Week 28 Understanding indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness
Understanding indigenous
knowledge and cultural responsiveness
According to Bishop (2012) a teacher with a culturally responsive
pedagogy, will challenge the negative ideas as to why a student(s) may be
failing. The teacher believes that they can make a real difference with the
skills and knowledge that they have to help their students achieve regardless of
the students cultural and socio-economic status.
Reflecting on KHS schools culture and the students
of 2016 and going into 2017, I thought I would be more cultural responsive by
changing my year 9 and 10 Social Studies Programme better suit the learning
needs of my students and culture at KHS. Starting term 1 with a Pepeha study to
allow a more in depth way of students to introduce themselves. In the past I
have always done a getting to know you activity with all my classes, I had always
given my pepeha to my students. ‘Ko Horotua, toko Waka…..’
I had set an expectation and encouraged Social
Sciences colleagues to also complete and present their own Pepeha to their
students, this became a collaborative task, suggestions were made to try
different ways of presenting students work and the idea of the feather and
Korowai was agreed as way to connect with our students and particularly our Māori
students at KHS. Another colleague spoke to Maatua Leon to source the schools
formal pepeha, just in case there were some students who struggled with this type
of activity.
I found that some of my non-Māori students believed that they had no culture, but once explained to them that everyone has culture and can form a pepeha from their background connections were made and the information was shared. Students also had to demonstrate what they perceived to be our school motto, ‘Proudly Karamu, Proudly Hastings, Proudly Learning’. The feathers were put together to form Korowai’s which are now visible in our classrooms, demonstrating success but also cultural awareness and Year 10 practiced their digital skills by sharing a PowerPoint or video with their teacher. The task was successful in that 90% of students in all 4 of my classes completed this task successfully. A marking schedule was provided to each teacher and it was their choice to formally mark the work assessed on key competencies and 21st Century skills demonstrated by the students.
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| Social Sciences Staff Korowai Example. |
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| Students Korowai's. |
I found that some of my non-Māori students believed that they had no culture, but once explained to them that everyone has culture and can form a pepeha from their background connections were made and the information was shared. Students also had to demonstrate what they perceived to be our school motto, ‘Proudly Karamu, Proudly Hastings, Proudly Learning’. The feathers were put together to form Korowai’s which are now visible in our classrooms, demonstrating success but also cultural awareness and Year 10 practiced their digital skills by sharing a PowerPoint or video with their teacher. The task was successful in that 90% of students in all 4 of my classes completed this task successfully. A marking schedule was provided to each teacher and it was their choice to formally mark the work assessed on key competencies and 21st Century skills demonstrated by the students.
Ministry of Education (2013) outlines 5 guiding
principles in the KaHikitia document Treaty of Waitangi, Māori potential
approach, Ako, Identity, language and Culture Count, Productive partnerships. Achieve
their vision of ‘Māori enjoying and education success as Māori’. Tiakiwai &
Tiakiwai, (2010) identified in their research that Māori achievement needs to
be assessed against Māori progress over time and not just between different
ethnicities if Māori are to realise their potential as Māori.
I believe the tasks and work completed jointly by
staff and students was a small reflection of the KaHikitia principles and
really only the beginning of accelerating success for Māori students, and measuring
student against Māori students will have to be something my faculty and
school will need to address.
This year KHS has developed a new set of values,
based on feedback from the KHS community, being cultural responsive in
developing our new values are Whanguatanga, Excellence, Leadership, Creativity,
Overcoming adversity, Manaakaitanga, Embracing Diversity. (WELCOME). These
values are currently trying to be instilled in our classrooms every day. We have
posters on the walls. We have certificates awarded to students demonstrating
these values during assembly time and as we near the end of term 2 I wonder
what the next stage will be to reinforce the new values in our classroom and
whether the values will become integrated into our teaching appraisals.
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| WELCOME Values on the June Clark Centre. |
Bishop, R.,(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of
relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994
Ministry of Education. (2013). Ka Hikitia: Accelerating Success 2013-17. Retrieved from
Tiakiwai, S.J., & Tiakiwai, H. (2010). A Literature Review focused on Virtual
Learning
Environments (VLEs) and e-Learning in the Context of
Te Reo Māori and Kaupapa Māori Education. Kiore Enterprises Ltd. Retrieved from http://thehub.superu.govt.nz/
sites/default/files/42612_LitRev-VLEs-FINALv2_0.pdf
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ReplyDeleteHi Steph
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great project, I think the staff doing their own was a great idea as it will have helped make the connections between them and your students. I enjoyed our discussion this morning about the overlap between what you are doing and what we do in English, I think there is plenty of room here for collaboration across classes / subjects so that the students start to make the connections between the work they do in different subject areas - this I think is where we will be heading in the future, that subjects will not be so isolated or so prescriptive and students will be making more choices around which assessments they are going to do and when. I know some schools are already trialling and heading down the path and it will be good for us to embark on this, the next stage of the KHS journey.
I found it really interesting to read what KHS are doing Steph. Great to see your changing of programmes to respond to your students and their stories.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great read, your approach to identity is inclusive and supportive of cultural backgrounds. This must be very empowering for students. I find the Korowai presentation an amazing way of combining individual journeys into a community/collective of people. This is a great read that endorses inclusion of culturally responsive pedagogy and epistemology. Indigenous epistemology in a national curriculum framework ? A. Macfarlane, T. Glynn, W. Grace, W. penetito and S. Bateman (2008)
ReplyDelete