Week 31 Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness in my Practice

Step 1 (What): What is your understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness and what are the two of the areas mentioned above that you want to focus on for discussion?

I am extremely lucky to have worked in community that is extremely culturally diverse for the past decade.  I have seen at first hand the negative impact deficit theorising can have on a school culture and I have also seen  the positive impact that culturally responsive practices can have on a school community.
I believe our school vision ‘A centre of Creative Excellence’ does promote culturally responsive practices. As do our values of Commitment, Achievement Respect and Resilience.  I do believe that we need to improve our communication methods within our community.

Step 2 (So what): Evaluate your practice or your school practice in light of one of the following frameworks or use another one that you are familiar with.

Someone once asked me when you walk into your school or classroom does it reflect the culture of the teacher of the students?   I thought this was a great question and made me really think about my personal experience in the classroom and now that I am in senior management the school.
Our school is currently being rebuilt and we have just moved into stage 1 which includes student service, administration and learning commons.    The question that is on top for me is how do we ensure these space celebrate the cultural diversity of all our students and our community.
I personally believe that we are currently working in the purple area moving towards the green.  There are some aspects that we do really well.  We have a Year 7 & 8 Bilingual class, Strong Kapa Haka and Pasifika groups.  We have celebration evenings each year for our Māori, Pasifika and Filipino communities.  We identify Iwi at prize givings. 

 Step 3 (What next) What might you or your school need to consider or take action on to move up to the next level of cultural responsiveness? What are the next steps?

There is definitely a need to make improvements with how we communicate with our community.  We need to engage and consult with our Māori, Pasifika and Filipino communities much more effectively and start the conversation with what are your expectations of us as a school?   What can we do better and how can we support your whānau?
We are currently at developing a Pasifika parent support group.  The aim of this group will be to engage with our pasifika community and grow stronger links with them in our community.  We would provide information evenings around student achievement, NCEA, university scholarships, careers etc.
Other ways we need to improve is having consultations on neutral ground and utilising local rugby clubrooms to hold these and consult with them when a good time would be for this.
Our biggest hurdle I believe is that as a school, how can we create an environment where it is cool to be Māori?  We currently have a lot of Māori students who do not identify themselves as Māori.

Reference

Milne, B.A. (2013). Colouring in the white spaces: Reclaiming cultural identity in whitestream schools. (Doctoral Thesis, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10289/7868