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My early upbringing was very much European in nature. My father is German and my mother was English, and we moved to New Zealand when I was eight years old. Growing up and going to school in West Auckland was the beginning of my introduction to the rich Māori/pasifika communities - even if it was only at surface level in the educational setting of the 1970s. Since then, as a New Zealander, I have taken the time to learn as much as I can about the Māori culture, and have much respect for the language, the land and its people.
My teacher training involved a Bachelor of Teaching & Learning through Canterbury University, which gave me a much better understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi and the moral obligation that the government has to the Māori people. Through that learning, I can see why Russell Bishop says that the government have clearly not upheld their end of the bargain, and that a ‘large debt’ is owed because of this.
As a teacher, I have always believed that the relationships we build with our students and their whanau are paramount to learning. I try to ensure that the classroom context is one that my students are at ease in because they can bring their own experiences into the classroom. They are happier to take risks in their learning because they know they are valued, and are therefore more engaged and motivated. The goal I have for myself is that I want to be one of those agentic teachers that Bishop (2012) talks about. I cannot yet proclaim to have all six traits mentioned, not on a daily basis anyway, but I will given time. More research,time and personal reflection is needed to reach that goal.
Communication Methods
Our school has improved on communication with whanau is the setting up of a group called Te Roopu Hurihanga. The purpose of setting up the group was to engage whanau more in their children’s learning, so that they have more of a say in what their students need and want in the education setting. The group has now become more self-managing and report back to the Principal when they meet.
We are a restorative practice school so rather than using punitive punishment for behaviour, we talk about what happened, who was hurt, feelings etc and making better choices in the future. This way of communicating, rather than punishing, is a guide for our students of how they need to resolve issues in their lives rather than resorting to physical and/or verbal means. Restorative practice is all about righting the wrongs in a verbal way. Whilst not exclusively the ‘Māori way’, it is seen as being part of the Māori culture to talk about your problems. We find that this works for us as a school, for our students and for the community as a whole. This is us helping our students to learn how to resolve issues in life via communication.
Learning Activities
One area that always needs improvement is the planning and assessment of learning activities when moving to Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) in relation to our Māori students. I have mentioned before that we are at the beginning of our ILE journey and I am interested in how we implement this whilst ensuring we improve the achievement for our Māori learners.
As team leader, it is my responsibility to analyse data, identify the needs of all learners, and ensure these needs are met. For the teachers in my team, it is more about ‘......helping them to develop a rich repertoire of multicultural instructional examples to use in teaching ethnically diverse students” (Gay 2002). More true collaborative learning, mixed ability grouping and assessment tasks that actually fit the purpose, are a good start. The whole staff need to be supported and given high quality PD to ensure they become the agentic learners mentioned by Bishop (2012).
Savage (2011) also talks about rejecting deficit theorizing as the explanation for Māori student underachievement, and to always have the same high expectations for all our students, but especially Māori. There is a definite correlation between Bishop and Savage on what they see as preparation for teachers to help improve Māori student achievement. I need to do more research on how I can help my team, as team leader.
Jackie
Bishop, R. Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994.
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.
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.
Nice post Jackie.
ReplyDeleteI have always been interested in engaging Whanau more but can never really get past thinking about it. What sort of things did your school first ask of Te Roopu Hurihanga and what sort of things have they fed-back over time?
Thanks,
Paul (Welly)
You are, like most of us, on that journey to understand how best we can be Russell Bishop's agentic teachers.
ReplyDeleteI started reading your blog because, like me, you first reflected on your own culture and initiation to Maori culture. Neither of us talk about feeling that our education left us out; I wonder if that is because we came from the Western culture that NZ education is based on and from families that expected us to have success in the provided system? Makes me wonder.
The quote from Milne on the week 28 email made me pause for thought. Do we indeed try to make our Maori and Pasifika students fit into the current model rather than exploring a different model that meets our Aotearoa NZ needs?
Interesting post, I like the idea of the group you have created in your school, Te Roopu Hurihanga. Engaging whānau in their children’s learning is so important. I also like the idea that the group is self-managing and report back to the Principal when they meet, giving whānau a voice throughout the year not just when they get asked.
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