Share your own views on your indigenous knowledge and culturally
responsive pedagogy
Indigenous knowledge as described by Warren (1991,
cited in Worldbank, para 2, n.d.) is ‘the local knowledge that is
unique to a given culture or society’.
Flavier et al (1995, cited in Worldbank, para 3, n.d.) describe
indigenous knowledge as ‘the information base for a society'.
Tauli-Corpuz
(2012) outlines how indigenous knowledge is being lost, as
scientists feel this knowledge does not have the rigour required for it to be
taken seriously. She suggests that
scientist should take notice of indigenous people’s knowledge, as evidence
shows that modern systems underpinned by science are not sustaining our
ecological systems whereas indigenous systems were, and in some cases are,
sustaining today's eco-systems.
In New Zealand our indigenous
knowledge can be viewed as Tikanga Māori.
Tikanga is based on experience and learning that has been handed down
through generations; it is also rooted in logic and common sense (University of
Otago, n.d.). It permeates through all
aspects of life and sets how people act in all situations of daily life.
To ensure that
indigenous knowledge is recognised within a school environment, schools need to
use a culturally responsive pedagogy. A
culturally responsive pedagogy is defined as ‘a student-centred approach to
teaching, in which the students' unique cultural strengths are identified and
nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about the
student's cultural place in the world' (Lynch, 2011).
A culturally responsive pedagogy
ensures there are equitable learning outcomes to guarantee academic success and
respect for students. In a culturally
responsive classroom, positive relationships are built on ‘non deficit
thinking’; Bishop & Berryman (2009) call this ‘agentic thinking’
(p29). In this environment student’s
self-esteem is boosted and they are motivated to learn as the school and home
are culturally comparable. They work
collaboratively and co-operatively together, are able to elaborate their ideas
by bringing their experiences and knowledge to the task and where they receive
feedback and feedforward.
How does your school address cultural responsiveness in practice?
At our school we have made
addressing cultural responsiveness one of our strategic goals; we are into our
second year of the goal. To enable us to
achieve our goals we have developed an education plan, ‘Māori enjoying success
as Māori: Māori learners achieving academic success while maintaining and
enhancing their identity, language and culture’ (Paraparaumu Beach School,
2015).
Our
strategic goal is ‘for all Māori students to realise their potential and achieve
to the best of their ability, while creating a strong sense of self’
(Paraparaumu Beach School, 2015). We wrote micro goals that
we as a school community are working towards, using 'Tātaiako and Kotahitanga
–effective teacher profile' as our guides. These are:
- build and sustain strong and effective school/whanau, school/akonga and school/iwi links to raise akonga achievement.
- māori akonga will achieve academic success through culturally appropriate and responsive contexts for learning
- māori akonga will have their identity, language and culture maintained, enhanced and reflected in their learning environment
Examples of what we have done well in
regards to our goals:
- engaging with the community - informal, e.g. school picnic, school hangi, - formal, e.g. reporting evenings, whānau group, local marae visit
- planning and implementing programmes of learning which accelerate the progress of Māori learners by using strategies that engage them and caters for their needs
- actively using local Māori contexts to support Māori learners learning
- facilitating the participation of whānau and local iwi with knowledge of local tikanga, history and language to come and support classroom teaching and learning programmes
Bevan-Brown, J.,
Berryman, M., Hickey, H., Macfarlane, S., Smiler, K., & Walker, T. (2015). Working
with Māori children with special education needs: he mahi whakahirahira. Wellington:
NZCER Press
Bishop, R., & Berryman, M. (2009).
The Te Kotahitanga effective teaching profile. SET: Research Information for
Teachers, 2, 27–34. Retrieved from
http://www.nzcer.org.nz/system/files/set2009_2_027.pdf
Lynch, M. (2011). What is
culturally responsive pedagogy? Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-lynch-edd/culturally-responsive-pedagogy_b_1147364.html
Paraparaumu
Beach School, (2015). Māori education plan. Retrieved from pbs.school.nz
Tauli-Corpuz. V. (1 October, 2012). Climate change mitigation with local communities and indigenous peoples. [Video]
University of Otago (n.d.). Māori at Otago. Retrieved from http://maori.otago.ac.nz/reo-tikanga-treaty/tikanga/societal-lore
Images:
marykim@aol.com
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