Activity 13: Indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy

Indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy

Outline of blog post: share your own views on your indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy you have implemented appropriate to your student community. 

After reviewing the Russell Bishop, ed talk (2012) video, I have decided that I agree with him in that the educational disparities of Maori Achievement show a great debt for which we as educators can have an effective role in mitigating. Bishop (2012) states that the debt was largely caused by colonization and as seen by other indigenous cultures ie. Aboringines, African and parts of south Americas which is an artefact of post colonialism. It becomes clear that the problem of Maori underachievement needs to be addressed as Bishop (2012) states that -

"as a society we need to address the disparities that show Maori students who are underachieving." Bishop (2012)

 Bishop describes a the Metaphor of fiscal deficits – accumulation of achievement gaps of Maori learners and non Maori learners as a debt to those people who have not been able to achieve.Under article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi and it is significant in underpinning policy which provides ways to implement the article (Findsen, 2012).

I have seen the concept of Ko Tahitanga in action with our school– As I believe that I am an agentic (Bishop 2012) teacher, who has in the past been able to create a  context where young Maori can make learning connections and engagement that brings about improvements on attendance and achievement.
Bishop states that

"agentic teachers do not draw upon deficit models of teaching Maori students. Demonstrate a responsive and relationship centered context for maori students as maori and have high expectations, learning context caters for maori and the pedagogy that they use interactions that increase academic feed forward"
Bishop (2012)

 Teachers also need to consider using -

"a range of strategies effectively, Use evidence of the students performance to guide their teaching and learning. Learning focused relationship." Bishop (2012)

When developing our programme we have tried to enter the students first world and consider the prior knowledge that they bring or have learned through the life experience (Cowie et al. 2011) and address some of the barriers that exist (to counter the deficit model) in the students world and take them into consideration when planning and assessing as to connect to them through their indigenous background or tikanga. In a similar way Vicky Tauli-Corpuz in UNUchannel( 2012,October 1) states that there is the change in the way scientific practices are no longer the preferred method to address the modern problems facing climate change. 

Mike Hogan (Edtalks, 2012) describes the tokenism that exists which is exactly what Bishop is identifying and states that there also needs to be more support from the school, time, very qualified professional development. Bishop (2012) believes that the education system needs to provide sufficient funding and support and this needs to be part of a larger project development. The costs of educational reform compared to the cost of incarceration are evident cases for providing the support by the government.  Bishop (2012) also stated towards the end of his video that the number of Maori in prisons is directly related to the academic achievement/job placement.  

References

Rusell Bishop in Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/49992994

Edtalks.(2012, May 30). Mike Hogan: Culturally responsive practice in a mainstream school. [video file].Retrieved fromhttps://vimeo.com/43097812

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative.

Findsen,B.(2012) .Older adult learning in Aotearoa New Zealand: Structure, trends and issues. Presented at Adult Community Education (ACE) Conference.

UNUchannel( 2012,October 1).. Understanding Indigenous worldviews - Vicky Tauli-Corpuz.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watchv=gXjGPR41zhk&feature=youtu.be