After reading all our material for this week I feel that as a teacher indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness is when we acknowledge all our students, where they come from and what they bring to the class and school environment. As Bishop said on his EdTalk (2012) we need to be teachers who have agency that can weave together everything to create a learning context where Maori can share their experiences, cultural understanding and knowledge to conversations in the classroom.
Using the Mauri Model I think our school sits in between the Mauri Oho state and the Mauri Ora state. We have woken and are more aware of our Maori learners and their needs. We are highly motivated and committed to ensuring all our students achieve.
In Ka Hikitia is states that high quality teaching, supported by effective leadership and governance, makes the biggest ‘in education’ difference to student outcomes across all parts of the education sector. Over the last few years we have been very focused on ensuring our Maori learners achieve to the best of their ability and have implemented a number of initiatives. Our school has a Maori Achievement Policy and have based our Tikanga Maori and Te Reo Curriculum Statement on Ka Hikitia. All learners will be exposed to and understand the significance of the local community’s cultural heritage. They will each have a role to play in nurturing our local environment. Students, will have the opportunity to learn about Māori Culture, Tikanga and Te Reo, as an integrated part of the curriculum. We have regular meetings with our Maori whanau to build strong relationships with them and if these students are below they have IEP's that are shared with the families. These meetings are paramount to our caring and learning environment.
We are updating our vision and have had a number of meetings with our local community - kotahitanga to ensure we get all ideas. Our vision incorporates our values of
- Rangatiratanga - Respect for ourselves
- Manakitanga - Respect for others
- Kaitiakitanga - Respect for the environment
In our school we have Kapa Haka groups taken by a teacher and Maori parent. All students are involved - seniors for two terms and then juniors. We have end of term celebration days where our children share their learning for the term with their parents in the morning and then stay and have a picnic lunch. This enables all our students to present their work in a way that they choose. It could be written, a drama, orally or using digital technologies.
We have parents who are fluent in te reo come in to our junior classes and share popular books.We have a child read the English version alongside.
As teachers we need to be using Tataiako (2011) as it will help support our work to personalise learning for and with Maori learners, to ensure they enjoy education success as Maori. The cultural competencies are Wananga, Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga, Tangata Whenuatanga and Ako. I believe we are having robust dialogue with parents and are actively engaged with them. We show respect towards Maori beliefs, language and culture, affirm Maori learners as Maori and are working towards Maori learners taking responsibility for their own learning.
An area we are working on is incorporating a Maori aspect in all of our integrated topics whether it is the language, culture, stories or different ways of presenting our finished topics. This is ongoing as is the consultations with our whanau. For a predominately European school I believe we are making progress towards acknowledging and respecting the diversity, knowledge and expertise of our Maori community. We are embracing change.
References
Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A cultu rally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994
Ka Hikitia - Managing for Success: The Maori Education Strategy. retrieved from https://education.govt.nz/ministry-of-education/overall-strategies-and-policies/the-maori-education-strategy-ka-hikitia-accelerating-success-20132017/strategy-overview/critical-factors-for-success
Tataiako Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Maori Learners (2011) Ministry of Education
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