Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice : Week 28

Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice.

There has been a focus at our school to develop our cultural responsiveness through the He Kakano, Ka Hitkita and more recently the Kia Eke Panuku building on success program.

Areas that work well are the learning activities where the content and delivery has changed significantly to improve Maori achievement and engagement.

Ako: Teachers can use a range of strategies that promote effective teaching interactions and relationships with their learners

"Relationships are key in gaining student motivation and engagement" ( Hattie 2009). Central to this is providing opportunities for teachers to become the learner and the student the teacher. To facilitate this students need to have ownership of the activity and see relevance in achieving the challenge set before them. In a practical subject such as Technology there are ample opportunities to engage with student interests that exist outside of the learning environment. It also provides an opportunity to make connections with the whanau and the community. This is essential in identifying that Ako is grounded in the principle of reciprocity and also recognizes that students and their whānau cannot be separated.

The move to reframing teaching opportunities into a Maori context.

One project which has seen a high level of engagement is the manufacture of a Waka Huia. This was previously a storage box type activity which students designed and manufactured. The change to a Waka Huia or container for treasured possessions has created opportunity for developing Maori design and the significance of graphics and symbols. Students are encouraged to have significant input from family and whanau when designing their artwork for their Waka Huia and reinforces the research that "students are more likely to achieve when they see themselves and their culture reflected positively in subject matter and learning contexts." Te Kete Ipurangi, MOE. (2012)

Providing strong pathways for success. As part of our manufacturing program our department has actively sought to create productive partnerships with parents, whānau, hapū, iwi, communities and businesses. These are primarily focused on educational success; however there has been a significant input from local employers to provide quality careers information, advice and guidance. This is done in consultation with students whanau, whilst listening to the aspirations of Māori students, their parents, whānau, hapū, iwi and communities. We often invite past students back into our manufacturing classes to give first-hand accounts of the expectation of employers and tertiary training providers. This also creates an opportunity to have older family members to speak to wider audiences, providing mana for these students and set high expectations for our students.

Areas for improvement.

The New Zealand Curriculum, page 9 states that “The curriculum has meaning for students, connects with their wider lives, and engages the support of their families, whānau, and communities.” 
In this clip Dr Mere Berryman discusses the findings from her research with Māori whānau and communities regarding the connections between Maori and engagement.

Video 1: Connecting with the BES from Copeland & Associates on Vimeo.

So whilst providing strong connections in my subject area I need to ask myself how effective are we in engaging the support across the school through our communication.

Regular communication. 

Even though the school produces a paper copy of the school newsletter to be sent home with every student there still remains opportunity to build stronger relationships. The school guidelines suggest that schools/teachers' communication with parents should be timely, useful, easily understood, and culturally appropriate. It also states that the communication needs to be clear, precise, frequent, and that a range of media and formats is to be used. However our school needs to find more innovative ways to communicate with parents, for example engaging with parents face-to-face outside of school hours, and outside of school grounds. One suggestion from a parent, which is  being auctioned, is to identify at the start of the year parents' preferred method of communication. Schools should also proactively and systematically identify families who are not yet involved in their children’s schooling and extend personal invitations for them to become involved, providing clear guidance on what is expected from parents. This then would improve the turnout at parent evenings and could provide the first opportunity to build the relationship with parents you would not usually see.

Despite trying a number of different approaches and times to parent teacher interviews there is still a low turnout (42%  of the school population and 30% for Maori families). This provides limited opportunity for 1 on 1 conversation and little time to discuss aspirations  for their tamariki and even less time to discuss ways to support learning and achievement. Subsequently communication is often formal through letter writing and electronic methods and is part of the school's standard schedule of communication. Part of this is the reporting of student achievement which is always compared against NZ pakeha , Pasifika and Asian students and generally indicates a lower standard of achievement which reinforces deficient thinking. One suggestion is that the school management should meet with Māori parents to discuss their involvement with the school and find out what they can do to improve communication. Specifically to find out how they prefer to consult about the curriculum, progress reporting, and Māori student achievement.

References:

Connecting with the BES. Dr Berryman M https://vimeo.com/151600659 retrived from http://kep.org.nz/module-8/5-key-messages-from-chapter-7-school-leadership-bes

Education for Māori: Relationships between schools and whānau, Controller for the Auditor General, February 2015. retrieved from http://www.oag.govt.nz/2015/education-for-maori/docs/education-for-maori.pdf

Evaluation Indicators for School Reviews A commentary on engaging parents, whānau and communities Berryman Dr M., University of Waikato June 2014. retrived from http://www.ero.g ovt.nz/assets/Indicators-supporting-reports/Berryman-paper-approved-160816.pdf

Hattie, J.A.C. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of 800+ meta-analyses on achievement.  Oxford, UK: Routledge.retrived from http://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/

Inquiry into engaging parents in the education of their children :Report of the Education and Science Comittee, Fiftieth Parliament (Dr Cam Calder, Chairperson) July 2014. Presented to the House of Representatives retrieved from  https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50DBSCH_SCR56937_1/510e16a9c5abb15a7885c981e73632251e93eb8c

Ka Hitkita: Aceelerating –  Success 2013–2017 , Ministry of Education, New Zealand retrieved from  http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Strategies-and-policies/Ka-Hikitia/KaHikitiaAcceleratingSuccessEnglish.pdf

Qualification Pathways in a Māori context. NZQA Sept 2014, retrieved from http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/publications/qa-news/qa-news-issue-2/

School Leadership BES (Robinson, Hohepa & Lloyd, 2009)  Creating Educationally Powerful Connections with Families, Whānau, and Communities (p.142)

Supporting Maori Students, TKI,Ministry of Education retrieved from   http://inclusive.tki.org.nz/guides/supporting-maori-students/