Culturally Responsive Action
Are you ready for Te Māitaiaho? This book will use the now familiar, Understand, Know, Do, Framework to help light your way.
When non-indigenous educators seek to embrace and deliver an indigenous model of education, it is essential for them to approach the task with respect, humility, and a commitment to learning.
The three tools you will find here will help form the foundation and understanding you will need in all that follows.
The first Critical Consciousness Tool will help you understand the need to engage in an open dialogue and process of reflection on what you understand about our histories in Aotearoa using mātauranga Māori sources to guide your learning, it may also challenge your assumptions. The references in this tool are informed by the MOE ANZH documentation and the Teaching Council's, Give nothing to Racism, Literature Scan.
The second, Tangata Tiriti Tool will give you space to listen to the voices in our current landscape and learn from them in a culture of care, where you have empathy and appreciation of the power imbalance and injustice Tangata Whenua have endured.
The final tool in this section, Tūrangawaewae, will give you confidence in understanding your own culture and then ground you as Tangata Tiriti; supporting you to realise what our responsibilities are, and what connects us all together as we share the new light we bring to the work ahead.
Understand
This section will provide you with a range of tools that can help you develop awareness of the pedagogies you currently subscribe to, investigate the culturally responsive pedagogies we know work for our Māori learners, and know what type of environment we need to create in order for change to be sustainable and effective. Ultimately, as we begin to deliver Te Mātaiaho, our pedagogies and dispositions as teachers and leaders will need to be investigated and unpacked.
The My Pedagogy Tool will help you inquire into the learning theories you subscribe to, see the challenges and benefits of them, and investigate how our pedagogies align to the teaching standards.
Pedagogy Pearls will deepen your understanding of the impact that particular practices have on our learners.
Common Practice Pearls will support you to know what the foundations and recommendations were to the writing team who have created the Common Practice Model. This tool has been informed by the research carried out by NZCER in preparation for the CPM work.
Finally, reflect on the discursive pedagogies we know work for our Māori and marginalised students with North-East Pedagogies and unpack what skills our North-East Leaders need to implement new initiatives with fidelity. Both of the tools have been inspired by the work of Russell Bishop's, 'Teaching to the North-East,' and, 'Leading to the North-East.'
Know
Do
Last comes the strategic element. The weave and the reflection on documents and messaging in our schools, and how to incorporate the new curriculum documents into our localised context. This part can only be achieved when the other elements have heightened awareness and challenged the existing status quo.
The Climate of Trust Tool will give you the appropriate skills set as a leader to create a environment where staff feel safe to develop their cultural competence as you keep an eye on your goals.
The front half of the curriculum, our localised part, isn't changing with the refresh, so now is a good time to check for cohesion between all the school stands for as we prepare to embrace Te Mātaiaho, the Curriculum Cohesion Tool will help you carry out this audit.
So much change is coming at us, how are your staff feeling? How is your school coping with keeping up? Take some time to validate feelings with the Waypoint Tool and share the benefits that this current uncertainty will have on our communities once the big ideas are finally imagined and rolled out.
Finally, see how the whakapapa of Te Mātaiaho aligns with your school values. Look for the links and co-construct what success for the school will feel like once there is unity and alignment with our Whakapapa Weaving Tool.
Supporting you to be ready for Te Mātaiaho
This book has been informed by the leaders, schools and students who have shared their voices and experiences with us, so that we can gain a clear insight into the challenges we may face moving forward, and the support systems we can provide to help everyone not just share the vision for young people, but to deliver a curriculum fit for purpose that is proudly inclusive and most importantly, culturally responsive.
What does it mean to be culturally responsive?
Russell Bishop in his new book, Leading to the North-East, describes it as teachers being responsive to the needs of children from diverse backgrounds. Russell explains the need for being culturally responsive with urgency, ''The ability to be responsive to, rather than prescriptive towards, what diverse students bring to their schooling and experience is an increasingly important skill needed for teachers."
We know that the best way for ākonga Māori to be successful as Māori is to implement pedagogies and environments that are responsive to Māori people's aspirations. This can not be achieved without taking a long hard look at ourselves, our histories, and our existing pedagogies and learning theories we subscribe to. It's about teachers improving their practice and cultural competence.
Equity is acknowledging that as learners we don't always start in the same place, this will be true for many of us on our journey to embracing mātauranga Māori and finding our place in The Partnership. A leader's job is to help clear the way for our teachers to be effective, Russell describes this role as 'rangatira'. A leaders' responsibility most importantly is the wellbeing of their people; helping them to thrive.
In the same sense this book is all about leaders being responsive, rather than prescriptive, towards supporting our teachers to find their place in the the Treaty Partnership, allowing them to bring their existing prior knowledge, but encouraging them to be critical, and finally setting them up for success, so that their students thrive in the face of the changing landscape before us.
Looking for more internal PLD, or resources for student wellbeing? Try these...
