Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness - Reflection Week 28

 Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

My Understanding of Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness

Reflecting on my understanding of culture awareness, knowledge and responsiveness I am able to reflect on the fact that I may be seen to be in the privileged group. Being a white, middle class woman in my early 40's who was raised with my two working parents alongside my younger sister, in a modest home where my parents offered me every opportunity that was available.  In the small semi-rural community that I grew up in this was also seen to be the 'norm'. Cultural diversity was all but non-existent and single parent families were also extremely rare. Moving away from home, into a large city to train in education was where I first became much more aware that my personal situation was not the 'norm' and my culture awareness and responsiveness was not where it should have been. In fact it would be fair to say I was extremely naive and narrow minded. A product of my upbringing to a large extent I am sure.

Cultural responsiveness in education is the way in which we respond educationally to other cultures. According to (Gay, G. 2002) culturally responsive teaching is defined as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively.”

I have had to and continue to work extremely hard to ensure I am culturally aware. I have completed a large amount of professional development just to understand the culture that underpins my own country. This was not something that was every focused on as I grew up within my own education.  I have had to ensure that when I am teaching I am being responsive to the students and their families cultural needs.

Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness Within My School: What is working well?

Grey Main has been outstanding in responding to the needs of our Maori students . A group of Whanau developed a proposal to our school board where they expressed their interest in developing a Bilingual Unit at Grey Main School. This would be the 3rd such unit on the Coast. There was a great deal of community consultation and research that went into the development of this and one of our teachers took a years leave to complete a degree in teaching Te Reo to ensure we had the best staff for the job. Our Bilingual unit that runs from Years 0-8 and is staffed by 1 part time junior school and a full time teacher. The unit has a goal of using 80% Te Reo on a daily basis. As a school we have embraced this Bilingual unit and come together as a school to celebrate such events as Matariki and Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori Language week. We have a very strong Kapa Haka group who perform regularly for special occasions and festivals and each term we hold a Whanau Hui so the parents can help to develop our Whanau developed Te Reo Curriculum.  We utilise the skills of our Te Reo teacher and she goes into each class over the course of a year to co-teach with all the teachers within the school. This is great Professional Development for us all and ensure we are becoming more confident in Maori culture and teaching Te Reo Maori.  We have an enthusiastic and dedicated local iwi who help direct us in the right direction and they are always available for consultation when the need arises. Our school has very strong values that have been developed with our whanau based around Manaakitanga and Excellence.  These values we believe cover everything our students need to be culturally responsive in our society.

Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness Within My School: What would benefit from improvement?

I believe though, as a school we need to look more carefully, and be more culturally responsive to all cultures within our school.  We have seen and increase of children coming to join us from India, South Africa and the United Kingdom as well as our Pasifika neighbours. We need to develop ourselves and our awareness in these cultures as well.   We need to empower our students in the knowledge that by learning about all cultures, we broaden our horizons and become better at understanding our own culture more clearly.

Reference:

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