I grew up in rural Southland where my family ties to Scotland was very loud and proud with the sounds of bagpipes, highland dancing and the ode to the haggis! Being at a rural school where all the children were from generational sheep farmers, my awareness of other cultures was very limited. We had 1 or 2 families who identified with being Maori, who would come and go depending on the shearing season.
Now teaching in a similar rural setting I have noticed how dramatic the demographics of a rural community has become. As my own children are being brought up in a similar lifestyle I can see their experience is truly enriched with the friends they are making that have come from all around the world. Their eyes and emotions are more in tune with many different cultures, which is something I didn't have.
Being culturally responsive means caring for people, and caring for their learning. Bishop, (2012) As a teacher, this is something I endeavour to do in my classroom practice and teaching. As a teacher I do not accept the deficit and have the expectation that everyone will succeed and make progress to the best of their abilities and in their own style.
Our school does well -
One important part of cultural responsive pedagogy begins with student - teacher relationships and more importantly authentic caring which Savage etal (2011) describes as “Authentic caring entails getting to know students, attending to student input regarding teaching and learning, respecting students’ intellectual abilities, and valuing identities students bring into school from home”.
In our staff meetings we always dedicate a time to our priority learners and ESOL children. Our ESOL teacher has a major part in this and all staff are there. This way we can discuss the child in a more holistic way and look at how we as a school community can enhance the learning for this child. this is the benefit to being a small rural school. Over time we all get to know our students and their families very well.
Research by Gay (2002) states there are five essential elements in culturally responsive teaching. They are “developing a knowledge base about cultural diversity, including ethnic and cultural diversity content in the curriculum, demonstrating caring and building learning communities, communicating with ethnically diverse students, and responding to ethnic diversity in the delivery of instruction” (p.106).Now teaching in a similar rural setting I have noticed how dramatic the demographics of a rural community has become. As my own children are being brought up in a similar lifestyle I can see their experience is truly enriched with the friends they are making that have come from all around the world. Their eyes and emotions are more in tune with many different cultures, which is something I didn't have.
Being culturally responsive means caring for people, and caring for their learning. Bishop, (2012) As a teacher, this is something I endeavour to do in my classroom practice and teaching. As a teacher I do not accept the deficit and have the expectation that everyone will succeed and make progress to the best of their abilities and in their own style.
Our school does well -
One important part of cultural responsive pedagogy begins with student - teacher relationships and more importantly authentic caring which Savage etal (2011) describes as “Authentic caring entails getting to know students, attending to student input regarding teaching and learning, respecting students’ intellectual abilities, and valuing identities students bring into school from home”.
In our staff meetings we always dedicate a time to our priority learners and ESOL children. Our ESOL teacher has a major part in this and all staff are there. This way we can discuss the child in a more holistic way and look at how we as a school community can enhance the learning for this child. this is the benefit to being a small rural school. Over time we all get to know our students and their families very well.
Along with this, once a term we hold migrant meetings. This involves the Principal, Board of Trustee reps, the ESOL teacher and a classroom teacher. The families are welcome to bring their children and there is always food involved. We discuss what is happening for the term, they tell us what we are doing well for their children and how we can develop what we have got to make it better for them. Communication is the key to including all.
What we are continuing to develop -
We know we have these great meetings with our families but what we have highlighted is that we still need to incorporate their strengths into our curriculum programme. This would make the families feel they are even more involved, if they can share their knowledge and passions with our children. This is something we are continuing to develop over 2017
With a focus to the Unitec Poutama we are still on step one as we need to incorporate more Maori knowledge concepts to our assessment process, yet looking at relationships we are demonstrating our own principles.
A real interesting and topical perspective, indigenous knowledge and being culturally responsive, on our ever changing landscape of children in our schools... one I think about often but sometimes unsure of whether I do enough in my practise but certainly something that is evolving over time.
Source: Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994
Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.
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-Paciļ¬c Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198:
I really enjoyed your 5 essential elements in culturally responsive teaching encouraging me to read the article to learn more about this topic, especially demonstrating caring and building learning communities (Gay, 2002). Having regular migrant meetings is a great way to demonstrate this among diverse learners and is an essential element of an effective culturally responsive school. Gay (2002) suggests that emphasis should be on holistic or integrated learning and this initiative goes a long way to addressing the whole needs of the community. Ka Pai! I intend to look at how we can provide these types of gatherings for our growing ESOL community. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jan for commenting. Yes, having the regular migrant meetings has certainly broken down the barriers between the perceived ' them and us'. They now attend home and school meetings and are happy to come in and help with school activities.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing great things Kay. I love that you have your ESOL teacher in meetings to discuss your at risk students - certainly has everyone focused and working towards the same goal. Your migrant meetings sound great as well. Do you have many non english speaking parents? How do you get around this and ensure everyone understands what is going on etc? Have thought about trying to do something like this at school having a point of contact person however with so many chinese students and so many dialects spoken the children don't understand each other so not sure how muddled the communication would get with just one or two people being the 'go to' people as such. Love your ideas Kay, you have given me some food for thought for sure!
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