“Teachers are not only agents of change: they are, to all intents and purposes, the sole agents of change.” (Gutschlag, A., 2007)
I have written about why, to me, diversity matters in education in this blog post Why Diversity Matters for Learning, but I want to focus on a very pertinent comment by Professor Russell Bishop about culturally responsive pedagogy (Edtalks, 2012). He pointed out that culturally responsive teachers are agentic teachers that make a real difference to students and who reject deficit theory. By being proactive to become culturally responsive, we are developing our teacher agency skills. This is a transferable mindset that positions teacher praxis as future-focused by embracing 21st century skills ourselves. In essence, being culturally responsive makes us grow and become better teachers.
In a school that is fairly culturally homogeneous, there are two reasons why we strive to be culturally responsive:
1) It is part of our Practicing Teacher Criteria (PTC #3, #9 and #10) and we need to evidence it through our appraisal process. Nowhere does it say in the Practising Teacher Criteria that teachers are excluded from being proactive in demonstrating culturally responsive practice if they have very few Māori students. Being culturally responsive increases engagement and educational outcomes (Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh & Teddy, 2009) in schools that are culturally diverse, and the same principles apply for those few students we have in our kura.
2) Honouring the bicultural nature of Aotearoa is part of our school vision and mission. These are demonstrated by actively engaging with whānau and providing regular meetings attended by the two co-ordinators (one of these being me), organising a school noho marae where any school whānau is welcome to experience being in a marae, and incorporating tikanga Māori into our school kawa (such as pōwhiri and poroporoaki). Enacting concepts like whakawhanaungatanga enrich and strengthen our school community.
Furthermore, by including Te Reo me ōna Tikanaga Māori as part of our school culture and teaching practice (to varying levels), this has had some wonderful benefits for all our tamariki and the wider school community. One example of this is our kapa haka group that is attended by 23% of our students. They absolutely love it. I also have a waiting list of pākehā students who would like to join our Te Reo Extension group, including having a pākehā parent approach me personally to ask for her child to be included next year.
By becoming culturally responsive we open doors for all our Māori students to learn as Māori and also share the beauty and strength of Te Ao Māori with others so that they too find new learning opportunities. This is a comment from a pākehā parent about their child’s experience after learning to whaikōrero for our school pōwhiri and the transformational impact on him as a learner.
"It has made us very proud to watch **** stepping up to the challenge of public speaking and taking so much pride and care with the pronunciation of the Maori language. I really don’t believe that **** would have become such a confident public speaker at such a young age if Ximena hadn’t encouraged him to push his personal boundaries. Last week **** had to stand up in front of his Hub and give a speech. He had no hesitation in doing so as an audience of 80 students was small compared to an audience of 500. He has now decided that he wants to audition for the school production."
Analysing Te Kotahitanga project, Savage, Hindleb, Meyerc, Hyndsa, Penetitob & Sleeterd (2011) note that Māori students must be engaged to succeed from a place of cultural strength by educators providing educational contexts that affirm Māori identity positively is as many ways as possible: “Schools are not merely a sum of students’ classroom experiences; educationalists generally – not just teachers – must play a role in ensuring that reform enables young people to learn without sacrificing who they are.”
I would also argue that by being culturally responsive we also open new experiences for all students to find great ways to succeed and we become better educators.
Kia kaha.
References:
Edtalks.(2012). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994
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.
Gutschlag, A.(2007). Some implications of the Te Kotahitanga model of teacher positioning. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 4(1), 3-10. Retrieved from http://www.teacherswork.ac.nz/journal/volume4_issue1/gutschlag.pdf
Savage,C, Hindleb, R., Meyerc,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetitob, W. & Sleeterd, C.(2011) Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198:
More and more, Maori culture is becoming a source of real pride for all New Zealanders. I have only lived in NZ for the last 15 years, but my husband grew up here in the 60s, and he now realises that the very pakeha-centric classrooms he experienced, resulted in a lack of understanding of Maori culture, and a need to rethink lots of underlying assumptions as he developed a greater appreciation for Maori language and customs as an adult when he returned to New Zealand in his 40s. Culturally responsivene practice allows Maori to achieve success as Maori, and all NZers to have confidence in their special identity on the world stage.
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