Cultural Responsive Pedagogy in my Practice
Gay’s (2002) work around culturally responsive pedagogy works in well with my own understanding as she defines it as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching” (p. 106). I am a firm believer as a teacher that it is all about getting to know your students; their culture, their beliefs, their home life and using this information to guide and support students with their learning. Bishop (2012) makes a strong point, that rather than having a very deficit mindset of students educability teachers need to believe that they can help all students achieve, no matter what, while being aware this this will look different for each individual tamaiti. The He Kākano from the Ministry of Education (n.d) shares very similar views as they state ‘What works for Māori works for everyone. But what works for everyone does not necessarily work best for Māori’. 25 percent of students at my current school identify themselves as Māori as well as 3% pasifika, which should play a huge part in the overall culture and teaching pedagogy of the school.
After critically evaluating my own and my school’s practice I have decided to explore the areas of ‘school-wide activities’ and ‘vision, mission and core values’.
What is going well: Our school wide activities show a commitment to our Māori students and their culture. I see this area as being in a state of Mauri Ora through active engagement (in regards to Māori culture). This is evident at kapa haka performances at community events, weekly waiata sessions with some students taking on tuakana roles, a range of Pōwhiris when new college teachers and other new people come into the school and we also have our own bilingual class. Weekly assemblies also seem very culturally responsive as we open and close with a karakia and waiata. In regards to my own practice/class we have weekly tuakana teina sessions with the bilingual class (we have gone over our mihi, greetings and simple sentence structures). Later on in the term we take part in Polyfest which I am looking forward to, but recently I noticed my leadership team (and all staff members) had no idea it was Samoan Language Week. It's important we are culturally responsive to all cultures in our school and in our classroom.
What needs improving: The questions taken from the “Pasifika: Participation, Engagement, Achievement” tool has emphasised what I have identified in a previous blog post that relates to leadership. I find it fascinating that I have a principal, team leader and now bilingual teacher who are all pretty much fluent Māori speakers, but within the school there is no discussion around cultural responsive teaching at all. I have never once been asked what I am teaching in my class in regards to languages or culture. I find this area to be at a state of Mauri Moe (being restrained; keeping to oneself). Also, there are no resources (that I know of) and in regards to achievement is not spoken about. I feel it is actually frowned upon to talk to leadership about achievement and testing of students. I feel this all relates back to lack of communication and vision.
If I was to stay at this school next year I would inquiry into PD around culturally responsive practice (CORE Education in particular) and see how the tuakana of the school could support, guide and create a more culturally responsive culture. Recognising that every tamaiti comes with a unique culture and manaki. Whare tapawha is another important aspect that could be explicitly taught to help reach an overall state of Mauri Ora and strengthen the culturally responsive pedagogy within teachers practice at school as the foundation of the whare below is key to understanding a child's culture, background and whānau which links to all students.
REFERENCES
Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994.
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
Ministry of Education (n.d). He Kākano: How does it work? Retrieved June 11, 2017, from
Pohatu, T. W. (2011). Mauri - Rethinking Human Wellbeing. MAI Review, 3, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/MR/article/viewFile/380/680.
No comments:
Post a Comment