Activity 9 : Evaluations of the cultural responsiveness in practice

Being predominantly educated in another country and having a naturally inclined intrinsic motivation towards learning about other cultures has helped me to be a teacher who takes into account indigenous knowledge and making sure that my teaching pedagogy and classroom environment is culturally responsive.

Being a teacher in New Zealand however is more than knowing about Maori culture, it's about respecting and working towards honouring the Treaty of Waitangi to make learning accessible and valuable for all students, especially Maori.

For a time of my life it seemed that (especially as an outsider looking in) there was not much difference between teaching Maori or non-Maori students. Statistics from Russel Bishop tend to agree with my perspective; being that not much has been done differently for Maori students. With this in mind and considering the words of Russel Bishop, it seems that pedagogy needs to line up with the Principals of Kaupapa Maori. These principles are closely related to 21st Century Learning skills, making for an excellent collaboration of future thinking and culturally responsive pedagogy.

School Wide Activities:

Our school addresses culturally responsiveness by making sure that students, Maori or not, know that Maori culture and language is valued. We attain this by developing common language and phrases to normalise Te Reo Maori within our daily notices. Language and sayings in the notices are accompanied by video of students using these in context - Maori and Non-Maori. Our school takes part in the Tairawhiti Turanganui kapa haka festival as a whole school.

Learning Activities:

In the classroom it is valuable to include Maori perspectives to help explain phenomenon and concepts. How does local history and traditions support what we are learning about? Having an understanding and connection with Maori (and Non Maori) students help teaching and learning to become student/relationship centered. This gives learners the opportunity to become the teachers, and teachers the opportunity to learn and connect. These experiences help students to develop autonomous learning capability that will enable learning to excel.