Week 31 - Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

Again, in this blog post I will be  using Rolfe et al.s Model of Reflection(2001)

1. What?
2. So What?
3. Now What?

Step 1 - What?

I was lucky enough to hear Dr Ann Milne speak at uLearn 2017.  Her key message is reflected in the above sketch-note.  There were may challenges I took from her keynote but the key one is reflected in the yellow outlined box.  To enable kids to be Māori, cultural identity has to be embedded in every activity of the school day.

I always thought of myself as being extremely culturally aware and responsive.  Why? Because I'm Māori of course.  However, upon hearing Anne Milne speak words are not enough to express how thought provoking her message was.

I ask myself and the  teachers at my school how do our Māori learners see that we value their culture rather than, and I quote Milne (2013), "learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations."

Step 2 - So What?

We have different levels of the Mauri Model happening in at our school.  The Senior Management team, which I am part or, is actively working at within the Te Taunga o te Mauri Moe - State of Being of Mauri Ora (Actions and Expressions of  TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP)

I led our  whānau group and staff through the  development of our local Maniapoto curriculum where our vision is: By the time all our students graduate from our school they will have a connection with and knowledge of our local Manapoto landmarks, histories, values and tikanga.  This document supports teachers planning and making learning more authentic and meaningful by focusing on our local area.  Our school Maniapoto document is modelled from Te Takanga o Te Wa, Ministry of Education publication.

However, I feel we still have many of our teachers within Te Taunga o te Mauri Moe - State of Being of Mauri Oho (Level 1: Actions and Expressions of INACTIVITY.)    Signage that is up but never  used or referred to, they were great 'place holders' on the wall.  Some stand alone te reo lessons  that they  can tick off to say the had 'done' that lesson, but only ever used in the 20 minutes a week it is given.

What has been exciting this year is the employment of teachers who are 'Te Taunga o te Mauri Moe - State of Being of Mauri Oho (Actions and Expressions of PROACTIVE.)  Attempting to build relationships with whānau and are actively engaged in all tuturu Māori

Step 3 - Now What?

I believe that our school needs to create a multi levelled learning environment where traditional Māori methods, such as tuakana / teina, as described my the Ministry of Education TKI website - site 1,  site 2.  To achieve many of these thoughts and ideas and make them into a reality more government funding would enable more culturally appropriate learning environments to meet the needs of our ako ora students.  In the meantime, our senior management team is looking at creative ways to engage our teachers in connecting with our local environments, indigenous history and local tikanga.  One of the ways has been creating 'An Amazing Race' for our staff to participate in, a bus tour of our local area.  In doing this it is hoped that the up skilling of teacher knowledge, will be shown in their learning and teaching.

References

Ministry of Education. (2011). Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māoir Learners.  Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/required/Tataiako.pdf

Pohaut, T. W. (2011). Mauri-rethinking human wellbeing. Mai Review 3, 1-12. Retrieved from  http://review.mai.ac.nz/MR/article/viewFile/380/380-3362-1-PB.pdf

Core-Ed (2017) [Sketch-note Ann Milne Keynote Address). Retrieved from https://core-ed.org/events/ulearn/ulearn-resources/

Tamua, M. (2015). Te Takanga o te Wa - Māori History, Guidelines for Years 1-8, Wellington, Ministry of Education