Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice
Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection
Where are we currently?
I was lucky enough to attend ULearn in 2017 and hear Dr Ann Milne speak. You can read our staff shared notes from her ULearn Keynote here.
As a new school, we have been actively thinking about our cultural responsiveness and it is a focus across our staff and our Board of Trustees - as the BOT staff rep I am positioned to see both sides.
Our BOT uses Hautū to guide us, our teacher appraisal criteria (PTC) are integrated with the criteria from Tātaiako, our management team regularly refers to Ka Hikitia and the 5 principles to guide our school planning and set up.
We are developing a good relationship with our local rūnanga, Te Taumutu. They gifted us our school name - Te Uru Tarata (Lemonwood Grove) and they have developed a cultural narrative for educational institutions in our area (Rolleston).
As a new school we are sometimes overwhelmed with the volume of things that we need to establish and embed, however we are also privileged to be in a position to create and embed our school culture from the beginning. The ideas behind cultural responsiveness support us with establishing our culture for ALL our learners. So as far as the policies, decision-making and planning, I believe we are heading along the right path.
So where to now?
We have the documentation as our foundation but what does this look like in practise / on the coalface? Where are we, a very European staff, positioned currently?
Something that has been made apparent to me recently through getting to know my new team of learners (growing school, change happens!) is that many of our students don't know what their culture is and many of their whanau are also disconnected from their cultures. What does CULTURE mean and what is our responsibility as educators with regards to culture and cultural responsiveness?
Using Rolfe's Model of Reflection
Where are we currently?
I was lucky enough to attend ULearn in 2017 and hear Dr Ann Milne speak. You can read our staff shared notes from her ULearn Keynote here.
 |
| Image from Ka Hikitia |
As a new school, we have been actively thinking about our cultural responsiveness and it is a focus across our staff and our Board of Trustees - as the BOT staff rep I am positioned to see both sides.
Our BOT uses Hautū to guide us, our teacher appraisal criteria (PTC) are integrated with the criteria from Tātaiako, our management team regularly refers to Ka Hikitia and the 5 principles to guide our school planning and set up.
 |
| Image from Hautū |
We are developing a good relationship with our local rūnanga, Te Taumutu. They gifted us our school name - Te Uru Tarata (Lemonwood Grove) and they have developed a cultural narrative for educational institutions in our area (Rolleston).
 |
| Image from our cultural narrative |
As a new school we are sometimes overwhelmed with the volume of things that we need to establish and embed, however we are also privileged to be in a position to create and embed our school culture from the beginning. The ideas behind cultural responsiveness support us with establishing our culture for ALL our learners. So as far as the policies, decision-making and planning, I believe we are heading along the right path.
So where to now?
We have the documentation as our foundation but what does this look like in practise / on the coalface? Where are we, a very European staff, positioned currently?
Using Dr Milne's action continuum, I feel that currently we are positioned towards the green. We still have a lot we can do but we also have to acknowledge all that we have done - this only being our second year!
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| Our Learning Landscape names and whakataukī |
Something that has been made apparent to me recently through getting to know my new team of learners (growing school, change happens!) is that many of our students don't know what their culture is and many of their whanau are also disconnected from their cultures. What does CULTURE mean and what is our responsibility as educators with regards to culture and cultural responsiveness?
Our next step is to look at how to include all of our community and their cultures in an authentic way throughout the year. How do we make all of our learners feel connected to us as a school and to their own cultures? Taking what we have been doing in school to our community and involving them in the conversation - what are their views around cultural responsiveness?
Question we have recently been discussing are: Are our learners connected to their own cultures? Are our families? Do they want to be? How can we support them with this? Are we as a school forcing our students to explore a culture they have no connection with? (that last one I don't believe we are but it opens up a viewpoint for discussion).
Currently I have more questions than answers but the conversation has started at our school and now we need to open that conversation to our community.
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
NZSTA Hautu Retrieved from http://www.nzsta.org.nz/professional-development/hautu-maori-cultural-responsiveness-self-review-tool-for-boards-of-trustees
Education Council, Tātaiako - Cultural Competencies for
Teachers of Māori Learners:
A resource for use with the
Graduating Teacher Standards and
Practising Teacher Criteria
Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/t%C4%81taiako-cultural-competencies-teachers-of-m%C4%81ori-learners
Ministry of Education, (2013). Ka Hikitia - Accelerating Success 2013 - 2017. Wellington:
Ministry of Education.
Retrieved from https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Strategies-and-policies/Ka-Hikitia/KaHikitiaAcceleratingSuccessEnglish.pdf
I am envious of your situation on a number of levels. Firstly, it must have been very special to hear Dr Ann Milne in person as I found her video quite challenging yet uplifting, and secondly I am envious of the opportuity you have to build a school and create its own culture. To be able to shape the culture of the school must be both a privilege and a huge responsibility. However, it must be good to be surrounded with so much research about cultural responsiveness and to be able to begin with this in mind rather than having to 'reshape' peoples belief systems. As a board, we too have used Hautu as a professional development and review tool and found it excellent. Thank you for reminding me that this is available and I need to bring this back to the fore as we try to move along the continuum some more. Good luck with all your work and I will be interested to watch your progress as a new school.
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