Week 31 - Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsibility

The New Zealand Cultural Landscape is changing and becoming more and more multicultural. As teachers, to be culturally responsible, we need to accept this change and be culturally responsible in our practice.

What

As the world, including New Zealand, is impacted by globalisation, cultures intertwine and multiculturalism becomes common place. As (Savage et al., 2011) state, disparities exist where those with the dominant culture within a school experience privilege whilst simultaneously disadvantaging students whose cultures are different. But it doesn't have to be this way. Each and every child brings into school their own culture that have shaped and will continue to shape their experiences and learning. As teachers, we need to be culturally responsive and use the knowledge they bring as a rich source of learning that can benefit all.  Savage et al., (2011) go on to outline that teachers that are culturally responsive contextualise instruction in cultural forms, behaviours, and processes that are familiar to students. This research is backed up with the findings by Cowie et al., (2011) in that student engagement increased and learning was made more meaningful and equitable when teachers engaged in a culturally responsive pedagogy.

So What

In our school context we have 6% of students who identify as Maori, 14% who identify as other with the remaining 80% identifying as pakeha (ERO, 2018). Furthermore, our ERO report goes on to state that:

• Children experience a ‘rich, real and relevant’ curriculum that makes connections to their lives beyond school, the local environment and surrounding rural community. 
• Children have authentic opportunities to learn about New Zealand’s bicultural heritage. 
• Professional leadership in the school is strongly focussed on achieving excellent and equitable outcomes for all children. 

Although our school's core values and decision making reflect a culturally responsive pedagogy and we provide equitable outcomes for all children, I feel that our school still operates in a mono cultural environment by asserting dominant pakeha cultural values through our organisational structure, language, materials and symbolism  (Savage et al., 2011). However, in our experience, through our equitable practices, our situation doesn't reflect the research of the Ministry of Education, (2006) as cited in Savage et al., (2011) where māori students have over representation in special education, student alienation or high suspension rates.

Looking at Milne's (2017) model on eliminating white spaces, I feel that our school fits within the purple box due to our monocultural environment outlined above. In a school such as ours where the population is 80% pakeha, it is very easy to operate in a system with 'whitestream thinking and expectations'. However, when opportunities present themselves to engage in culturally responsive pedagogy, our staff do so in order to value the student and their indigenous culture.

Milne, A.(2017).Colouring in the white spaces

Now what

As a school, and personally, we still have some way to go. Even though we have a strong pakeha makeup within our school and community, there are still opportunities to engage and teach our students of other cultures so they become open minded citizens in our community who are more accepting of others beliefs and values. There are opportunities to invite members from the community to come and share their cultures as well as resources to teach our students so they can widen their cultural perspective and understanding. Furthermore, globalisation and the makeup of our community is fluid and just because we have a strong pakeha influence at our school at the moment, this may not be the case in the future, therefore we have to have policies in place to be prepared for and embrace cultural change.

References.

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., Kara, H., Anderson, M., Doyle, J., … Kiri, C. T. (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki, 5.

Education Review Office (2018). PN No. 3567 Waihao Downs School. 14/05/2018 http://www.ero.govt.nz/review-reports/waihao-downs-school-14-05-2018/

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

Savage, C., Hindle, R., Meyer, L. H., Hynds, A., Penetito, W., & Sleeter, C. E. (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2011.588311