Week 31 Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness

Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness (Reflective Blog using Rolfe's Reflective Model)

What:

 It is sometimes easy to be drawn into believing that our values and beliefs are held by all in our community, to view our environment from a dominant cultural viewpoint, especially when the current policies and documents are written from that base. Once one begins to seek to 'fill in the white spaces', we begin to understand the large amount of 'cultural baggage that lies within. In education, we are just beginning to inquire into Indigenous Knowledge, i.e. the belief that indigenous people, have a 'kete' already filled with knowledge and protocol to engage with this knowledge, based on their experiences and traditions. We are beginning to consider the worldview of Maori, and indeed other Pacific cultures, who are part of this journey from 'Hawaiki'. To understand how our learners view learning and the best ways to include their voice in this learning, we must delve into the 'voice' of our communities and the people and stories within. We must engage in the practices and traditions that form the base of that knowledge to understand more, about the key to unlocking that potential. This act of cultural responsiveness places us, in the 'seat' of the learner, repositioning our role, and trying to hone in on the essence of the 'mauri'. We bring our cultural knowledge into this role, and offer our interpretations, and links to our collective world views with the goal of finding a common ground, whereupon we may begin to work together to create new, responsive learning.

So What?

Using the 'Action Continuum-eliminating white spaces' related to our School Values, Mission and Vision, I would place our school at the end of this continuum. We have worked hard with our community to have 'culturally centred, structures and practices that are embedded.' Our school whakatauki, 'Whakapono Kia Koe' was gifted by the local kaumatua, and the inherent values which use 'WHAKAPONO' as the acronym, have 'whakawhanaungatanga' at the helm. We have consulted with the cultures at our school, and have sought feedback from the community in the form of 'hui' or 'fono', observing the protocol of these meetings, to provide a culturally responsive way of critiquing practice. Our Rumaki Classes, (and bilingual classes), and teachers play a pivotal role, that is at the fore of everything we do, to enhance the indigenous viewpoints at our school. We have strategically employed staff, over a long period of time to reflect this cultural diversity, striving to grow staff (and learners) who model 'culturally sustaining pedagogy' (Milne, 2017).

An area that has been identified, to work on, is related to the ways that we communicate with our community. We have begun to understand that these sustaining pedagogy requires our visibility in our community. We know that there is no, one way, that will work with all of our community. As alluded to in the video by Anne Milne (2017), the effects of the 'white spaces' have had their effect on our community. While we are working with our students in the classrooms, a lot of damage has already been done with the parents of these children, who came through this, heavily 'tainted' education system.

Now What?

 Our work must be alongside these parents, and proving to them that it was the system that was flawed, and not their ability to learn, or lead. The challenge is, for us to encourage these parents to, once more, trust us, and become engaged in this system, so that we can work together to include their 'stories' as an important chapter in this book (Bishop et. Al. 2009). We will need to work alongside whanau and students, as agentic teachers, and through this engagement, and commitment to work together, build the integrity of this education system, which holds their views and knowledge, as a key ingredient, but especially for their children to thrive in this ever growing global environment.

REFERENCES

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

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