APC Activity 9 - Cultural Responsiveness

In reading the class notes for this topic, I liked the reminder that culture is not exclusive to race or ethnicity, but comprises the unique features of a community. The notes also include this summary and outline of cultural responsiveness:

Cultural responsiveness is a relationship based approach which allows for culturally appropriate responses to diverse communities based on a range of factors:

• The capacity to work with the community to support culturally appropriate programs and practices

• The necessary resources to create and support programs, policies, and

• Practices that are culturally responsive to community needs

• Strategic collaborations to enhance cultural responsiveness

This week we are sharing our views on our own indigenous knowledge and culturally responsive pedagogy, then considering how our school addresses cultural responsiveness.

I would consider my own knowledge and pedagogy as constantly evolving. My knowledge is there and I certainly make attempts at making my pedagogy as responsive as possible, but it is an area I need - and want - to improve in. I feel I have an inherent respect for diversity, however am not always actively putting it into practice in my teaching.

In this video, principal Mike Hogan refers to the tokenism we can end up with if due attention isn't given to culture. This is something I'm particularly aware of in my own practice, and am sometimes nervous that my attempts at cultural responsiveness will actually be tokenistic and surface level. This can sometimes put me off altogether.

Our school certainly addresses cultural responsiveness, and I believe we are doing so in a very genuine way. There is always more to do and more to learn but our community and staff have a real desire to make this a priority.

An area in which we do particularly well is school-wide activities - which also includes community connections. We have introduced a number of new initiatives over the last couple of years such as a whole school karakia and waiata every morning, a powhiri to welcome new students and staff at the beginning of every term, community hui and whole school hangi. These have all been a huge success and are now a well-established part of our school culture. They also involved extensive involvement of and assistance from the community, both at execution and planning stages. Our morning karakia in particular reflects our school approach, and gets many positive comments and reactions from visitors.

Though I do not presume to speak for all my colleagues, I feel that an area we are still working on is bringing this responsiveness more specifically into our planning, assessment and learning activities. As mentioned above, this is a personal goal of mine and something I find quite difficult. I believe as a school in general it is challenging as well. We are, however, making a concerted effort to improve all the time, drawing on experts in our staff and community, and learning from each other. I have no doubt that all staff are mindful and respectful of all cultures, and this is a central value in our school. It is the specific application that can be harder to enact.


References:

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