Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

Gay (2001),cited in MIndlab class notes (2017), defines culturally responsive pedagogy as using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching. In my opinion, one cannot be culturally responsive without having indigenous knowledge. As a cultural minority myself, I am all too aware of the need to feel valued and respected for who you are. One of my goals, therefore, is to make each student in my class feel valued and respected.

I was fortunate to attend an information seminar for overseas trained teachers at the start of my teaching career in New Zealand. I did not learn everything there is to learn about the different cultures in New Zealand, but it did influence my cultural lens (Bucher, 2008, cited in MIndlab class notes, 2017). This reminded me how easily I could insult or hurt people, parents, students and colleagues, without meaning to. In my culture, for instance, it is a show of affection when you ruffle someone’s hair. I also never thought that stepping over someone’s outstretch legs could be an issue. I stopped doing these as well as several other things after learning about them at the seminar.  I also started to focus on using the Maori language in my practice and attended the Te Reo course offered by Unitech. I’ve learned and I am still learning about Maori tikanga.

Improved knowledge of Maori tikanga, helps me be responsive, but, as an immigrant, I also had to try and understand the culture of Kiwis from European descent, different Polynesian cultures, Asian Cultures, as well as the Indian culture to help me teach the children in my room. Using the Mauri Model,  I would place my Cultural responsiveness in terms of my vision , mission and core values at level 3 - Mauri ora, although there is a lot more I can and should do.

As information about Maori protocol is freely available and the presence of  strategies like ka hikitia in schools, it is unlikely that teachers in New Zealand Schools would not have some indigenous knowledge.  Yet , Savagea ,Hindleb, Meyerc, Hyndsa, Penetitoband and Sleeterd (2011) reports incidences of racism in their recent study, which is an outrage. This supports the view that people can be culturally unresponsive, even though they possess indigenous knowledge. Why this happens, is anyone’s guess.

In terms of policies,  I would describe my cultural responsiveness as Mauri Oho. Up until last year I have deliberately included Maori tikanga and te reo in my room. For instance, we would say a karakia together and sing a waiata at the start and end of the day, and say a karakia before eating time. This year, I am working with three other teachers who want to get started with the day as soon as possible. I find myself in an advocating role where I need to justify the use of time for saying a karakia and singing a waiata. Sadly, with my energy going into learning to work in an Innovative Learning Environment, this is an area that needs to be picked up again.

Reference:
Savagea, Hindleb, Meyerc, Hyndsa, Penetito and Sleeterd (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. Vol. 39, No. 3, August 2011, 183–198

Contemporary issue or trend in New Zealand or internationally

Identifying the trend

According to the NZ Herald, Computer Science was already introduced in NZ Secondary Schools in 201. The Conversation, 2015, puts forward that coding is a growing trend as the United Kingdom, Estonia and  some states in the USA have already introduced it in primary schools, and the Australian Labour Party wants it in every Primary and Secondary School.  According to Code.org, 32 states in the USA, allows Computer Science to count towards High School requirements in Maths and Science. Most recently, the process has also just started in NZ to include digital technology in the curriculum.

Why teach coding?

According to Edutopia: Coding in the classroom: A long-overdue inclusion,

• reading and writing code is the new literacy as it prepares students for a technical revolutions that spans cultures and language boundaries and it is a way of thinking about problem-solving.
• it is a tool to improve educational equity as it exposes computer science to students in lower socioeconomic groups that would otherwise miss out opportunities this provides.
• it offers inclusion as students on the autism spectrum can be better prepared for the workplace.
• It can improve neuroplasticity as children who acquired a second or third language, even a computer language, showed functional changes in the inferior parietal cortex.
• It improves STEM proficiencies. LiveScience  reported in 2014 that the USA, UK and Germany will have a shortage of workers in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields by 2020.

NZ need to prepare students to fill this market. An article in the NZ Herald quoted John Straker, founder and CEO of Straker Translation, saying that he sees the gap growing between what kids are learning and where the world is going.

Why am I interested in Coding? and  Benefits to the Education system.

I started teaching when typewriters were the popular technological invention, so over the years, keeping up with technological advancements in education has been essential to stay relevant in education. Now that we are preparing students for 21st Century learning and have started teaching in Innovative Learning Spaces, the benefits of Coding seems to tick many of the boxes.

Code.org’s curriculum overview list the skills that will be developed through coding:

• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Persistence
• Problem Solving

These are 21st century skills we all need to develop in our students.

As a complete novice in computer science, I have offered Scratch as an elective in 2016 and it connected with many of my students, including students who are below National Standards in Reading, Writing and Mathematics.   As I researched trends in Education, I felt a stirring in my belly - usually felt when I get excited - when I started reading about coding. I am aware that coding is offered as part of my current study program and I enjoyed the time we spent on exploring Scratch, but my time and attention was occupied by other topics. This reflection helped me to see coding as another step towards staying relevant to educating today’s and tomorrow’s children.

Possible response of my local community

According to code.org 90% of parents in the USA want their child to study computer science. I believe that our parent community will have a similar view, and our students will love it. The main obstacle I foresee is the current workload and focus of staff to get their heads around teaching collaboratively in an ILS. That is already taking up a lot of time, energy and mental space, so I don’t expect everyone to be excited about coding just because I am.

However, once Digital Technology becomes part of the curriculum in the near future, as recently announced, and it becomes a priority, coding will be embraced by most staff members. Hopefully, we would all be more comfortable teaching in an ILE and have the headspace to take on another challenge.

Current, but common, issues in my professional context.

Our school is about 98 years old but it’s still growing and changing. In my opinion, our school is in its midlife development period (Stein (1985), cited in Stoll, 1998, p.9). I have experienced change from the time I started, with the principal, having started just a year ahead of me, being new as well. Nine years later, the latest changes include shifting into our new purpose built ILE, as well as adapting to a new principal with all the changes/improvements he plans to facilitate.

We were not impressed with the narrow focus on Reading, Writing and Mathematics created by National Standards. In spite of this, we still focus on educating the whole child. We teach an integrated curriculum to contextualize our teaching. Our children, climb trees (in spite of the latest Health and Safety Rules), play sport, music, act in plays, ride bikes and ramps at school and are exposed to activities to develop their maturity and confidence.

A handful of parents has their own ideas on what should be taught in schools. To remedy this, we try various ways to keep parents informed of what happens in the classroom. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to explain to a parent why we do maths the way we do when he sat in on a lesson I modeled for parents on one of the Parent and Grandparent days we hosted. We also started using blogs, which was not as successful. Our latest strategy is using Yammer, a social media website where we hope to build on our sense of community.

We are also competing with intermediate schools to keep our year 6 students with us until year 8. This is an ongoing process which is reviewed regularly. Making use of specialist teachers in Science, Music, Art and PE, appropriate use of ICT and providing a caring environment is a strength. We are lucky to have a special group of Year 7 & 8 teachers. The culture of care and emotional displays are common, especially at Year 8 Final Assemblies. According to Stoll, 1998, this sense of family is typical of Primary Schools (P.10).

A small number of parents have also taken their children elsewhere in anticipation of us moving into our ILE’s this year. We’ve managed this process by keeping the parents informed through parent meetings and inviting them into our classrooms, by acknowledging their concerns and through our commitment to keep their children safe. We have also shared the research and motivation for the change through community meetings and through daily contact with parents. The message was: We are also scared, but it is the right way to go and we are up for the challenge!

We are also competing with intermediate schools to keep our year 6 students with us until year 8. This is an ongoing process which is reviewed regularly. Making use of specialist teachers in Science, Music, Art and PE, appropriate use of ICT and providing a caring environment is a strength. We are lucky to have a special group of Year 7 & 8 teachers. The culture of care and emotional displays are common, especially at Year 8 Final Assemblies. According to Stoll, 1998, this sense of family is typical of Primary Schools (P.10).

Most of the norms listed in Stoll and Finch’s list, such as shared goals and responsibility for success, are embedded in our school. We are a happy, supportive group but most of us still find robust reviews and critique difficult and are perhaps not as open as we could be. Therefore, with reference to Judith Warren Little (1990), cited in Stoll, 1998, who states that collegiality creates greater readiness for reviews and critiques, we have room for improvement to be truly collegial.

Reference:

Stoll. (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture