When implementing my teacher inquiry I will take into account indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness. I believe that a culturally responsive pedagogy is one where teachers know how to make a difference. They have a strong understanding of their students' culture and how they make sense of the world. This ensures they can get maximum engagement from their students. Teachers should be able to help all students and believe that all their students can achieve no matter what. The classroom needs to be culturally meaningful and the context needs to be authentic. In order to be a culturally responsive classroom, it needs to relationship centred.
I will be using the following framework; ‘Culturally Responsive Practice for Māori Scale’ to critically examine how I am taking action throughout my inquiry. The area I wish to focus on for discussion is my community’s needs. Within this framework I will be focusing on the concept of Whanaungatanga (building relationships).
When considering my communities needs for my teacher inquiry I took into account Whanaungatanga. I considered the members needs of my community - what did I want to develop within these members and what needs did I need to consider?
Working with junior children meant that I wanted to foster a strong home-school partnership throughout the inquiry. I understand that from the ‘Culturally Responsive Practices for Māori Scale’, building strong relationships is important. Therefore when assessing my communities needs for my inquiry I ensured that talked to parents and got a good understanding of their perspectives regarding my inquiry. This ensured my understanding of the communities needs were consistent with the students' parents.
In regards to fostering home school partnerships I believe that my inquiry will address this through the use of technology. As students will be using technology to create digital work they will be able to send this home or upload onto LINC-ED. This enables parents to anytime access to their child’s learning providing a two way interaction between home and school. Evidence suggests that it is important for schools to collaborate with whānau, to have honest and open communication and to have whānau in the classroom - I believe that the sharing of work through technology can address these important values. Furthermore, this is consistent with ERO’s findings regarding the importance of involving whānau in the classroom and extending learning across school and home. Positive student engagement is evident when the parents and the school worked in a partnership to benefit their child’s development.
Through examining the ‘Culturally Responsive Practices for Māori Scale’ and specifically looking into Whanaungatanga I used this as a measure of my own and my schools cultural responsiveness. There are strong relationships with Māori students and their whānau. Furthermore, tukana/teina relationships are in place throughout the school, this is evident in my teacher inquiry as I am using older students ‘the Googlers’ to help teach the junior students how to use the iPad apps. Additionally, I believe that Māori students know their teachers care about them and have high expectations for them like any other student in the school.
In order to move up to the next level of cultural responsiveness I need to find ways to allow students to implement their world views and prior knowledge to enhance learning i.e. using Puppet Pals or Book Creator to explain a traditional maori creation myth. My next steps are to find a way to incorporate the Māori worldview more authentically this into my inquiry.
Resources
A Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Education for Māori: Relationships between schools and whānau
ERO - Educationally powerful connections with parents and whānau
Partners in Learning: Schools’ Engagement With Parents, Families, and Communities in New Zealand
A School-Based Measure of Culturally Responsive Practices
Culturally Responsive Practices for Māori Scale
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