Indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy

Create a blog post where you share your own views on your indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy you have implemented appropriate to your student community.

I found the video of Mike Hogan, the principal of Prebbleton School (Culturally responsive practice in a mainstream school) very thought provoking. I could easily relate to the tokenism of including some Te Reo Māori in the classroom, including some cultural awareness and of not doing enough to support the Māori learners in my classroom.

I like the idea of gathering some baseline data, as a school, identifying where you currently are at and what you are currently doing. And where you want to go to. Generating a starting point for a plan to better cater for our Māori students.

Another point that struck a chord with me was when consulting with the whanau and community the importance of doing that in a way that is culturally responsive - how do they want to be involved in this consultation? Is it through open meetings and discussion, or surveys or small focus group consultations? The school should not be the ones to decide this - this needs to come from the community.

I feel that in our school this is a need for us. Especially as our senior leader is from the UK and identifies her how lack of knowledge of Te Reo is an area for her to develop. I also think that it is important for our community to be consulted and involved in the improvement of cultural awareness not only in relation to Māori culture but also to the other cultural groups that make up our school community.

References
Bishop, R. (n.d.). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations | EDtalks. Retrieved from http://www.edtalks.org/video/culturally-responsive-pedagogy-relations