WEEK 31 – Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness

This week, I choose Rolfe et al.’s (2001) reflective model, which is based upon three simple questions: What? So what? Now what? This is about the indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

What?

Indigenous knowledge is referred to the funds of knowledge and expertise that students and their families and whanaus are having which directly related to their lived experiences within their cultures (Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005). And, Gay (2010) defines culturally responsive pedagogy as teaching ‘to and through students’ personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their prior accomplishments’ (p. 26) and as premised on ‘close interactions among ethnic identity, cultural background, and student achievement’ (p. 27).

In my own experience and understanding, ‘indigenous knowledge’ is the students’ personal and cultural knowledge and ‘cultural responsiveness’ is about the recognition and inclusiveness of every student culture in all aspects of learning and teaching. As a teacher, I am leaning more to cultural responsive pedagogy which gives me the opportunity to build a very strong foundation of relationship with my learners and their whanaus. And I am aware of it and trying to recognise and celebrate my students’ cultures in my practice always boosts up their confidence in knowing who they are which motivates them to do well. Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness should be prevailed in both areas, (1) school-wide activities and (2) learning activities.

So what?

I currently work at a multicultural mainstream school (in Papatoetoe) where Pakeha and Maori are the minorities in our school roll, whereas the Asians and Pasifika are the dominant groups. As a school, we are acknowledging our students’ cultures in so many ways, in terms of school-wide activities and learning activities. Besides printing all our cultural greetings on our school website, class newsletters and bulletins, we have our very own school karakia in Maori. Every year, our “International Day” is carefully organised to celebrate everyone’s culture and parents, families and whanaus are also invited. Our ACE (Academies, Clubs and Electives) program operates once a week has been set up to recognise and strengthen our students’ cultural interests, personal skills and knowledge. This program is made up of 25 different ACE groups focusing on different cultures, languages, dances, music, foods, arts, sports, life skills and careers-based skills. Some of our ACE groups’ tutors are our students’ parents and whanaus members. Isn’t it amazing to interact with our learners and work closely with their families? One of my roles is to teach Te Reo Maori within our syndicate and I use the concept of ‘tuakana teina’ quite often to empower the students to share their indigenous knowledge and support one another to achieve their personal and academic goals. Through these school-wide and learning activities, I have learnt to know and understand my students and their cultures better. Bishop in Edtalks (2012) suggests in the video that a teacher whose pedagogy is culturally responsive challenges the “deficit thinking” of student educability and has agentic thinking, believing that they have skills and knowledge that can help all their students to achieve.

Looking at Dr Ann Milne’s Action Continuum (2017), I am more in the green block through my experience and current practice. However, the aspects of education as a colonial tool and is very interesting.

Now what?

Most schools and educational institutions are ‘mainstream’ with multicultural settings and I personally believe that it is important for us teachers to have cultural inclusiveness in our practices. Our pedagogy should mirror cultural responsiveness in a way to utilise and recognise the indigenous funds of knowledge within our students and their whanaus. Culture is important and we as teachers should make extra effort to learn the culture of all our learners, so we can fully understand who they are and how they learn without bias. I always expect my students to respect others and their cultures and I should ‘role model’ that concept and keep in mind that there is always a room for improvement in my cultural responsive pedagogy.

References

Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T. & Teddy, L. (2009).Te Kotahitanga: Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5),734–742.

CORE Education. (2017, 17 October). Dr Ann Milne, Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=5cTvi5qxqp4&feature=em-subs_digest

Edtalks. (2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo. com/49992994

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

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

Milne, B.A. (2013). Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. (Doctoral Thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand). Retrieved from http://hdl. handle.net/10289/7868

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