Week 31       INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND 

CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS

Activity 7 - Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice.

In our school we have a Bi-langual Akomanga, Noho Maere, Powhiri and Kapa Haka – simple use of Te Reo is used in a number of classes. In our co-taught classrooms, many instructions and said in Te Reo and children do understand these commands/ instructions greeting and mihi are common and part of our routines. Could we do more? Yes but without Professional Development the current level will remain. After a discussion with the principal, a view as taken that we would need another bi-lingual Akomanga in the near future. This is promising and we can only wait and continue to present the research and studies of people like Prof Bishop and Dr Milne to address the imbalance.

What 1. - Professor Russell Bishop talks about, culturally responsive pedagogy and how to bring about, change for Maori students. They need teachers who engagement them leading to improve attendance, achievement and further engagement by the teacher. Teachers need to be educated in ways to support Maori students. These teachers, all teachers, need wrapped system to assist them in the classroom and have enough financial assistance from the government to accomplish this. Teachers need to be provides for with specific PD so they can assist, support and be effective tools of change for these students. This will be far less expensive than incarnation.

So What 2. - Highly effective teachers; care Maori students, care and want the students to achieve. These highly effective teachers also have high expectations of the student/s, have a Maori ( Manaakitanga ) understanding. These highly effective teachers also have a sound pedagogy in a Maori context and use sound classroom management. They have strong teaching strategies and have well-organised classes, use collaborative learning style, use a teacher learner- learner teacher style to enhance to learning opportunities of the students and their teaching methods. A highly effective teacher of Maori students uses formative ways to include students in their progress and they use feedback and feed forward to assist in the student’s goal setting and achievements.

Dr Anne Milne – White Spaces

Will that is a lot to take in but the 52minutes 44 seconds was worth every second – what a great way to remove the stigma of education and its organised assimilation methods and create positive outcomes for the students we teach and communities we work. Aotearoa would possible the best place in the world to live.

Milne says, ‘New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice.’  Perhaps this is still part of the old colonial process of assimilating the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa or the old ideals never being brought into the 21^st century, either way the sigma of the majority rules has continued for far too long.

What Now 3. -  After viewing both speakers, it is clear to see that without forward thinking management in school and highly effective teachers, we will achieve exactly what we have now – Maori students be at the bottom of the graph and having the highest rate of non-achievement.  By flipping the system for the betterment of all in our country, we have the opportunity to build on the foundations of equality for all.

My next step would be to teach the history of New Zealand and the Treaty of Waitangi, this would be a way forward and bring down the racist ideas that have been distracting our educators, teachers, policy makers and governments. A point made by Prof Bishop is that, ‘This will be far less expensive than incarnation.’ Is so painfully true and now is the time to to make a difference. 

 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.

Bucher, R. (2008). Building cultural intelligence (CQ): Nine Megaskills. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.

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

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

Pohatu, T. W. (2011). Mauri - Rethinking human wellbeing. MAI Review, 3, 1-12. Retrieved from http://www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/MR/article/v...