REFLECTION 4: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL RESPONSIVENESS IN MY PRACTICE

Gay (2001) defines cculturally responsive teaching as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching”, and states that “the academic achievement of ethnically diverse students will improve when they are taught through their own cultural and experiential filters”. Gay highlights five essential elements of culturally responsive teaching:

• knowledge about cultural diversity
• developing a caring and learning community
• communicating with ethnically diverse students
• responding to ethnic diversity in the delivery of instruction
• having culturally integrated content in the curriculum

Gay researched culturally responsive pedagogy in a US context in underachieving African, Asian, Latino, and Native American students. Gay’s assertions are consistent with material from a NZ context regarding Maori students, particularly in the work of Bishop (2009) and Macfarlane et al (2008).

I agree with Bishop’s (2012) point that a classroom context needs to be built around caring and learning relationships; this is paramount to the educational performance of Māori, and all, students. Macfarlane et al (2008) states that education is the key to improving Maori engagement. I take this seriously. I know that for this to occur, I need to continually challenge the “deficit thinking” of student educability by developing my own agentic thinking and appreciating the lens through which Maori view Te Ao and the wider world. Like Macfarlane et al (2008), I agree that a Kaupapa Maori approach to education, in legitimising and validating Maori language (Te Reo), knowledge (matauranga), custom (tikanga) and characteristics (ahuatanga), is vital to achieve a culturally responsive learning environment. Macfarlane et al (2008) suggests if learning contexts are to be effective for Maori students they need to be characterised by establishing and maintaining caring (manaakitanga) and family-like relationships (whakawhanaungatanga). I understand how much teachers make the vital difference. Each day I try and make a deposit in the relationship bank and maintain high expectations. As Macfarlane et al (2008) says “mauri tu – mauri ora: active engagement brings well-being” and “a Maori worldview involves a focus on all individuals reaching their highest potential for expanding and deepening their talents and skills”. In recent years, I have endeavoured to make greater use of the Ka Hikitia (2011) ‘Maori achieving success as Maori (MASAM) recommendations. In my practice I value Maori identity, language and culture and try to reflect this in my teaching.

In thinking about the actual practices of myself and our school, Bucher’s (2008) point that before we can deliver a culturally responsive pedagogy, we need to be aware of and develop our cultural intelligence makes sense. Of Bucher’s nine elements of cultural intelligence, I feel confident I am developing well in most of these, with number 6 regarding conflict being an area for further improvement.

I also looked at a number of evaluation frameworks. I have taken an integrated and pragmatic approach, taking the best of each and those that fit my current understanding and cultural intelligence. I hope that as my understanding, skills and cultural awareness expand, so will the evaluation framework within which I judge my and our cultural responsiveness. Two frameworks I have endeavoured to match up are shown below:

Bishop (2009) 6 criteria actions that “agentic” teachers demonstrate daily in their classrooms	Tataiako (2011) Cultural competencies for teachers of Maori learners
Manaakitanga: Caring for students as Māori by acknowledging their mana as culturally located individuals.	Manaakitanga: Showing integrity, sincerity and respect towards Māori beliefs, language and culture.
Mana motuhake: Caring for the performance of Māori students through high expectations.	Tangata Whenuatanga: Affirming Māori learners as Māori. Providing contexts for learning where the language, identity and culture of Māori learners and their whanau is affirmed.
Ngā whakapiringatanga: Creating a secure, well-managed learning environment.
Wānanga: Engaging in effective learning interactions with Māori students. Reduce reliance upon transmission modes of education to engage in a range of discursive learning interactions.	Wānanga: Participating with learners and communities in robust dialogue for the benefit of Māori learners’ achievement. Whanaungatanga: Actively engaging in respectful working relationships with Māori learners, parents, and whanau, hapu, iwi and the Māori community.
Ako: Using a range of teaching strategies that can facilitate learning interactively	Ako: Taking responsibility for their own learning and that of Māori learners.
Kotahitanga: Using student progress to inform future teaching practices. Promoting, monitoring, and reflecting on learning outcomes that in turn lead to improvements in Māori student achievement, and share this knowledge with the students so that they can reflect on and contribute to their own learning.

So how culturally responsive are we? Below is a snapshot of some of our/my practices.

The School’s Practice:

• Our core values, the 4Rs, have a bicultural component embedded in them – Relationships (Whanaungatanga), Respect (Manaakitanga), Responsibility (Kawenga), and Resilience (Manahau). Recently, in planning ahead for 2018, I have incorporated these into our department’s curriculum unit plans. The aim is to cover these more explicit and integrated manner than previously.
• Our senior management team is committed to expanding our school’s relationship with local iwi (a number of meetings have taken place this year)
• Powhiri for key staff appointments and sports exchanges
• Pride in Kapa Haka
• Commitment to Professional Development for staff
• Seeing teacher’s as learners and students as teachers in Te Ao Maori
• 2018 saw the introduction of a new award by the Kapa Haka group for a staff member- known as the Pouako Trophy, it acknowledges a Kaiako at BHS who is demonstrating and integrating Te Reo Maori and Tikanga within their class/teaching and everyday life at school. 
• Our staff meeting waiata is a key part of proceedings:

My Practice:

• I am committed to developing a respectful and inclusive environment where Te Ao Maori is normalised, legitimised, and validated. My aim is that this will not only be seen as a key to educational success but to what it means to live in Aotearoa. I am doing this through developing my growing use and understanding of Te Reo, Tikanga and Ahuatanga. I was very honoured to be the first recipient of the Pouako Trophy and am grateful to my students for being my teachers and for helping me develop my cultural understanding and pedagogy. (Daily emails from https://kupu.maori.nz/ also help).
• In our Social Studies curriculum I’ve been looking at ways to personalise our coverage of Te Tiriti o Waitangi around the 3 Ps – partnership, protection, and participation.
• A basic task I have undertaken is to pronounce place names correctly, particularly local ones. This was a great takeaway from a professional development course here in Westport on supporting gifted and talented Maori as Maori – I look at it as a message to that doing what is right culturally is more important than what is commonly popular in the local vernacular.
• I am employing Newbold’s deficit busters (Team Solutions, n.d.) to remove barriers for learners. These are barrier questions with possible responses centred around the themes of academic achievement, student engagement and whanau engagement. e.g. “Surely we should be catering for the needs of all our students. Why treat Maori differently?” or “lt doesn't matter what we try, we still can't get our Maori community involved in their children's education or the life of the school” are matched with a number of positive affirmations to bust the deficit thinking. 
• I am using the He Tikanga Whakaaro Key Competencies in my teaching (from Macfarlane, 2009). I am impressed by the richness and depth within each competency.

What could I/we do better?

• I would like to see our school goal – striving for excellence through high expectations – written in Maori as well
• A clearer Kaupapa Maori consideration in strategic planning e.g. when our recent curriculum review began, the Kaupapa Maori focus was initially overlooked

While I take pride in my cultural journey, I appreciate it is an ongoing adventure. Through teaching I have discovered the joys of embracing the unique and invigorating culture of my country. This is making me a more culturally responsive teacher.  I only wish it had been sooner in life … but it’s never too late to learn … I, hopefully like my students, am embracing being a lifelong learner.

Reference List:

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.

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.

Macfarlane, A., Glynn, T., Grace, W., Penetito, W. and Bateman, S. (2008). Indigenous epistemology in a national curriculum framework? SAGE Publications Vol 8(1): 102-107

Macfarlane, S. (2009). Te Pikanga ki Runga: Raising Possibilities. Retrieved from http://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/set/articles/te-pikinga-ki-runga-raising-possibilities

Ministry of Education. (2011) Tataiako: cultural competencies for teachers of Maori learners. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/required/tataiako.pdf 

Newbold’s Deficit Busters (n.d.). Retrieved from https://technologynz.wikispaces.com/Realising+Maori+Potential

Team Solutions. (n.d.). Realising Maori potential. Retrieved from https://technologynz.wikispaces.com/Realising+Maori+Potential

Te Kete Ipurangi (n.d.) Māori achieving success as Māori – MASAM. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Leadership/Maori-achieving-success-as-Maori

Whakataka te hau. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://folksong.org.nz/whakataka_te_hau/