Culturally Responsive Practice

Culturally Responsive Practice

The term culturally responsive practice or pedagogy has been around for a long term. When thinking about what culturally responsive practice looks like for me I found myself reflecting on the four principles found in Tataiako (2011).

The competencies are:

■ Wänanga: participating with learners and communities in robust dialogue for the benefit of Mäori learners’ achievement.

■ Whanaungatanga: actively engaging in respectful working relationships with Mäori learners, parents and whänau, hapü, iwi and the Mäori community.

■ Manaakitanga: showing integrity, sincerity and respect towards Mäori beliefs, language and culture.

■ Tangata Whenuatanga: affirming Mäori learners as Mäori. Providing contexts for learning where the language, identity and culture of Mäori learners and their whänau is affirmed.

■ Ako: taking responsibility for their own learning and that of Mäori learners.

For me these principles are the foundation of my own pedagogy for all my learners not just Māori learners. Culturally responsive practice is still, if not more, important in 21st Century learning. Russell Bishop (Edtalks, 2012) states the achievement gap in NZ education has grown to epic proportions. He likens it to fiscal debt which we as educators now owe Māori learners to improve and reduce. Bishop argues that teachers with agency to change are the most powerful driving force in culturally responsive practice. While they can't succeed in isolation, an agentic teacher in a supportive school can make a huge difference to Māori learning and achievement (Edtalks, 2012). Cowie, Otrel-Cass, Glynn & Kara (2011) echo this thought by agreeing that teachers who provide diverse opportunities for students to access and express learning improve outcomes for Māori students. The researchers also discuss the importance of inclusive, collaborative practice including respecting and using community knowledge to support learning. Bishop ends his talk by stating education needs to be relationship-centred not just student-centred (Edtalks, 2012). Through these relationships teachers need to show care for people as well as care for people's learning. He argues that this will make the biggest difference to Māori learners.

My Practice

I have evaluated my practice using Unitec's Poutama model.

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9268_cowie-summaryreport.pdf

Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Ministry of Education. (2011). Tātaiako: cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Unitec. (n.d). Learning and Teaching at Unitec Institute of Technology. Retrieved from Booklet.http://www.unitec.ac.nz/ahimura/publications/U008817%20Learning%20and%20Teaching%20Booklet.pdf