Activities 14: Evaluations of the cultural responsiveness in practice

Evaluations of the cultural responsiveness in practice

This blog post aims to evaluate how my school or I address cultural responsiveness in practice in at least 3 of the following areas:

Vision, mission, and core values, policies, planning and goals have been evaluated using the Wesley Intermediate schools strategic and charter documents 2015-2018

Evaluation of cultural responsiveness in practice at Wesley Intermediate School.

Teachers:

As a staff we recently reviewed what we were doing to meet the requirements of the charter, appraisal and strategic aims documents. In our review we found that a lot of different approaches were being used in each class and via the WIS curriculum document but some areas needed to be more focused. During my visits into the classrooms for appraisal of the assessment for learning, I found most teachers were using performance data to discuss with students about their learning and thus having a similar approach stated by Russell Bishop in his term for agentic teachers.Teachers were also using engaging ways to create a context for learning through students first world and develop safe learning environments whilst using PB4L practices which enhanced learning outcomes for Maori learners within teachers target groups. 

Senior Leadership:

As part of the senior leadership this year, I have found that more could have been done to challenge ourselves regarding catering to the needs of Maori learners. We have recently employed a Maori teacher who is passionate about teaching tikanga and te reo to our other classroom teachers and students. She recently helped with teaching the whole school staff about Matariki and the providing PD and resources, so I suppose as a leadership team we have done well by employing her, where we ourselves may have lacked knowledge to teacher Maori tikanga and Te Reo. 

At the Board of Trustees level:

Recently our Board of trustess also has elected to do more Professional development in the areas of Ka Hikatia and and Tataiako. The Board has however implmented a number of changes to the Maori education plan as set out in the strategic aims from last year, which were to effectively engage with our parents in response the needs of Maori learners. BOT members contacted parents directly and asked them questions which were collated and presented to the BOT to make decisions for resourcing and planning a Maori Education plan along with the Principal.