Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.

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It could be said that being a culturally responsive teaching practitioner would be a given in modern New Zealand schools, but unfortunately, that isn't always the case. To me, being culturally responsive means you respect each child/student you work with as their own unique and able person. You believe in, accept and promote that child's culture and life experience as part of your diverse classroom community.  Gay (2001, p.106) defines culturally responsive pedagogy as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching”. 

When I read this I had to stop and really think about the word "conduit". In fact, I needed to look this up to make sure I was on the right waka. A conduit is something that channels, connects or transmits something, so the idea is that for teaching to be effective for the students in your class, their culture needs to be acknowledged and affirmed. This was further punctuated when Irvine, in Teaching Tolerance (2010), stated that culturally responsive teaching is when a teacher takes a student's shared cultural knowledge and experience and makes appropriate linkages between what that student knows, does and understands with examples, comparisons and contrasts. Teachers are described as "cultural translators" or "cultural bridge makers". But to be those translators or bridge makers we need to be highly aware and sensitive to different cultures but also, not blanket students by their ethnicity either. Culture can be as unique and individual as our students themselves.

At the heart of effective teaching and culturally responsive practice as Bishop (Edtalks 2012) and Bishop, Berryman Cavanagh & Teddy (2009) states is relationships. What the teacher then does within their teaching practice and with the relationships, needs to promote and drive student learning and achievement AKA agentic teaching.  See further elaboration in the image below:

Bishop, Berryman Cavanagh & Teddy (p.1, 2009) 

Over the past few years, my school has been part of Ka Hikitia and most recently Kia Eke Panuku. This has been revolutionary in transforming not only culturally responsive practice within our school but most importantly the achievement and success of Māori students within our school. Disparities between Māori and non Māori were statistically insignificant in our last end of year report (in fact our Māori students frequently out performed non Māori in many areas). So while taking part of this programme, this vision- the challenge now is to maintain and grow upon this success- never being complacent with what we have done and continuing to promote achievement for all students.


So what:

Mauri is considered the life force, “a central place in informing Māori, how and why our lives take the forms they do” (Pohatu, 2011, p.1).
Mauri Moe has two levels: first level is inactive state which can be thought of as “being dead” and the second level is proactive potential which can be described as a “sleep” state.
This could be thought of before our school undertook part of the Ka Hikitia initiative. There were varying levels of cultural awareness and focus on Māori success.

Mauri Oho is the state of being proactive, being awaken from the Mauri Moe. 

Initial consultation undertaking in the process of committing and promoting Ka Hikitia within the leadership of our school. This then moved on to voluntary mentorship and shadow coaching for Kia Eke Panuku. Over three years our school had strategic goals and an aim for 100% of all staff to have been involved and gone through at least one cycle of coaching and evaluation. I'm sure it's been a 5 year process and the pre and post data speaks volumes for the success we have had as a school.

Mauri Ora is the state of being actively engaged. 

I wouldn't say we are here just yet (in fact we're a long way off). We need to maintain focus, and continue to grow in our own pedagogy and knowledge. Resting on our laurels would not be beneficial for our school, community or students.

Where to next:

Like I have stated above we have a long way to go and success as Māori is broader than the concept of academic success. I would like to see more links and connection with our local communities. There is a collective responsibility for the success of our ākonga and the more we can take the initial steps to branch outside our classroom walls and invite our community in and use the community classroom the better. In their study of culturally responsive pedagogy in primary science classroom,  Cowie, Otrel-Cass, Glynn & Kara (2011, p.4) recommended that teachers needed to be seen out in the community; "A person who is visible in the community is more likely to be respected as having a commitment to, or investment in, the community (he kanohi kitea)." As educating leaders we need to make those steps, reach out into the unknown, make the invisible, visible for the benefit of all our students.  The resourcing and connections in hands-on, real-life contexts can only serve to enhance the education of our students. We need to continue to grow our curriculum and the way in which we care for and teach our students, engaging and motivating them to succeed.

And finally, as teachers, we need to always look for a way to be cultural bridge-makers for all our students.

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.

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9268_cowie-summaryreport.pdf

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

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/viewFile/380/680

Teaching Tolerance.( 2010, Jun 17).Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8