Evaluations of the cultural responsiveness in practice

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is knowledge that is unique to a given culture or society and is the basis for local-level decision making in agriculture, health care, food preparation, education, natural-resource management, and a host of other activities in rural communities.

My View of IK- this knowledge is rich and diverse enough to bring about a sustained, successful and valuable lifestyle for its people, however some communities around the world live in suppressed environments and the nation has failed to harness the resources embedded within its indigenous people. Being of Fiji Indian heritage our ancestral knowledge grooms who we are as we try our utter best to make a survival where ever we are in the world as the nation we were brought to as indentured labourers by The British Raj to work on sugar cane farms, has had endless coups due to insecurity of being taken over by us thus causing emotional damage to our well-being yet the historical practices, language, cuisine, herbal medicines, religious epics and knowledge still underpins our existence.

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Teachers creating a context in the classroom that is responsive to the culture of the child … based upon the notion of relationships being paramount to educational performance … It’s a serious business, education. It’s about caring for people, caring that they learn, and it’s about creating learning relationships so that you ensure they are able to learn, and we term it a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations.(Russell Bishop, 2011, EDTalks) 

My View of Culturally responsive Pedagogy – One size model fits no one as there has been a history in NZ of educational disparities for generations. With education systems becoming more culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse it is time that these disparities and opportunities need to be addressed and Maori given the autonomy to lead their educational outcomes (Berryman et al, 2015).

Information extracted from Journal articles of Russell Bishop and Theresa Ford.

Maori learning as Maori image above maps on quite closely with Connected Learning where a balance of personal, peer, academia, interests, social connection of communities and people, shared values and student constructed learning is the basis of this model.

What Tekura does well?

Watch these videos of Maori students and what they have to say about Te Kura as their education provider and meeting their learning needs.

http://www.learnyourway.org.nz/

Not so well….Culturally responsive resources

In Technology education we create or give an open context which we then encourage our learners to develop an outcome based on their interest, locally available resources, cultural identity and practices.

Examples:  Student projects

• Dyes- explore traditional and natural dyes and dyeing methods
• Off the wall- some unique using cultural identity
• Forms of communication- musical instruments and practices   past and present in cultural settings
• Storage items- pottery, weaving, carving and moulding methods in their setting
• Research the practice of a local technologist- can look into local and traditional practitioners

But still these are contexts I choose for my students and they don’t have an input and this is the case for most other subjects at Te Kura. In some way I am lucky I even offer this choice as some subject areas are so closed in terms of teaching that freedom of choice or application of personal context is not available. We are slowly working towards catering a culturally responsive practice.

View this to help yourself and your school to aim for resources on creating a culturally responsive environment for your learners

http://seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz/The-arts/Pedagogy/Culturally-responsive-learning-environments

References

Berry, M., Ford, S., Nevin, A., & SooHoo, S. (2015)A Curturally responsive framework for Social Justice. Extracted from 
http://www.academia.edu/20227303/A_Culturally_Responsive_Framework_for_Social_Justice

EDtalks: A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Relations
Russell Bishop talks about the need to provide a classroom context where caring and learning relationships can be developed extracted from http://seniorsecondary.tki.org.nz/Science/Pedagogy/Culturally-responsive#what

Ford, T.,(2013). Applying culturally responsive practices: Implications for mainstream Education. Waikato Journal of Education. Vol.18, Issue 2.

Russell, B., (2012). Pretty difficult: Implementing kaupapa Maori theory in English-medium secondary schools. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies. Vol.47, No.2.