Indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness in my practice

Week 28 

I attended the Trans Tasman Principal's Conference in Auckland a couple of weeks ago. The theme for the conference was Knowledge in Our Hands. There was a large focus on acknowledging the culture of both lands and sharing of information. 

I was proud to be part of the New Zealand contingent as waiata supported korero again and again throughout the conference. Many of our Australian counterparts commented that we were so far ahead of Australia in this acknowledgement of the indigenous peoples of our land. 

There was a strong cultural theme at the conference and conversations with other delegates demonstrated  examples of  excellent practice at schools that are really honouring the bicultural nature of our country. Attendance at the conference and particularly the workshop run by Te Ringakaha Tia-Ward, What Works for Maori Works for All, have really made me reflect on what culturally responsive practice looks like or will look like at St Francis of Assisi School.

Tia-Ward talked about the journey to change the face of education at Whangarei Intermediate to allow Māori to succeed as Māori. He was generous in sharing initiatives they have put in place on their journey especially the Maori Achievement strategic plan. At times during his presentation I felt that he was speaking directly to me. I certainly felt challenged to do a better job than I was currently doing for Maori students at St Francis of Assisi. Even though it is never our intent sometimes what we are doing could be seen as tokenism and this is not something I am proud of at all. 

We have not yet consulted with our Maori community about what their aspirations for their children; we want to develop shared understandings about Maori enjoying and acheiving success as Maori looks like.

We are currently working on a draft programme of work for Te Reo, The Senior Leadership Team is teaching Te reo and Tikanga Maori in each of the hubs fortnightly, We have Senior and Junior Kapahaka groups that are extremely well attended. Our senior group meet at 8am each Thursday - this has been such a good decision as we have found we have parents and caregivers (and younger students) coming for the whole session which just wouldn't happen if we were running Kapahaka in the middle part of the day.

I am sure we could capitalise on this opportunity to begin to consult with our Maori community about student achievement and aspirations.

Ka Hikitia is the Government's strategy to guide schools and their communities to ensure that their schools work well for every Maori student. 

The Board of Trustees is accountable for the performance of the school, with a key focus on raising student achievement for all students at the school.

Cultural Responsiveness is the way in which a school responds to the aspirations of our Maori community - Boards need to build policy and procedures that support the achievement of our Maori students - and as stated by Tia-Ward (2016) this will in turn support the achievement of all of our students. 

So... where to from here for St Francis of Assisi School?

We have a brand new Board of Trustees - everyone is new as this is the inaugural Board. We will need to spend some time getting training for our trustees so that everyone understands their responsibilities in relation to Maori achievement. Hautu is a cultural responsiveness self review tool that has been developed for BOT's to use to review how well they are doing in this area. This would be a good place to start - it is  designed to be flexible and to help BOTs plan a way forward from wherever it is that they are starting.

We are currently embarking on consulting with the community on establishing a vision for the school and we are planning on how we can engage with all stakeholders - we need to do this well. How will we ensure that our Maori stakeholders are represented in planning and decision making at this level?

- consultation with local iwi for next steps

- engage Grow Waitaha for support in this area

- whanau hui to share Maori interim achievement data

In order to make any of the above successful we will also need to evaluate our communication methods. Currently we communicate by newsletters (posted on the website and emailed and now accessible on the new school app); emails; blogs. It is time now to ask our parents to give us feedback on the communication methods and ensure that we are meeting the needs of all our stakeholders.

References

Ministry of Education. (2013). Ka Hikitia Accelerating Success 2013-2017. The Maori Education Strategy. Wellington, NZ.

NZSTA. Hautu - Cultural Responsiveness Self review Tool. http://www.nzsta.org.nz/professional-development/hautu-maori-cultural-responsiveness-self-review-tool-for-boards-of-trustees