Our Learning Philosophy |
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Our approach is encapsulated by the following summary of the "Teaching to the North East" approach - by professor Russell Bishop.
We are social creatures, wired to connect we are made through relationships. Our mental health and well-being is co-created through our relationships.
(Deborah Hill-Cone, 2018).
The family is the most important organisation in the world.
(Sir Michael Caine, 2018).
If we are to successfully address educational inequalities, firstly we need to consciously place positive relationship-forming practices at the very centre of whatever we do in education. Unless we attend to this aspect of education, everything else we do will not be as productive as it might be.
We do it by invoking what actor Sir Michael Caine recently identified as the most important organisation in the world, the family. It is this universal institution that provides us with those relational experiences that build our well-being, our mental health, and our ability to participate in the world on our own terms. It is also not just the nuclear family that we turn to for inspiration; it is the wider extended family.
It is in our extended families where we learn to love others, to care for and be cared for, to develop expectations, and strive to meet them. It is where older, more knowledgeable others know what we need to learn and how we can best learn important cultural practices and culturally-generated modes of making sense of the world.
To constitute our classrooms as if they were extended families, therefore, would engender totally different relationships than are developed within classrooms based upon the need to transfer knowledge and skills alone. In this sense, the notion of Relationship-based Learning. This is the means whereby teachers and other school leaders - acting as Leaders of Learning for those whose learn ing they are responsible or are supporting-create a relational context for learning (the relationship base) and interact with learners and monitor their learning within this context in ways that we know promote further and self-determined learning.
Relationship-based Learning is a form of culturally-responsive pedagogy (CRP), in that it allows for that which marginalised students bring to the conversation. That is, they are enabled to bring their cultural knowledges, understandings, and sense-making processes to the forefront.
Owen Eastwood writes about Belonging in his book of the same title - "Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness:" - 2021.
Eastwood, of Māori and Irish ancestry, talks about the South Pacific as a place where the three most powerful words that can be uttered to you are "you belong here".
The primal human needs that still direct us today:
When the sun shines on us we are alive, we are strong. For we have had passed down to us a culture that immerses us in deep belonging. We feel safe and respected. We share beliefs and a sense of identity with those around us and this anchors us. We share a purpose with them. We share a vision of the future.
We fit in here. Rituals and traditions tie us together. The experiences and wisdom of those who walked in the light before our time are passed on to us.
Whakapapa points a finger at us and tells us, You will not be judged by your money or celebrity or sense of self pride ... you will be judged by what you did for our tribe.
When the sun is shining on us, we must be guardians of our tribe and of each other. This is how I have come to understand whakapapa. Beyond kin, whakapapa frames our connection to any group we belong to.
In ‘The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups’ (2018) Coyle explains how to build group culture – what he describes as “one of the most powerful forces on the planet”. He identified the specific skills that tap into our social brains to build group competency.
Amy Edmondson, Harvard University (1999) states, “As humans, we are very good at reading cues; we are incredibly attentive to interpersonal phenomena.” She explains there is a part of our brain continually focused on what others think of us – especially those we feel responsible to.
She notes that this ‘ancient’ part of our brain causes us to equate social rejection with likely death. This reptilian part of our brain operates without our conscious thought – the freeze, fight or flight response system that automatically kicks in when we are faced with danger. This is a primal need to belong, be socially accepted and acceptable.
We are social creatures, wired to connect we are made through relationships. Our mental health and well-being is co-created through our relationships.
(Deborah Hill-Cone, 2018).
The family is the most important organisation in the world.
(Sir Michael Caine, 2018).
If we are to successfully address educational inequalities, firstly we need to consciously place positive relationship-forming practices at the very centre of whatever we do in education. Unless we attend to this aspect of education, everything else we do will not be as productive as it might be.
We do it by invoking what actor Sir Michael Caine recently identified as the most important organisation in the world, the family. It is this universal institution that provides us with those relational experiences that build our well-being, our mental health, and our ability to participate in the world on our own terms. It is also not just the nuclear family that we turn to for inspiration; it is the wider extended family.
It is in our extended families where we learn to love others, to care for and be cared for, to develop expectations, and strive to meet them. It is where older, more knowledgeable others know what we need to learn and how we can best learn important cultural practices and culturally-generated modes of making sense of the world.
To constitute our classrooms as if they were extended families, therefore, would engender totally different relationships than are developed within classrooms based upon the need to transfer knowledge and skills alone. In this sense, the notion of Relationship-based Learning. This is the means whereby teachers and other school leaders - acting as Leaders of Learning for those whose learn ing they are responsible or are supporting-create a relational context for learning (the relationship base) and interact with learners and monitor their learning within this context in ways that we know promote further and self-determined learning.
Relationship-based Learning is a form of culturally-responsive pedagogy (CRP), in that it allows for that which marginalised students bring to the conversation. That is, they are enabled to bring their cultural knowledges, understandings, and sense-making processes to the forefront.
Owen Eastwood writes about Belonging in his book of the same title - "Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness:" - 2021.
Eastwood, of Māori and Irish ancestry, talks about the South Pacific as a place where the three most powerful words that can be uttered to you are "you belong here".
The primal human needs that still direct us today:
- our need to belong converted into an emotive identity story
- our need for a shared purpose transformed into a vision of the future
- our need for shared beliefs to be translated into a code of how to behave.
When the sun shines on us we are alive, we are strong. For we have had passed down to us a culture that immerses us in deep belonging. We feel safe and respected. We share beliefs and a sense of identity with those around us and this anchors us. We share a purpose with them. We share a vision of the future.
We fit in here. Rituals and traditions tie us together. The experiences and wisdom of those who walked in the light before our time are passed on to us.
Whakapapa points a finger at us and tells us, You will not be judged by your money or celebrity or sense of self pride ... you will be judged by what you did for our tribe.
When the sun is shining on us, we must be guardians of our tribe and of each other. This is how I have come to understand whakapapa. Beyond kin, whakapapa frames our connection to any group we belong to.
In ‘The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups’ (2018) Coyle explains how to build group culture – what he describes as “one of the most powerful forces on the planet”. He identified the specific skills that tap into our social brains to build group competency.
- Build Safety
- Share vulnerability
- Establish purpose
Amy Edmondson, Harvard University (1999) states, “As humans, we are very good at reading cues; we are incredibly attentive to interpersonal phenomena.” She explains there is a part of our brain continually focused on what others think of us – especially those we feel responsible to.
She notes that this ‘ancient’ part of our brain causes us to equate social rejection with likely death. This reptilian part of our brain operates without our conscious thought – the freeze, fight or flight response system that automatically kicks in when we are faced with danger. This is a primal need to belong, be socially accepted and acceptable.
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Relationships
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Whanaungatanga
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Culturally Responsive
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Relationships
There are three key relationships that impact our learning and our future -
Teaching and learning must focus on strengthening all three for our future and that of our world.
Teaching through relationships posits that teachers who have knowledge about their students will be better able to teach them. It describes the complex social environment in which students and teachers converse, share experiences, and participate in activities that, together, make for engaged learning.
Teaching through relationships, recognises the human stories of the learners themselves, as well as that of the teacher. It is an approach that embraces our complex identities, biographies, and the stories we bring that serve to humanise the teaching and learning process.
Lev Vygotsky was a child psychologist who asserted that learning is relational, and that language/conversation is central to the relational aspects of learning. Vygotsky emphasises the role of community and how that facilitates the learning process.
John Hattie weighs in on relationships by stating,“It is teachers who have created positive teacher student relationships that are more likely to have the above average effects on student achievement.”
Martin Buber states that consciousness itself only arises through relationship. Buber understood that the social framework of teaching is fundamental to how we learn and to the development of human culture in general. Buber was an early proponent of the idea that the best way to teach a student is to see him or her not as an "it," but as a whole, complex, and empathetic human being.
Teaching through relationships alerts each student that he or she is seen as another being and, in response, makes them all more attentive.
In the Natal tribes of South Africa, members greet each other with "Sawubona," which means, "I see you." Their response is "ngikhona," which means, "I am here.” This is connecting and being present in the relationship is at the heart of teaching through relationships.
In terms of the land, the connection is easy to make. In healthy families the child’s relationship with their mother is paramount, it is the rock on which life itself is founded. Maori refer to the earth, the land, the environment, as Papatuanuku - mother earth.
We are from the land and of the land.
For Maori, their connection to the land is at the core of their identity. The whenua and pito (umbilical cord) of the first human created from earth were buried in the earth. This is the origin of the proverb ‘He taonga no te whenua, me hoki ano ki te whenua’ (What is given by the land should return to the land). (22)
There are three key relationships that impact our learning and our future -
- our relationship with others
- our relationship with ourselves
- our relationship with the environment.
Teaching and learning must focus on strengthening all three for our future and that of our world.
Teaching through relationships posits that teachers who have knowledge about their students will be better able to teach them. It describes the complex social environment in which students and teachers converse, share experiences, and participate in activities that, together, make for engaged learning.
Teaching through relationships, recognises the human stories of the learners themselves, as well as that of the teacher. It is an approach that embraces our complex identities, biographies, and the stories we bring that serve to humanise the teaching and learning process.
Lev Vygotsky was a child psychologist who asserted that learning is relational, and that language/conversation is central to the relational aspects of learning. Vygotsky emphasises the role of community and how that facilitates the learning process.
John Hattie weighs in on relationships by stating,“It is teachers who have created positive teacher student relationships that are more likely to have the above average effects on student achievement.”
Martin Buber states that consciousness itself only arises through relationship. Buber understood that the social framework of teaching is fundamental to how we learn and to the development of human culture in general. Buber was an early proponent of the idea that the best way to teach a student is to see him or her not as an "it," but as a whole, complex, and empathetic human being.
Teaching through relationships alerts each student that he or she is seen as another being and, in response, makes them all more attentive.
In the Natal tribes of South Africa, members greet each other with "Sawubona," which means, "I see you." Their response is "ngikhona," which means, "I am here.” This is connecting and being present in the relationship is at the heart of teaching through relationships.
In terms of the land, the connection is easy to make. In healthy families the child’s relationship with their mother is paramount, it is the rock on which life itself is founded. Maori refer to the earth, the land, the environment, as Papatuanuku - mother earth.
We are from the land and of the land.
For Maori, their connection to the land is at the core of their identity. The whenua and pito (umbilical cord) of the first human created from earth were buried in the earth. This is the origin of the proverb ‘He taonga no te whenua, me hoki ano ki te whenua’ (What is given by the land should return to the land). (22)
Whanaungatanga - Family
Being a family; living, learning and playing together as a family - engaging in positive and collaborative relationships with our learners, their families and whānau, our colleagues and the wider community.
Love is at the heart of what it means to be family. Every child needs to be loved, this is what a parent does, and we are Parents in Place. Every child also needs to have someone to love. “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” George Sand.
As social creatures we are wired to connect, and our very well-being and mental health rely upon our developing positive and effective relationships.
Research has shown that developing schools and classrooms as if they were extended families provides educators with settings where Māori and Pacifica students' belonging, participation and individual learning is supported and developed.
This sense of family-ness, for example, promotes a relationship-based education that has much to offer teachers and school leaders currently trying to support those marginalised from the benefits of education.
However, family-like relationships are not enough in themselves to promote improved learning.
Classrooms also need to be places of interaction and dialogue where students of different cultures can bring who they are, what they know and above all, how they understand and make sense of the world to the conversations that generate learning.
A relationship-based approach means that teachers and other school leaders can focus on improving learning.
The Paradigm Shift:
Alvin Toffler in Chapter 18 of his 1970 book, ‘Future Shock, says this, “Mass education was the ingenious machine constructed by industrialism to produce the kind of adults it needed. The problem was ... how to pre-adapt children for a new world – a world of repetitive indoor toil, smoke, noise, machines, crowded living conditions, collective discipline, a world in which time was to be regulated not by the cycle of sun and moon, but by the factory whistle and the clock.”
The solution was an educational system that, in its very structure, simulated this new world.
It was a new model designed to prepare workers for automaton work in the new industrial age of factories - it was a factory model.
The time for this model is past, but inertia born of tradition is hard to overcome. It is hard to return to something that we did not know - the system of teaching and learning that existed for tens of thousands of years, and which got our human race very successfully to this point, is foreign to our immediate knowledge of learning.
With the industrial age came a focus on profit at the expense of the land - something our ancestor educators would never have allowed to happen.
In “Thrive: Schools Reinvented for the Real Challenges We Face:” by Valerie Hannon, Valerie focuses on the question she was tasked with answering for a report on the Future of Learning - “What Is The Purpose of School?”
Valerie contends our great purpose must be ‘Learning to Thrive in a Transforming world’.
Achieving this goal requires us to work together, as a cooperative learning community. Humans do best in communities. This concept is addressed, explained and expounded upon in works such as
Martin Luther King, Gandi, the Dalai Llama, Mother Teresa and many more expound the values and virtues of a service mindset and servant leadership. Mankind has benefitted greatly from such luminaries.
In a school context, the great Booker T Washington wrote in his autobiography about his school Hampton,
“One of the things that impressed itself upon me deeply, the second year, was the unselfishness of the teachers. It was hard for me to understand how any individuals could bring themselves to the point where they could be so happy working for others… I began learning that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
Historically many have not lived their lives according to this calling. As a result, we have now entered the ‘Age of Consequences’ - colloquially ‘where our chickens come home to roost, or where the consequences of our choices catch up with us. This Age of Consequences applies to both the disenfranchised, dispirited, disadvantaged, indigenous people, as well as to the land.
The Age of Consequences applies in a learning context too. New Zealand has invested millions in trying to reverse the trend of underachievement in Maori and Pasifika students. This is an issue for indigenous people in all countries. The rates of poverty, unemployment, ill health, life expectancy and incarceration are worse for indigenous peoples in New Zealand, Australia and USA than they are for non-indigenous people.
All of this demonstrates the challenge we must accept to bring education back on track through robust culturally responsive practice as we address the challenges and opportunities in contemporary pedagogies and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Being a family; living, learning and playing together as a family - engaging in positive and collaborative relationships with our learners, their families and whānau, our colleagues and the wider community.
Love is at the heart of what it means to be family. Every child needs to be loved, this is what a parent does, and we are Parents in Place. Every child also needs to have someone to love. “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” George Sand.
As social creatures we are wired to connect, and our very well-being and mental health rely upon our developing positive and effective relationships.
Research has shown that developing schools and classrooms as if they were extended families provides educators with settings where Māori and Pacifica students' belonging, participation and individual learning is supported and developed.
This sense of family-ness, for example, promotes a relationship-based education that has much to offer teachers and school leaders currently trying to support those marginalised from the benefits of education.
However, family-like relationships are not enough in themselves to promote improved learning.
Classrooms also need to be places of interaction and dialogue where students of different cultures can bring who they are, what they know and above all, how they understand and make sense of the world to the conversations that generate learning.
A relationship-based approach means that teachers and other school leaders can focus on improving learning.
The Paradigm Shift:
Alvin Toffler in Chapter 18 of his 1970 book, ‘Future Shock, says this, “Mass education was the ingenious machine constructed by industrialism to produce the kind of adults it needed. The problem was ... how to pre-adapt children for a new world – a world of repetitive indoor toil, smoke, noise, machines, crowded living conditions, collective discipline, a world in which time was to be regulated not by the cycle of sun and moon, but by the factory whistle and the clock.”
The solution was an educational system that, in its very structure, simulated this new world.
It was a new model designed to prepare workers for automaton work in the new industrial age of factories - it was a factory model.
The time for this model is past, but inertia born of tradition is hard to overcome. It is hard to return to something that we did not know - the system of teaching and learning that existed for tens of thousands of years, and which got our human race very successfully to this point, is foreign to our immediate knowledge of learning.
With the industrial age came a focus on profit at the expense of the land - something our ancestor educators would never have allowed to happen.
In “Thrive: Schools Reinvented for the Real Challenges We Face:” by Valerie Hannon, Valerie focuses on the question she was tasked with answering for a report on the Future of Learning - “What Is The Purpose of School?”
Valerie contends our great purpose must be ‘Learning to Thrive in a Transforming world’.
Achieving this goal requires us to work together, as a cooperative learning community. Humans do best in communities. This concept is addressed, explained and expounded upon in works such as
- “Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari
- “The Book of Humans - The Story of How We Became Us” by Adam Rutherford
- “The Social Leap - How and Why Humans Connect” by William von Hippel
- “The Laws of Human Nature” by Robert Greene
Martin Luther King, Gandi, the Dalai Llama, Mother Teresa and many more expound the values and virtues of a service mindset and servant leadership. Mankind has benefitted greatly from such luminaries.
In a school context, the great Booker T Washington wrote in his autobiography about his school Hampton,
“One of the things that impressed itself upon me deeply, the second year, was the unselfishness of the teachers. It was hard for me to understand how any individuals could bring themselves to the point where they could be so happy working for others… I began learning that those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
Historically many have not lived their lives according to this calling. As a result, we have now entered the ‘Age of Consequences’ - colloquially ‘where our chickens come home to roost, or where the consequences of our choices catch up with us. This Age of Consequences applies to both the disenfranchised, dispirited, disadvantaged, indigenous people, as well as to the land.
The Age of Consequences applies in a learning context too. New Zealand has invested millions in trying to reverse the trend of underachievement in Maori and Pasifika students. This is an issue for indigenous people in all countries. The rates of poverty, unemployment, ill health, life expectancy and incarceration are worse for indigenous peoples in New Zealand, Australia and USA than they are for non-indigenous people.
All of this demonstrates the challenge we must accept to bring education back on track through robust culturally responsive practice as we address the challenges and opportunities in contemporary pedagogies and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Culturally Responsive Practice
In our increasingly diverse schools, culturally responsive practices support the achievement of all students by providing effective teaching and learning in a “culturally supported, learner-centred context, whereby the strengths students bring to school are identified, nurtured, and utilised to promote student achievement” Richards, Brown, & Forde, 2006.
There are several keys to effective Culturally Responsive Practice
Demmert and Towner (2003) further defined culturally based education programs for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students as
Erik Erikson advises, “The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.” Patience is one of the key traits we as a teaching staff settled on as a key to being a great parent - and therefore a great teacher.
The 2018 Ministry document, “Tapasā Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners” has some wonderful guidance for us as culturally responsive practitioners.
The document begins by reminding us that in order to know and understand others, we must first know ourselves.
“It is important that teachers understand their own distinctiveness, identity and culture in deep and meaningful ways in order to genuinely engage and respond to the distinctive identities, languages and cultures of others. The ability to reflect on the beliefs and ideas that are held within ones’ own culture will enable teachers to recognise their inbuilt assumptions…
This is the beginning of the development of the openness and reflection that teachers need to create relationships for learning with learners who have cultural knowledge, languages and experiences different to theirs. Knowing yourself is not only about identity and self-reflection it is to also understand ones’ own biases, prejudices and actions of privileging.”
Tapasa identifies the following characteristics of a ‘good teacher’:
Point two is addressed in the reference to Mitchel’s work (2019) on the importance of pronouncing names.
Point nine addresses the importance of story.
Point eleven references the importance of relationships.
“It is important that teachers understand their own distinctiveness, identity and culture in deep and meaningful ways in order to genuinely engage and respond to the distinctive identities, languages and cultures of others. The ability to reflect on the beliefs and ideas that are held within ones’ own culture will enable teachers to recognise their inbuilt assumptions.
This is the beginning of the development of the openness and reflection that teachers need to create relationships for learning with learners who have cultural knowledge, languages and experiences different to theirs. Knowing yourself is not only about identity and self-reflection it is to also understand ones’ own biases, prejudices and actions of privileging.”
Cultural locatedness means teachers shifting (physically, mentally, emotionally and professionally) learning, teaching and practice into locations or spaces that are safe, comfortable that culturally ‘fit’, and are receptive to the learner.
Culturally Responsive Practice requires we understand each child has a story and is a story. Each child’s name is a story. For all children their name is important. For many, their name is hugely significant - in terms of culture, heritage, family.
Language is also an important tenet of Culturally Responsive Practice. Dr. Anne Poelina, when researching the Nyikina people, who are located in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, was told, “we are our language.”
Students’ cultural learning styles
Original Learning Practice involved hands-on, practical, experiential, play and practice-based learning. It was social, interactive, mentor-based, relationship driven, involved mixed ages and a mix of fun and challenge. It had a clear purpose. Often songs and stories were involved. It was visual - you saw what to do. It involved problem-solving and finding out.
The village raised and educated the child applying Original Practice.
It was successful - for hundreds of thousands of years.
It was a ‘cultural’ way of learning - a way of learning embedded in their roots, their history,
their traditions, their beliefs, their shared-experiences and understandings.
Organising learning so that children rely on each other builds on their diverse communal orientation.
This communal orientation can be summed up in the African proverb, “I am because we are.”
Students’ cultural learning tools
Culturally Responsive Practice requires that we respect each child’s linguistic heritage. We find ways to include and incorporate each child’s language and linguistic heritage within our learning programme and learning environment.
The brain is wired to remember stories and to use the story structure to make sense of the world. Children learn content more effectively if they can create a coherent narrative about the topic or process presented.
Culture is constantly evolving. While children bring with them their past - the gifts, talents and strengths of my family, tribe and ancestors - they are also a product of 21st Century culture. A key teaching and learning tool from this culture is gamification. Language such as stages instead of topics, levelling up instead of passing, quests instead of tests are examples. Gamification highlights progress instead of mistakes. In games, if you fail, you go again. It’s a stage towards levelling up. Working in teams on quests is a gamification approach that children will identify with.
Oral language, music, dance, movement and visual imagery are all ‘original learning tools’ that supported indigenous learners through thousands of years of learning. This concept is addressed through the four original languages.
In our increasingly diverse schools, culturally responsive practices support the achievement of all students by providing effective teaching and learning in a “culturally supported, learner-centred context, whereby the strengths students bring to school are identified, nurtured, and utilised to promote student achievement” Richards, Brown, & Forde, 2006.
There are several keys to effective Culturally Responsive Practice
- Using student strengths as starting points’ and building on their funds of knowledge
- Investing and taking personal responsibility for students’ success
- Creating and nurturing cooperative environments
- Having high behavioural expectations
- Reshaping the prescribed curriculum
- Encouraging relationships among schools and communities
- Critical literacy; engaging students in social justice work
- Making explicit the power dynamics of mainstream society
- Sharing power in the classroom.
Demmert and Towner (2003) further defined culturally based education programs for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students as
- the recognition and use of heritage languages
- pedagogy that stresses traditional cultural characteristics and adult-child interactions
- pedagogy in which teaching strategies are congruent with the traditional culture, as well as contemporary ways of knowing and learning
- curriculum based on traditional culture that places the education of young children in a contemporary context
- strong Native community participation in the planning and operation of school activities
- knowledge and use of the social and political mores of the community.
Erik Erikson advises, “The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.” Patience is one of the key traits we as a teaching staff settled on as a key to being a great parent - and therefore a great teacher.
The 2018 Ministry document, “Tapasā Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners” has some wonderful guidance for us as culturally responsive practitioners.
The document begins by reminding us that in order to know and understand others, we must first know ourselves.
“It is important that teachers understand their own distinctiveness, identity and culture in deep and meaningful ways in order to genuinely engage and respond to the distinctive identities, languages and cultures of others. The ability to reflect on the beliefs and ideas that are held within ones’ own culture will enable teachers to recognise their inbuilt assumptions…
This is the beginning of the development of the openness and reflection that teachers need to create relationships for learning with learners who have cultural knowledge, languages and experiences different to theirs. Knowing yourself is not only about identity and self-reflection it is to also understand ones’ own biases, prejudices and actions of privileging.”
Tapasa identifies the following characteristics of a ‘good teacher’:
- Understands that my identity, language and culture is important to me
- Pronounces my name and words in my language properly
- Recognises that English might not be my and/or my parents’ first language and communicates with us in a way that we can understand
- Respects my parents’ limited English language skills if we don’t speak it fluently
- Makes an effort to learn and use simple words like saying ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ in my language
- Knows that I want my parents to be part of my learning journey and that my parents value being part of that journey
- Communicates well and isn’t afraid to ask me and my parents questions
- Does research to know more about me, my family and my culture and island nation(s) that we come from
- Incorporates stories, legends and myths, events, activities and symbols that I understand and are relevant to me when they are teaching
- Understands the values that are important to me such as faith, spirituality (church) and family
- Is a strong, kind, honest, passionate, open-minded, understanding, flexible and compassionate leader who cares about me
- Knows that I want to learn but in a way and at a pace that is suitable for me.
Point two is addressed in the reference to Mitchel’s work (2019) on the importance of pronouncing names.
Point nine addresses the importance of story.
Point eleven references the importance of relationships.
“It is important that teachers understand their own distinctiveness, identity and culture in deep and meaningful ways in order to genuinely engage and respond to the distinctive identities, languages and cultures of others. The ability to reflect on the beliefs and ideas that are held within ones’ own culture will enable teachers to recognise their inbuilt assumptions.
This is the beginning of the development of the openness and reflection that teachers need to create relationships for learning with learners who have cultural knowledge, languages and experiences different to theirs. Knowing yourself is not only about identity and self-reflection it is to also understand ones’ own biases, prejudices and actions of privileging.”
Cultural locatedness means teachers shifting (physically, mentally, emotionally and professionally) learning, teaching and practice into locations or spaces that are safe, comfortable that culturally ‘fit’, and are receptive to the learner.
Culturally Responsive Practice requires we understand each child has a story and is a story. Each child’s name is a story. For all children their name is important. For many, their name is hugely significant - in terms of culture, heritage, family.
Language is also an important tenet of Culturally Responsive Practice. Dr. Anne Poelina, when researching the Nyikina people, who are located in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, was told, “we are our language.”
Students’ cultural learning styles
Original Learning Practice involved hands-on, practical, experiential, play and practice-based learning. It was social, interactive, mentor-based, relationship driven, involved mixed ages and a mix of fun and challenge. It had a clear purpose. Often songs and stories were involved. It was visual - you saw what to do. It involved problem-solving and finding out.
The village raised and educated the child applying Original Practice.
It was successful - for hundreds of thousands of years.
It was a ‘cultural’ way of learning - a way of learning embedded in their roots, their history,
their traditions, their beliefs, their shared-experiences and understandings.
Organising learning so that children rely on each other builds on their diverse communal orientation.
This communal orientation can be summed up in the African proverb, “I am because we are.”
Students’ cultural learning tools
Culturally Responsive Practice requires that we respect each child’s linguistic heritage. We find ways to include and incorporate each child’s language and linguistic heritage within our learning programme and learning environment.
The brain is wired to remember stories and to use the story structure to make sense of the world. Children learn content more effectively if they can create a coherent narrative about the topic or process presented.
Culture is constantly evolving. While children bring with them their past - the gifts, talents and strengths of my family, tribe and ancestors - they are also a product of 21st Century culture. A key teaching and learning tool from this culture is gamification. Language such as stages instead of topics, levelling up instead of passing, quests instead of tests are examples. Gamification highlights progress instead of mistakes. In games, if you fail, you go again. It’s a stage towards levelling up. Working in teams on quests is a gamification approach that children will identify with.
Oral language, music, dance, movement and visual imagery are all ‘original learning tools’ that supported indigenous learners through thousands of years of learning. This concept is addressed through the four original languages.