Week #31 Activity 7: Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice
Week #31 Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice
Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection
What?
My experience of Indigenous knowledge has been limited through a white middle class upbringing and schooling system. I was oblivious to cultural differences and just saw people as people and not as any particular race. High school was my first experience with Måori culture and language and I was really interested in it particularly as one of my best friends was Måori. I was also interested in other cultures and languages and took French and German as these were the only 2 options available to me.
Education has come a long way since then and the Ministry of Education developed a document (Ka Hikitia) to support the importance of celebrating Måori culture and accelerating success for ALL students. (Above is an image from this document, while relevant to this post, is also dear to my heart as it features one of my gorgeous nephews.)
My understanding of Cultural responsiveness comes from our Code of Standards directed by the Ministry of Education
We are to respect and embrace our different cultures and use this in our planning and assessment to ensure that every child can feel valued and therefore engaged in education. Unlike my education experience as a child which was based, planned and created for the stereotypical middle class white European student, and in some cases specifically females. So while that worked well for me my best friend dropped out as soon as she could.
So What?
Relating our school to Milne's "The Action continuum - eliminating the White spaces" we would probably sit somewhere around the green with aspects of red and purple.
Vision, Mission and Core Values
We are in the middle of re-writing our Action plan for our Maori and Pasifika Internal Evaluation based on ERO's Internal Evaluation guidelines and template.
What next?
To strengthen the home-school partnership at our school we need to build those relationships with our whanau and community. This is where the Senior Leadership Team put in place the opportunities for our teachers to communicate with our community both informally and formally. We are wanting to have annual meetings/hui with parents and families from the different cultures we have at our school. As mentioned in Te Kotahitanga (Bishop et al) document we need to use student voice and talk to the students and their families to see what they like, dislike, want to see improved at our school from a cultural perspective. With this we can lay a foundation for open communication and support what is best to meet the needs of our learners in our Community.
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
Education Review Office. Retrieved from http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/effective-school-evaluation/engaging-in-effective-internal-evaluation/
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
Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection
What?
My experience of Indigenous knowledge has been limited through a white middle class upbringing and schooling system. I was oblivious to cultural differences and just saw people as people and not as any particular race. High school was my first experience with Måori culture and language and I was really interested in it particularly as one of my best friends was Måori. I was also interested in other cultures and languages and took French and German as these were the only 2 options available to me.
Education has come a long way since then and the Ministry of Education developed a document (Ka Hikitia) to support the importance of celebrating Måori culture and accelerating success for ALL students. (Above is an image from this document, while relevant to this post, is also dear to my heart as it features one of my gorgeous nephews.)
My understanding of Cultural responsiveness comes from our Code of Standards directed by the Ministry of Education
We are to respect and embrace our different cultures and use this in our planning and assessment to ensure that every child can feel valued and therefore engaged in education. Unlike my education experience as a child which was based, planned and created for the stereotypical middle class white European student, and in some cases specifically females. So while that worked well for me my best friend dropped out as soon as she could.
So What?
Relating our school to Milne's "The Action continuum - eliminating the White spaces" we would probably sit somewhere around the green with aspects of red and purple.
Vision, Mission and Core Values
We are in the middle of re-writing our Action plan for our Maori and Pasifika Internal Evaluation based on ERO's Internal Evaluation guidelines and template.
School-wide Activities
In this document we state how, as a school, we are wanting to commit to building open communication with our community and to start we are hoping to have every teacher outside their classroom at the end of each day to meet, greet, talk to the families when they come in to pick their children up.
What next?
To strengthen the home-school partnership at our school we need to build those relationships with our whanau and community. This is where the Senior Leadership Team put in place the opportunities for our teachers to communicate with our community both informally and formally. We are wanting to have annual meetings/hui with parents and families from the different cultures we have at our school. As mentioned in Te Kotahitanga (Bishop et al) document we need to use student voice and talk to the students and their families to see what they like, dislike, want to see improved at our school from a cultural perspective. With this we can lay a foundation for open communication and support what is best to meet the needs of our learners in our Community.
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
Education Review Office. Retrieved from http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/effective-school-evaluation/engaging-in-effective-internal-evaluation/
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
Ministry of Education, (2013). Ka Hikitia - Accelerating Success 2013 - 2017. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Retrieved 10 May 2018, from https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Strategies-and
policies/KaHikitia/KaHikitiaAcceleratingSuccessEnglish.pdf
Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards
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