Me mātau ki te whetū, i mua i te kōkiri o te haere
Before you set forth on a journey, be sure you know the stars
Starting at Team Solutions was an induction by fire in the best way possible! I am really looking forward to my new role as a PLD facilitator and learning alongside such an amazing bunch of colleagues. From the first day and then into the noho Marae days people were so welcoming and made the ‘newbies’ feel accepted and reassured that we were about to embark on a learning journey not only to help others but that would also provide us with great professional learning along the way. Day two we headed to Waipapa Marae for two days of professional development around Culturally Responsive and Relational Practice.
This was all a new learning curve for me but through listening to all the presenters it made me reflect and challenge my own ideas about how I see cultural identity within schools and how this would impact on my new role as a PLD facilitator.
Ann Milne spoke about the realities of culture within schools and for most the ‘mainstream’ is the ‘whitestream’. This made me think about how I (and most other teachers) perceive the ‘norm’ in most schools. The white culture as the dominant and other subcultures fitting within those predetermined boundaries, expectations and learning models. So often in schools we unintentionally place barriers to Maori and Pasifika success into the school vision, teaching practice and policies. Barriers which prevent equitable learning. Pedro Noguera spoke about “equity being what students need to be successful”. If I can help schools to get the conditions for learning right by challenging their existing ideas, then students should learn and therefore achieve. If they don’t then it is the process which is flawed and needs to change rather than the child... or in Pedro’s wise words “if you get the conditions right then the vegetables will grow, but if they don’t then you don’t blame the vegetables”. Equity is not just about academic achievement and outcomes. All students have different learning needs and it should not be up to the child to have to adapt to the teaching but rather the other way around.
Ann used the analogy of a white piece of paper which is an image that has stuck in my head. The background is white and then so often we place lines on the paper which children have to work between; writing between the lines, adding colour in between the picture outlines. This is how non-whitestream children feel in the existing New Zealand school system. It is this system that is failing so many Maori students but often the perception is that the child is failing due to a number of external constraints such as family situation, socio-economic status, financial inequity right down to not having a healthy lunch. These things do contribute to the underachievement of Maori students however, my take-aways from this professional development is that we as teachers and educators need to change the system to raise the achievement of our minority groups.
This was all a new learning curve for me but through listening to all the presenters it made me reflect and challenge my own ideas about how I see cultural identity within schools and how this would impact on my new role as a PLD facilitator.
Ann Milne spoke about the realities of culture within schools and for most the ‘mainstream’ is the ‘whitestream’. This made me think about how I (and most other teachers) perceive the ‘norm’ in most schools. The white culture as the dominant and other subcultures fitting within those predetermined boundaries, expectations and learning models. So often in schools we unintentionally place barriers to Maori and Pasifika success into the school vision, teaching practice and policies. Barriers which prevent equitable learning. Pedro Noguera spoke about “equity being what students need to be successful”. If I can help schools to get the conditions for learning right by challenging their existing ideas, then students should learn and therefore achieve. If they don’t then it is the process which is flawed and needs to change rather than the child... or in Pedro’s wise words “if you get the conditions right then the vegetables will grow, but if they don’t then you don’t blame the vegetables”. Equity is not just about academic achievement and outcomes. All students have different learning needs and it should not be up to the child to have to adapt to the teaching but rather the other way around.
Ann used the analogy of a white piece of paper which is an image that has stuck in my head. The background is white and then so often we place lines on the paper which children have to work between; writing between the lines, adding colour in between the picture outlines. This is how non-whitestream children feel in the existing New Zealand school system. It is this system that is failing so many Maori students but often the perception is that the child is failing due to a number of external constraints such as family situation, socio-economic status, financial inequity right down to not having a healthy lunch. These things do contribute to the underachievement of Maori students however, my take-aways from this professional development is that we as teachers and educators need to change the system to raise the achievement of our minority groups.
Picture Source: http://www.annmilne.co.nz/my-blog/2017/10/16/seeing-your-words-in-pictures
My challenge when going into schools in my new role will be to de-centre whiteness and challenge the predetermined ideas that many schools have about how their Maori and Pasifika students learn best and why they are underachieving in the first place. Helping schools and management teams to put cultural practice on a pedestal and embed cultural identity into all aspects of the school day - professional development, pedagogy, planning, assessment, teaching and learning - taking it away from set times and token lessons to it being the driving force behind a schools thinking and student learning.
