Indigenous knowledge and Cultural responsiveness

Where do I start? The Māori people of New Zealand have been unfairly treated in this country, largely due to colonialism. Māori were promised the same rights as the colonialists they signed the treaty with, in 1840. However, the fine print should have read 'only applicable if you completely adapt to the colonial way of life'. 

 I went to a CORE Education seminar where a well spoken, educated Māori lady spoke about what we could do better as educators to try and lessen the gap between Māori and their white European counterparts in the Education system. What she had to say really struck a chord with me. Firstly, I could relate to her as a fellow educator. I didn't have the need to feel sheepish or ashamed as I sometimes do in the company of Māori. She seemed supportive to us making changes to better her culture and our heritage collectively. 

Why would I feel this way? I am acutely aware that many New Zealanders are so ignorant to the language, culture and ways of Māori. I even feel embarrassed that not one iota of my own heritage is Māori, because then at least I might be accepted, despite my ignorance.  And these are feelings I have even though I have made a concerted effort to learn the language and have volunteered to help out at a Kura Kaupapa Māori.

The particular thing she said that struck me, was that New Zealand was nowhere near the bicultural country we thought we were. If we were, the Māori language would not just be allowed to die out, their tamariki would be achieving and there would be a much higher rate of graduates and hence Māori with well-paid occupations. She talked about the simple things like going into a public space and NOT having signs in Māori and in English. Announcements over loud speakers NOT in both languages. And how this made her feel.

I was shocked, it had never occurred to me that in many countries you go through airports or train stations and hear announcements and see multilingual signage, but here in New Zealand, we don't even bother apart from the cursory "Kia Ora" that Air New Zealand hosts greet you with.

Earlier this year, I traveled to Ireland. There, the signs are in Irish and English, the music, the fervor in the religion, the feel of everything gave you a distinct taste of their culture. The Irish undoubtedly had to battle and lost many lives to keep their culture from the clutches of colonialism, but the Māori have fought a hard battle too. They haven't done it with bombs and underground movements, but with political protests, petitions, and lawyers. In many ways a very genteel, colonialesque way to make their voices heard. Obviously, these are two very different cultures with their own sets of issues but in many ways, similarities spring to mind.

"For Māori, low expectations and student alienation play out through high suspension rates, over-representation in special education, low educational attainment, and leaving school early with fewer qualifications than students from dominant cultural groups" (Ministry of Education, 2006). (cited in Savage et al, 2011). One way I have tried to lessen this gap is by having a culturally responsive pedagogy (or attempting it). I really believe Māori should be achieving at a better rate, but I'm very aware of singling Māori out and making them different to their classmates. The good thing about this is that I have the same high expectations of them as I do of any other student, however, the negative is that their culture and their Māori lens on the world is not treated as special in the land they belong in. I litter my instructions and walls with te reo, but it's not really enough and I know that. Gay (2010) discusses how important intangible culture is, those things such as values, beliefs, perspectives, assumptions that come with each student.

I could approach community experts, but sometimes the Māori community feels closed off from the non-Māori. I would like to know how to bridge the gap, but there's that awful personal feeling of ashamedness and embarrassment I mentioned earlier that keeps me from asking the question.

In our school, we have given such a drive to being this new innovative learning culture that although we have the correct policies and procedures in place for Māori and how we track their success, we are letting them down in our day to day teaching. There's not enough professional development in the Treaty of Waitangi and culturally responsive pedagogy and how we can enrich learning for Māori.

In our planning and assessment, we identify our priority learners and this includes Māori, but we don't change programmes because of this, we simply know that we need to be keeping a closer eye on these students' progress and intervene or extend them where necessary. Gutschlag (2007) discusses taking into account and understanding the links between culture, ethnicity, class and the education system. To do this properly we really need to further our education and reflect on how we address this as educators.

References:

Gutschlag, A. N. I. T. A. (2007). Some implications of the Te Kotahitanga model of teacher positioning. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 4(1), 3-10.

Savage,C, Hindleb, R., Meyerc,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetitob, W. & Sleeterd, C.(2011) Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198

Teaching Tolerance. ( 2010, Jun 17).Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8