Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural RESPONSIVENESS

Mindlab Activity 7: Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

According to Milne (2017) “cultural identity is not a thing that needs to be celebrated on certain occasions such as cultural weeks, rather teachers and school should embrace student cultural identity at every opportunity throughout curriculum and learning activities, school policies and events”. The school I’m currently at strives to improve the achievement for Maori students. Although it has been a priority for many years, more effort has been made in the last three years to promote the learning and success of all our Maori students. Our principal has set up a group MASAM, Maori Achieving Success As Maori, and invites whanau and the community to bring forward their ideas and suggestions as to how we can successfully support our Maori Students. These meetings as held monthly and are open to anyone wanting to join in.

From these meetings, we have decided on our school vision statements, policies, goals and school values which encompasses our Maori learners needs. From here, we are able to plan accordingly and seek funding if need be from our BOT for suitable learning activities, and/or resources.

As a staff, the area that is lacking, is Te Reo Maori. Teachers have all been a part of Tikanga Maori courses, our latest being with Tamsin Hanley regarding “Te Ao Maori”. This year we are further developing the language spoken and increasing our understanding and pronunciation of commonly used words and phrases. We are partaking in Te Reo professional development through The Ministry of Education.

As a teacher, I pride myself in the knowledge I have already obtained of the Maori culture and language and strive to continue learning. I am of South-African background, having moved to the United States at the age of 14, and then finally to New Zealand at the age of 17.

Using ‘The Action Continuum” from Milne’s presentation (CORE Education, 2017), I would say that at our school, the majority of our teachers and the management of our school currently lies within the green area - Indigenous and culturally centred, structures and practice are embedded but still colonial.

As a school, we need to continue our own professional development of Tikanga Maori and Te Reo Maori. Further to this, we need to provide our Maori students opportunities to share their experiences and knowledge with the class, and allow more student agency. Continue the home-school partnerships that have been established, and endeavour the strengthen the weaker partnerships.

References

CORE Education.(2017, 17 October). Dr Ann Milne, Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTvi5qxqp4&feature=em-subs_digest

Milne, A.(2017).Coloring in the white spaces: reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.