My earliest awareness of the Māori culture was when I was very young. My parents had bought some land in South Bay, Kaikoura. It was the early 1960's. Up until that point, the land was owned by the local iwi. Somehow the iwi were convinced to sell this prime piece of land and they did. I know that many signatures were required from within the iwi to agree to the land being sold. My parents did not start building until 1965, I was then 5 years old. I have very vivid memories of the land being cleared for building and the finding of so many Māori artifacts. It was not just on our property but all around the bay as people started building. I did not understand the significance of the finding of these artifacts until later. At the time, Sir Roger Duff from the Canterbury Museum was a frequent visitor to the bay and became a good friend of my parents. There was so much history lying beneath this land in South Bay and as we and others built, the deep history of the tangata whenua (people of the land) was being brought to the surface. Thankfully many beautiful artifacts ended up in the museum but many did not. My mother had great respect for the Māori culture. She made a tukutuku panel which still hangs in our bach today. I regret never asking her what story her tukutuku panel told. All these things I have mentioned above have had a profound impact on me and my deep respect for the Māori culture. Fast forward to today and my sister and I now our family bach. It has beautiful views of the sea, right up to the Kaikoura mountains in the distance. I feel very grounded when I am there. While we cannot change what happened in the past, my sister and I are deeply aware of the cultural significance of the land upon which our bach is built.
Culturally Responsiveness Teaching Practice:
Culturally responsive pedagogy is defined by Gay (2001, p.106) as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching." It is reflected in five elements including the knowledge about the culture diversity, the culturally integrated content in the curriculum, the development of the learning community, the ability to communicating with culturally diverse students and the culturally responsive delivery of instruction (Gay, 2001).
I currently work in a Catholic school where 6% of the students identify as Māori on our roll. At our school, our most prevalent culture is pakeha, including myself. Our Religious Education (R.E.) programme is taught with a Māori language and culture focus. Aspects of Māori cultural beliefs are woven into our R.E. programme, e.g. manaakitanga, tapu, mana. Taking part in a karakia and/or a waiata is an important part of our daily routine. As a school we have taken steps to become more culturally responsive to our Māori students. This includes: a school wide programme for te reo and tikanga Māori identifying what should be taught at the different year levels, a kapa haka group made up of children from Years 1 - 8 (this group is now taught by a kaiako from our local marae) and last year, our school had day visits to Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka, our local marae.
While the above steps have certainly grown our cultural responsiveness with our Māori students, I personally need to take this further in my own teaching practice. Bishop (2012) talks about the 6 steps of success for our Māori students. He believes these steps need to be present on a daily basis to make a difference to Māori student achievement. I agree and these 6 steps can equally be applied to all other cultures, including pakeha. They are very learner based. Since starting this blog, I have reflected on these 6 steps within the context of my classroom (and team). While I do have a good relationship with my students (ata), the one are area I can improve on is step 2 - "Create a learning context where Māori can draw upon their own knowledge and bring it to the classroom." Interestingly, through the introduction of Genius Hour, two students investigated their Māori culture through art. One had her Grandmother teach her how to weave using harakeke, the other looked at the significance of Māori art patterns. Neither have really spoken about their culture before and through discussions with them, it was clearly a journey they were both on and this showed in their final presentation.
I recently attended an evening where STEM was being promoted to pasifika youth as a career path option. It was an excellent event arranged by my nephew Rikki Welsh who is based at UC. There were a variety of speakers and one in particular struck a chord with me. The speaker was a Māori Outreach Co-ordinator whom I sort out later for a discussion about 'gamers,' which was what his speech was about. Inevitably our conversation moved towards Maori student achievement. There were two words that he spoke that resonated with me and they were 'empathy' and 'equity.' He said empathy for your Māori student's background - where they come from and who they are. Understand them. Equity - is access to our education system truly equitable if a disproportionate number of our Māori students arrive at school without their basic needs being met? Well of course it's not equitable and all teachers who work with students from this disproportionate background know this. At our school we support students and their families through 'Helping Hands' who can provide meals or other support, depending on the needs of the families. This is also true for all our families at school in times of need.
As an educator, we are bound by a Code of Ethics and our Practising Teaching Criteria. The two that stand out for me are...
- Teachers play a critical role in enabling the educational achievement of all ākonga/learners.
- The Treaty of Waitangi extends equal status and rights to Māori and Pākehā. This places a particular responsibility on all teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand to promote equitable learning outcomes.
I am currently on a journey of enabling my learners to have a greater voice in their learning and the way they learn. This aligns with Bishops '6 steps to success' and also points 1 & 2 above. In his talk, Bishop also identifies that "teachers being 'agentic teachers' are the key to making a difference for Māori students" (Bishop 2012). He goes onto to say that teachers can weave together a learning context so that young Māori students can bring their own context to the learning table and their knowledge is accepted.
Finally, I always believed that I treated all my students with 'equity' but upon reflection perhaps...'some are more equal than others.' I will ponder on this as I continue forward and change my practice and allow greater student voice in their learning. How exciting!
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.
No comments:
Post a Comment