From Haggis to Hangi: Cultural Responsiveness in a Proudly Scottish School
I have spent part of the week reading about Cultural Responsiveness and thinking really carefully about the relevance of these ideas for me, and my pedagogy.
Reading the interesting paper entitled "Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student" there was one phrase that really got me thinking about my own school: "Schools that reflect a dominant culture represent invisible cultures that can effectively privilege students who share that dominant cultural identity while simultaneously disadvantaging students whose cultures are different." What if the dominant culture ofyour school, is in fact not the dominant culture of its students?
Thistles, boys in kilts, bagpipes and haggis play a massive role in the culture of our school - but is it our culture. Is there a a clear dichotomy between the traditions, dress, symbols, religion and ceremonies of the culture that the school defines as being dominant, and the traditions, dress, symbols, religion and ceremonies practices by its students. After all, what proportion of our students identify themselves as Scottish? Does this dichotomy illustrate a failure of the school to adapt to the changing face of New Zealand, or is it an example of a school trying to live the example of inclusiveness, tolerance and global consciousness.
While focusing on my own Cultural Responsiveness, in this post I also want to discuss what I see as the successes and 'could do better' for our school.
Perhaps more interestingly, what role do minority cultures play in a proudly Scottish school attended primarily by Pakeha students? With students identifying as Maori making up less than 5% and Pasifika less than 1% what visibility do these groups have in our College? Some cynics would comment that if you study the elite sports teams in our school then these groups are very well represented, but I think that such comments do our school a disservice, as in the relatively short time I have been employed at the school there has been a strong improvement in the visibility of particularly Maori culture and identity at the college.
Kapa Haka is playing an increasingly important roll in our school, an annual powhiri whakatau has been established, regular student hui are held, and the whole school has learnt, and publicly performed the school haka; traditionally the sole domain of the First XV. This is progress.
There is, however one aspect that has arguably declined. At the end of 2016 our teacher of Te Reo left the college; she has not yet been replaced. I feel that this is regrettable, and the promotion of the language must continue to be a priority for the school. Only then can we, in my opinion, claim to be an increasingly culturally responsiveness organisation.
Reading the interesting paper entitled "Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student" there was one phrase that really got me thinking about my own school: "Schools that reflect a dominant culture represent invisible cultures that can effectively privilege students who share that dominant cultural identity while simultaneously disadvantaging students whose cultures are different." What if the dominant culture ofyour school, is in fact not the dominant culture of its students?
Thistles, boys in kilts, bagpipes and haggis play a massive role in the culture of our school - but is it our culture. Is there a a clear dichotomy between the traditions, dress, symbols, religion and ceremonies of the culture that the school defines as being dominant, and the traditions, dress, symbols, religion and ceremonies practices by its students. After all, what proportion of our students identify themselves as Scottish? Does this dichotomy illustrate a failure of the school to adapt to the changing face of New Zealand, or is it an example of a school trying to live the example of inclusiveness, tolerance and global consciousness.
While focusing on my own Cultural Responsiveness, in this post I also want to discuss what I see as the successes and 'could do better' for our school.
Aiming for a Culturally Responsive Classroom
As a teacher of Social Science, I am in the enviable position of assisting students to access material almost daily that is discussing information from a cultural perspectives. Does this meant hat I have a culturally responsive classroom?
Gay's definition (2001, p.106) as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching” perhaps articulates that I am, at least, some of the way to achieving this goal. When I judge myself against her five elements including knowledge about cultural diversity, the culturally integrated content in the curriculum, the development of the learning community, the ability to communicate with culturally diverse students and culturally responsive delivery of instruction, I feel that while I have aspects of completion within my practice, I feel that there is much more to do; particularly in respect to the the development of the learning community.
The reading entitled "Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum" from Savage et al made a really interesting point. In their paper they quote Valenzuela (1999) distinguished
between aesthetic caring, which involved effective expression only, and
authentic caring, which entails deep reciprocity and, in the case of
teachers,taking responsibility for providing an education environment in which
their students thrive. I aim to be authentic.
Where Scotland and Aotearoa Collide
Perhaps more interestingly, what role do minority cultures play in a proudly Scottish school attended primarily by Pakeha students? With students identifying as Maori making up less than 5% and Pasifika less than 1% what visibility do these groups have in our College? Some cynics would comment that if you study the elite sports teams in our school then these groups are very well represented, but I think that such comments do our school a disservice, as in the relatively short time I have been employed at the school there has been a strong improvement in the visibility of particularly Maori culture and identity at the college.
Kapa Haka is playing an increasingly important roll in our school, an annual powhiri whakatau has been established, regular student hui are held, and the whole school has learnt, and publicly performed the school haka; traditionally the sole domain of the First XV. This is progress.
There is, however one aspect that has arguably declined. At the end of 2016 our teacher of Te Reo left the college; she has not yet been replaced. I feel that this is regrettable, and the promotion of the language must continue to be a priority for the school. Only then can we, in my opinion, claim to be an increasingly culturally responsiveness organisation.
Great post, very interesting culture of the school. As you said, is the Scottish cultural flavour of your school helping your students identify with their culture? Is their culture being fostered and used by the cultural responsive teacher or does the Scottish culture take over? Sure it could be said that this fosters community and a sense of belonging, which is important, but are students needs being meet from a cultural perspective? And does this have an impact on students learning, engagement and academic success?
ReplyDeleteThanks Sam. I think that there is potential for the 'Scottishness' that is embraced so publicly, to be the catalyst for students to embrace their own culture more actively, and I think that that would be great. Also, the increasing role of Maori protocol and ceremony in our school ,might lead to a quasi-culture almost where we are Scottish, in Aotearoa. That would be a happy median I think.
DeleteVery interesting post Tom. I think that what you say about your school is true of many high decile schools in New Zealand and particularly the private schools. Christchurch seems to be particularly obseessed with what high school you attended and the schools with high status are those with traditions that hark back to Britain.
ReplyDeleteWhen New Zealand was colonised, there must have been a desire amongst those, who considered themselves to be a cut above the common settlers, to provide their offspring with schools that mimicked the elite British Public schools, such as Eton, Harrow in England and Gordonstoun in
Scotland.
I struggle with the concept of the whole private / public education idea, and that much the same as with private/public hospitals, if you can afford it, you can have access to better resources. However, at least, when parents send their children to private schools, they are choosing to immerse them in a particular culture, such as the Scottish one in your school, Tom.
What I find way less acceptable is the desire of many of our state schools to model themselves on British schools and to preference 19th Century British cultural ideals over indigenous New Zealand ones. An example of this, is the decision of a principal, of a prominent Christchurch state school, to cancel the powhiri, without any consultation with the Maori community of the school. It is interesting that this school has Jerusalem, as its school song, which harks back to the glories of England and funnily enough is one of the key songs of the Lions rugby team.
I think religion has a part to play too. Many of the schools you describe were established by a particular church, and this had led to the strong 'Britishness' of them; and to this day strongly influences their identity. Harnessing the core values of these religions can be beneficial for students, even if many of those students may not have much affinity with religion per se; and the religious grounding is an important part of their school culture.
DeleteI'm not sure that I entirely agree that private schools, or hospitals for that matter, are necessarily isolated in getting access to better resources. I can think of too many products where people with more to spend would not receive products of a perceived higher quality. I feel that the challenge for these school is to ensure that their impact on the wider community is truly significant, and not just self-serving.
Tom, I have my three boys at a private boys primary in Auckland and one of my fears sending them there is, am creating young adults who have no concept of the bi-cultural/multi-cultural community they live in. I want them to embrace their own culture along with an awareness that all cultures should be valued and embraced. I am pleased to say that from a cultural perspective the school is doing this, however it is a work in progress and as in all schools in New Zealand some teachers are doing it better than others. As a parent I would be very concerned if there was no teacher to teach Te Reo at my children's school. I hope you can push the need to appointment someone soon. Good luck.
ReplyDelete