What is indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness and how should it be incorporated into our professional practice?
My understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness is that every student is unique, and they bring with them their own special indigenous knowledge - i.e. the unique ideas, beliefs, values, and customs they are acquiring as they grow up within the culture of their own whānau (family). We cannot assume that just because a child is of a particular ethnicity, that they will all have a particular set of ideas, customs, values, and beliefs. Every whānau is unique, with their own unique cultural knowledge.
To be culturally responsive as a school, we need to learn from, and be respectful of, the indigenous knowledge of all our tamariki and their whānau. The National Centre for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems defines cultural responsiveness as “the ability to learn from and relate respectfully with people of your own culture as well as those from other cultures.” (P. 13)1
Our kura has students from a range of ethnicities - 49% of our students identify as Māori, 30% as NZ European, 18.9% as Pasifika (13% Sāmoan), and 10% as other, including African, Indian, Filipino, etc.
This does not add to 100%! Why? Because many of our students identify as more than one primary ethnicity. Our ākonga bring their own unique blend of ideas, values, beliefs and customs, their own unique culture, to our kura.
We must value each of our learners for who they are and be culturally responsive to all our students. Our staff need to learn from, and be respectful of, the indigenous knowledge of all our tamariki and their whānau, ensuring that our students have equal opportunities to reach their full potential and also learn to be culturally responsive towards others, to help prepare them for their futures in our increasingly multi-cultural society.
Our school's vision "to empower our students to prepare for positive futures through exploration, innovation, and collaboration" inspires our staff to be culturally responsive by empowering our students. But does this go far enough? Have we ensured that all our staff know how to empower our students and do they truly understand what it means to be culturally responsive? Is there evidence of staff acknowledging the indigenous knowledge of our tamariki and their families? Is this indigenous knowledge built into our school curriculum and learning programmes? We must, therefore, examine how our staff use their own cultural knowledge when interacting with our students and their families who are from a diverse range of ethnic cultural backgrounds to their own. Our staff also, are from a blend of unique and diverse ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. We must examine further how our school ensures our vision, mission, and core values reflect our cultural responsiveness.
There is certainly evidence of cultural responsiveness in our day to day learning programmes and in our school structure, which includes both Māori and English medium classes, and a Sāmoan enrichment programme. We have Board of Trustee members representing a range of cultures, including Māori and Ngāi Tahu.
I believe the foundations for our kura to be culturally responsive are well laid, but we must now look at ways to regularly reflect upon and self-review our cultural responsiveness as individuals and as a school.
References:
1. National Centre for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems NCCRES, (n.d.) Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practice. Dimensions of Culturally Responsive Education.
Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T., & Teddy, L. (2009). Te Kotahitanga: Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 734–742.
Bishop, R., & Glynn, T. (1999). Culture counts. Changing power relations in education. Palmerston North, NZ: Dunmore Press.
Castagno, A.E., & Brayboy, B.M.J. (2008). Culturally responsive schooling for Indigenous youth: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 78, 941–993.
Macfarlane, A.H. (2007). Discipline, democracy and diversity: Working with students with behaviour difficulties. Wellington: NZCER Press.
Savage,C, Hindleb, R., Meyerc,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetitob, W. & Sleeterd, C.(2011) Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198.
