Using Rolfe's
Model of Reflection (n.d.) I have looked at the Cultural Context for my inquiry
with regards to communication, and whanaungatanga.
Step 1: (What)
Indigenous
knowledge and cultural responsiveness could be described as having a sound
knowledge of our students, their whanau and worldview, being willing to learn
from others, and incorporating a range of cultural contexts into learning
activities and pedagogy, and ensuring that we look at multiple perspectives.
Last week I
reflected on the lack of initial engagement from parents, and the need to build
sound relationships between home and school. My inquiry is based around
the use of ePortfolio's to improve student engagement in writing and
home/school relationships, and as I examine the cultural context of my inquiry,
I am left pondering communication methods and how whanaungatanga plays a
pivotal role.
Asil (2017) refers
to whanaungatanga as the building of mutually respectful relationships between
school, parents and the community (p.3.). This can include such things as
using tuakana teina and developing learning activities around whanau knowledge
and worldview.
My class (and the
school as a whole) have few children who identify as Maori, but a high number
of students from Asian countries such as China and Korea. As I see it,
whanaungatanga is crucial across all cultures within our school to ensure
successful educational outcomes for all children.
The clip
"Introduction to Cultural Relevant Pedagogy," (2010) stated that
"Schools need to adapt to cultures, rather than cultures adapting to
schools."
Step 2 (So What):
Reflecting on Asil's Culturally Responsive Practices for Maori
Scale (2017) in relation to whanaungatanga, highlights areas for improvement in
my daily practice and within this inquiry project. I am looking to
improve writing engagement through dangling the digital publishing carrot, and
the support from home in becoming an audience for the student's writing. Our
Term 1 topic is about our family and the history of Southland, and we began the
year with writing our pepeha and learning about each others family
contexts. I have decided to leave writing topics open for the
term in order to get to know my students and their interests, and see what
hooks them in to producing both quality and quantity of work which links to
level W1 of the scale. We have focused intently on our learning goals and using
the Class Dojo as a means of reflection and self-assessment, with specific
feedback given online and shared with parents. This is in line with stage
W4 of the scale with regards to high expectations, which are shared with the
children.
Step 3 (Now what):
The stage W5 of Asil's Scale would be the area I would need to
look to develop further. This is where "Staff provide opportunities
in class for students to use their prior knowledge and experiences and to share
their worldviews and knowledge in ways that enhance learning." (p.2.) In
order to work to this level of the scale I would need whanau involvement. Due
to the age of the children, having parental input would be beneficial to be
able to take learning to a deeper level. Whether it was through writing topics
or genre, ways to improve communication through creating a shared understanding
of the learning goals and writing progressions, or support with engagement by
getting to know learning styles of the children.
Asil, M. (2017). A School-Based Measure of
Culturally Responsive Practices. Frontiers in Education 2(17), 1-7. doi:
10.3389/feduc.2017.00017
Teaching Tolerance.( 2010, Jun 17).Introduction
to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8
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