Week 31
Indigenous
knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice
“Cultural identity is crucial to children‘s
growth and success” (Milne, 2013).
As a 3rd generation New
Zealander, being made up of a mix of English, Scottish, Irish, German and Iranian, in theory I should have a huge wealth of cultural identity, but apart from having the ability to
switch between deciding which cultural group I should belong to, I have spent
my whole life feeling like I am a New Zealander but without a cultural
connection. When I had children and their father is a 1st generation
kiwi from a very strong Greek family, I realised the importance of having a
knowledge and connection to a culture. When I see the pride my boys have
wearing items that identify them as Greek, waving the Greek flag, listening to
the stories of their ancestors and speaking Greek, I connect to that crucial
element to a child’s growth and success. They strongly identify as New
Zealanders but love the connection to their Greek ancestry, and this makes me
envious.
All children should have something to connect to, especially our Maori
children, who need to hear and live the stories, the language and the culture that
belongs to them as the indigenous people of New Zealand.
I was very lucky to attend the school holidays a seminar which was run by
Nathan Mikaere-Wallis who touched upon
aspects of this reflective discussion.
Nathan Mikaere Wallis a professional background in
child counselling, teaching and social service management, and has spent some
time following research on latest neurological discoveries.
What he has to say around connecting in with Maori children is what we as
teachers should be doing all of the time – building relationships and
connecting in - not being afraid to take a risk.
https://www.lancewoodeducation.co.nz/single-post/2016/03/01/Nathan-Mikaere-Wallis-Maori-and-Pasifika-Education-Raising-Achievement
When I
think about myself as a teacher I am able to identifying two areas I have for
me to focus on.
-
Learning activities
-
School wide activities
I have
rated these activities in accordance to the Mauri model.
The Mauri
Model (Pohatu 2011)have three different states of being Mauri – Mauri as
thought of the life force. The three states are Mauri Moe, Mauri Oho and Mauri
Orar
Pohatu
(2011) explained the meaning of the different Mauri states as follows:
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.
Mauri Oho
is the state of being proactive, being awaken from the Mauri Moe.
Mauri Ora
is the state of being actively engaged.
Learning
Activities
I have
chosen to reflect on my own personal teaching and the teaching activities I use
as this is an area I am actively working on at present.
I have had the opportunity to build
on my knowledge of Te Reo and Tikanga and have actively
worked on increasing
the amount I do in my classroom.
I am very
fortunate that have two teachers who are very strong in Te Reo and Tikanga and
are very supportive and encouraging.
Looking at the Mauri Model I would like to think that
I am in the early stages Mauri Oho, this being the state of being proactive,
being awaken from the Mauri Moe, and through the support and encouragement of
my peers and mentors I will move more confidently into Mauri Ora.
School Wide
Activities
We have a
strong group of teachers and school leaders who are very supportive, encouraging
and proactive of ensuring that Maori is more than just a yearly celebration of
cultural identity.
We have
many things we do that are not added extras to try and ensure we are meeting
our requirements, but rather because that’s what we do.
We have a
strong bi-lingual unit led by a very supportive, encouraging teacher who leads
regular sessions during our staff meetings helping us with our Te Reo and our
Tikanga.
We have a
very strong connection with our local Marae and our Middle and Senior Teams every
two years spend 3 days on the Marae, being involved in many activities that
support the teaching done back at school.
Our Junior
Teams come down and join the older children for a morning to join in with the
activities our older students are doing.
We also are
able to use this opportunity for our older children to led the powhiri as the tangata whenua for our
younger children who take the role as manuhiri.
We have
regular powhiri at school to welcome our new students and our male teachers
take turns to do the speeches for both sides. The students from our bilingual
unit have a major role in these and all of our students participate in the
event with confidence and enthusiasm.
We had kapa
haka practice for our whole school, this time supports the powhiri as well as
learn and enjoy a wide range of songs. These are often recorded and are available
for classroom teachers to use during class time.
On our
daily news posting we have a weekly phrase we are learning both in Te Reo and
Sign Language, we practice regularly and is a great help to support classroom
teaching.
There are
many more school wide activities we do and I feel we are very much in the Mauri
Oho state if not in Mauri Ora – there is always room for improvement and we can
always do more
References
Mikaere-Wallis, N. (2016) Maori and Pasifika Education: Raising Achievement. Retrieved from https://www.lancewoodeducation.co.nz/single-post/2016/03/01/Nathan-Mikaere-Wallis-Maori-and-Pasifika-Education-Raising-Achievement
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/viewFile/380/680
As “Cultural responsiveness is the ability to learn from and relate respectfully with people of your own culture as well as those from other cultures” you have looked within and by doing so you have broadened the cultural responsiveness of your students!
ReplyDeleteAccording to Tātaiako - Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners quality teaching for Māori and Pasifika students state that “cultural responsiveness is much more than introducing myths or metaphors into class. It means interacting with their families to truly understand their reality; it means understanding the socio-political history and how it impacts on classroom life; it means challenging personal beliefs and actions; and, it means changing practices to engage all students in their learning and make the classroom a positive learning place for all students” You have certainly considered how you do this effectively.
Thanks Audrey, there is certainly a lot you need to take into consideration and at times it can be an uncomfortable journey, but like all good things a reflective teacher is always seeking out the best ways to connect or make connections to their students and their families.
DeleteBeing culturally responsive really brings a richness to the classroom and really helps students understand the differences and similarities between people.