chaired a discussion on the ways in which we were not addressing cultural responsiveness so well. After reflection we all agreed that we still do not understand our target Maori and Pasifika children as much as we would like, and are very concerned as to how we can accelerate their concerning lack of academic progress to date.

We agreed that we do not fully understand what enables Maori and Pasifika students to learn and why they are not progressing as well as we would like them to and this is an area that we have collectively agreed needs to be addressed.

At this point we went into discussing ideas on what we could do about it. The following suggestions were made:

• Scott to contact Richard at the Mindlab as he told me about a brilliant speaker that specialises in raising Maori/Pasifika achievement
• Home visits. The teacher visiting the homes of their Maori/Pasifika children to gain a more personal insight and understanding of the culture and interactions at home
• Inviting the parents into the school to sit in on lessons and observe/discuss/support the learning of these children
• Collating readings on what enables Maori and Pasifika children to learn
• Looking in depth at the ‘Pasifika Education Plan’ and how it could guide us
• Reading ‘Teachers as Learners: Improving Outcomes for Māori and Pasifika Students through Inquiry’ (Ministry of Education, 2009) upon which we will read and then report back to each other to discuss the points raised
• Producing a clear path of inquiry for all teachers to follow regarding how we can better understand how these students learn and producing an action plan once the results of our inquiry have been collated and discussed

I hope that in this post you have gained an understanding of what my views are on indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness and how I regard what, as a school, we are doing well and not so well. This activity has again highlighted areas that we need to address to provide equal opportunities for all of our cultures within the school.

Bibliography

HomeTeaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2016, from http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_c/mod11.html

United Nations. (1986). Who are indigenous peoples?, 1–3. Retrieved from www.IndigenousPermanetForum.com

Barkat, J. S. (2002). Building on the strengths of different approaches. Negotiation Journal, 18(4), 359–362.
http://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021006323520

Strategy, O. R. I. E. (2017). ACCELERATING.

Ministry of Education. (2009). Teachers as Learners : Improving Outcomes for Māori and Pasifika Students through Inquiry, 1–8.