Saturday 10 June 2017

Week 28

“We need to let go of who we are, we can’t teach who we are because that is not being culturally responsive”

(https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/topics/bes/developing-mathematical-inquiry/14-culturally-responsive-pedagogy)

Crowe et al (201, p. 2) gives us three essential ingredients for a culturally responsive classroom:
"Teachers build bridges and create opportunities to connect the classroom curriculum with children and communities’ lived experiences beyond school.
Teachers and students need to create an inclusive and respectful classroom culture that welcomes and responds to outside expertise.
Learning and assessment need to provide and privilege diverse ways for children to express, develop and gain feedback on their growing knowledge and expertise."

What does cultural responsiveness mean to me, and what does this look like in my teaching? Firstly it means getting to know all my students and their family as best I can. I must gain an understanding of their homelife, their culture and their religion. It means taking a genuine and active interest in learning from my students about their culture. It also means I need to adapt the teaching curriculum to meet the cultural needs of my students, and to be aware of the impact of the hidden curriculum (Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in school)
http://edglossary.org/hidden-curriculum/

Welcome to my school…
As you walk into our school you could certainly say it is a melting pot of cultures and to say we embrace all cultures within our school is certainly true.
A recent ERO report (2016) stated...
(http://www.ero.govt.nz/review-reports/linwood-avenue-school-23-08-2016/)

  • “The school effectively responds to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. Leaders and teachers have very high expectations that Māori, and all children, will achieve. School data shows three quarters of those who were below the National Standards in mathematics and writing accelerated their progress during the first half of 2016.”
  •  “Teachers value the language, culture and identity of Māori children. Teachers are actively building their own understanding of culturally responsive practices and providing increased opportunities for Māori children to participate in, and learn about their culture”

These statements and the continued improvement of our identified “at risk” students (ethnic) reflects how we do our upmost to cater for all cultures within our school.

Reflecting into how my practice has been informed by indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy has seen me focus on planning and assessment and learning activities.
I am a firm believer in a “no lid” approach to teaching, if a student isn’t learning I try to not think what is it about a child that means they can’t learn but instead to think what is it about my interactions with that child that is causing them to not learn from my teaching. My recent teaching inquiry that focused on two Fijian boys proved that getting to know students and taking an active interest (5 minute chats daily) lead to very positive results in their learning.
A search for what a culturally responsive lessons might look like lead me to the following visuals.


Visual 1
Visual 2
(https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/)

I was very happy to find that my planning and learning activities often include all the tips from visual 1.  This is done not necessarily to meet the cultural needs but to meet the needs of the 21st century learning (I had not made the connection before) another very interesting connection I made was how closely growth mindset especially in the teaching of mathematics meets a culturally responsive pedagogy. Visual 2 shows strengths within our classrooms as stated by ERO (2016)
One aspect I don't currently do, and need to address is fostering a positive interrelationship among the students' families and the wider community to draw on that wealth of cultural knowledge and resources.
My learnings from the mindlab have given me a fresh approach to my teaching. I feel it has allowed me to justify and practice teacher agency. The one frustrating aspect to teaching I cannot change is assessment of the core subjects.
The National Standards mean that we must “tick” the boxes and label children, this feels like the complete opposite to cultural responsive teaching.

6 comments:

  1. Keryn you make a very good point about connections with family. It is a difficult one as language can be such a barrier.also interested to note the points you made about using ideas from the graphic but for differing reasons. It is a light bulb moment when you realise the connections that are being made on different levels. Well written.

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  2. I thought you made some excellent observations in this post Keryn Rose. I agree with you about the hidden curriculum, and the terrifying thing about the hidden curriculum is that often it is also hidden to us. We can be blind to our assumptions and to how our world view affects the decisions we make about students. I think that has been one of the great things about the Mindlab course is that we have been helped to understand what we didn't know we didn't know.
    Another point you made that resonates with me, is the way that nationally prescribed standards, such as you have at Primary school and NCEA at Secondary interferes with true learning. So much of NCEA success is based on formulaic responses by well-trained but not well-educated students.
    Your school looks like it is well on its way to being culturally responsive - well done.

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  3. Thank you Jane and Carola
    Yes Jane it certainly makes you feel like you are "on the right track" when things start gelling together. Teaching can feel so unknown sometimes. The light bulb moment you talk about is a perfect way to describe that feeling of "yes I am on the right track"

    Carola the hidden curriculum is very much an undercurrent in teaching, we often don't see our faults and come with our own preconceptions of how things are, for better or for worse.
    Please don't get me started on the national standards! After two weeks of classroom testing! Teaching (in most cases) seems to be full steam ahead into the future. The Nation Standards seem so archaic!

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  4. K-J Very impressive results for your school and a very thought provoking blog. Caroline Anson, Wellington

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  5. thanks for your insightful thoughts. I really liked your visual no. 1 - in particular the reference to making the learning or the context into something that they can personally make a connection to. It is always fabulous to watch those light-bulb moments for our students when they can make a link or a connection - but even better if you can see that cultural or family connection being made - when they feel connected and included in the fabric of the school culture. I will definitely keep this visual in mind - while wrestling myself with what national standards wants from me :)

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  6. Hi Keryn
    I enjoyed reading your post. The three tips are so easy to implement thanks! I think if the games and stories have a variety of cultural settings and characters this will again reinforce, maybe as part of the hidden curriculum (good reminder about this thanks), that all cultures are interesting and valued.

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