Understanding Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness

Understanding Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness

Published 27/ 11/2017

Cultural responsiveness is defined in Tataiako as  “ interacting with their (Maori and Pasifika student’s)  families to truly understand their reality; it means understanding the socio-political history and how it impacts on classroom life; it means challenging personal beliefs and actions; and, it means changing practices to engage all students in their learning and make the classroom a positive learning place for all students”

For schools and teachers to adjust their teaching practice so Maori and Pasifika students achieve to their full potential, as Maori, and as a person from a Pacific nation;  they first need to critically examine their own beliefs about culture and be open to learning the language and customs of their students and whanau. This often means that teachers need to accept that they are not the experts or the teacher, but the learner.

To achieve these teachers need to be culturally competent. This means they need to “affirm and validate the culture/s of each learner” and understand  “that all learners and teachers come to the classroom as culturally located individuals and that all interactions and learning are culturally defined” (Tataiako).

To me, this means, that teachers should never assume that because they know about one group of Maori or one group of Pasifika students, that it relates to EVERYONE who is Maori and Pasifika. Each learner, depending on their cultural and historical background, where they were raised and their ‘journey’ or movements from place to place, and the choices their elders made in the best interest of their whanau, has a created a very different and unique story for each individual.

I am Maori. From birth, all the way through my schooling and into my adult years, I’ve experienced the negative effects of people assuming that they know and understand my culture because they think they know and understand Maori. This isn’t just a pakeha thing either. Maori can also assume that all Maori are the same. The effect this can have on our Maori learners is huge. As a child, I started to question my culture and identity. Am I really Maori? Is my ‘Maori’ as good as other people’s ‘Maori’? Am I a bad Maori and letting my culture down because I don’t know Te Reo? Or am I too good and setting other Maori up for more racism because of new equal opportunity and quota laws by achieving beyond what was expected of Maori?

These questions are still really relevant to me today.

As a teacher, I know my own experiences have helped shape what I believe culture means and what it means to be culturally responsive. First and foremost, this means getting to know each of my students individually and building a quality and effective learning relationship with them and their whanau. Corinna School is predominately made up of Maori, Pacifika and Asian students. I think we work really hard to get to know individual students and whanau, and never assume we know or understand their culture based on their ethnic identity.

I believe our school’s vision encompasses the values of cultural responsiveness by “expecting the best” for all learners. We strive to ensure that “Our learning community will be lifelong learners, empowered to use all the key competencies to shine in a range of contexts with… Voice- everyone has a voice, Agency- make a difference and Identity- value who you are.”  This fits with Unitec’s Poutama model, which also aims to develop the capabilities and skills of it’s graduates so they can be successful and contributing members of their community.

At Corinna School we try to achieve this in a variety of ways including:

• Involving parents/ whanau and students in all decision making. For example: if we are making any changes or holding an event; we always seek whanau advice and guidance and don’t move forward until we have it. We strive for 100% attendance at 3-way interviews and all school events so students can share their learning with their whanau and so it can be celebrated. We work hard to build strong relationships with whanau by communicating with them regularly. We try to do this face to face as much as possible but also have a school facebook page, use the Parent Teacher Calendar App, have a school website and class blogs.
• Teachers are constantly learning about how to bring about change and engage all learners in the learning programme to achieve accelerated progress. For example, 3 years ago we started new PLD on Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities. This involves students working collaboratively with mixed ability groups to solve culturally relevant mathematical problems. Based on the significant progress we now do this across the curriculum. We have also begun an inquiry into PBL, and how this style of learning meets the cultural learning needs of our students.
• Providing students with opportunities to have Voice, Agency and Identity- Ako. Over the last 6 years, in particular, our school has been on a learning journey to find out and understand how we can cultivate opportunities for our students to learn and become competent 21st century, future-focused learners. This has involved providing a platform for whanau to lease/ buy Chromebooks for their students, developing flipped and blended learning programmes, and opportunities for students to follow their passions and teach others their strengths.

Corinna School recognises, that we always need to work on how we further engage with our whanau and community to improve our outcomes and be more culturally responsive. We regularly seek advice from our local iwi, Pasifika whanau and church groups, and other schools within our CoL. Although our attendance numbers at school events increase each year, they are still considered relatively low in comparison to higher decile school. We are always inquiring about why this is and seeking advice on how we can improve.

In conclusion, if I go back to what I experienced as a Maori, growing up Maori, and going to school as Maori; I wish I had had the opportunity to go to school at Corinna. Corinna School is one of the very few places that I have been a member of where people have taken the time to learn about me and MY culture. Me as Maori,  and me as a Maori learner and as a Maori teacher. For this reason, I have a strong sense of belonging and now call Corinna home! As our students and whanau often say “ Once a Corinna Kid ALWAYS a Corinna Kid!”