Due: 19th September
Nau te rourou, naku te rourou, ka ora te manuhiri.
With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive.
Culturally responsive leadership is an integral aspect of effective educational leadership in New Zealand. This module explores the fundamental concepts of culturally responsive leadership and its significance within the unique cultural context of New Zealand schools.
We are aware that there is a continuum of experiences and expertise among our delegates so please explore the area(s) most relevant to you below.
Defining Culturally Responsive Leadership
Culturally responsive leadership refers to a leadership approach that recognises, respects, and integrates the diverse cultural backgrounds and identities of students, staff, and the community within the educational environment. This approach prioritises inclusivity, equity, and culturally sensitive practices.
Key Components of Culturally Responsive Leadership:
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Cultural Competence: Culturally responsive leaders demonstrate cultural competence by developing a deep understanding of their own cultural biases and beliefs. They actively seek to learn about the cultures represented in their school community.
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Inclusive Leadership: Inclusive leaders foster an environment where all students and staff feel valued and included, regardless of their cultural background. They promote an atmosphere of respect and acceptance.
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Cultural Awareness: Culturally responsive leaders are attuned to the cultural needs and preferences of their students and staff. They adapt their leadership style to accommodate these differences, making the educational experience more relevant and engaging.
Culture Matters!
Culture significantly shapes our thinking, perception, actions, and communication. Learning is intricately linked to culture, meaning that even when the classroom’s teaching methods, resources, curriculum, and relationships remain the same, students’ experiences may differ due to their cultural perspectives and prior knowledge. Problems arise when educators are unaware of the diverse knowledge and experiences diverse students bring to learning. Even if a teacher shares the same culture as their students, understanding their backgrounds isn’t guaranteed as cultural understandings and behaviours vary within cultural groups, and teachers may miss cultural cues. It’s vital not to ignore these differences or treat all students uniformly, but instead, move from cultural blindness to cultural responsiveness.
Bias, Unconscious Bias and Racism:
Biases in educational leadership can manifest in various ways, often stemming from deep-seated societal prejudices. These biases may result in unequal opportunities, resource allocation, and disciplinary practices for students of different backgrounds. Educational leaders, whether consciously or unconsciously, may favour certain groups while unintentionally disadvantaging others. These biases can hinder the creation of inclusive, equitable learning environments, perpetuating disparities in academic achievement and student well-being. Addressing biases in educational leadership is crucial for fostering fairness and ensuring that every student has an equal opportunity to succeed academically and personally. It requires self-awareness, ongoing education, and a commitment to dismantling discriminatory practices to create a more just and equitable educational system.
In leadership and teaching positions we need to be aware of unconscious biases and how these might affect the way in which we operate in a school setting; towards children, colleagues and whanaū. An unconscious bias is more difficult to overcome and can be defined as such:
“Refers to a bias that we are unaware of and which happens outside of our control. It is a bias that happens automatically and is triggered by our brain making quick judgements and assessments of people and situations, influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal experiences.” – Equality Challenge Unit UK: Unconscious Bias in Higher Education Review 2013.
In New Zealand schools students can also experience outright racism, as explored in this article on Mana College – https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/racism-in-schools-calls-for-cultural-competency-in-the-classroom/JNSGWAYUUQI5RH65F3535A7YII/
Our Responsibility as School Leaders in Aotearoa:
School leaders clearly have a responsibility to ensure schools are safe and equitable places for learners and their whanau. We know that culturally responsive pedagogies have the potential to narrow the disparities in our school communities, concurrently elevating the overall levels of achievement. Extensive research indicates that these culturally responsive pedagogical approaches boost student performance across diverse cultural groups, ensuring every student is motivated and has the assistance required to unlock their educational potential, irrespective of their social, economic, cultural background, or individual requirements.
In this video, Professor Mere Berryman explains the need and the opportunity to use evidence to make a difference in education in Aotearoa, and why a Tiriti o Waitangi partnership approach – Mana Ōrite – is foundational to success for diverse Māori learners and for all learners in English-medium education.
Provocation:
Research tells us that there are some key aspects of culturally responsive pedagogy:
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Reflect on your cultural knowledge and teaching assumptions related to culture
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Learn about your students
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Use students’ cultural knowledge, perspectives and skills as a resource for teaching
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Create a safe and supportive environment and build strong relationships
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Encourage a discursive curriculum and enable student self-determination
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Connect with families
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Connect with communities
Select one or two aspects from the list above and reflect on what your school does well in this regard and what next steps you would take to further develop your school’s cultural responsiveness.
Comment on a fellow delegate’s response, remembering that every school is at a different place in this journey. You might offer support if there is a next step you can help with, reassurance if you have been on a similar journey, help with a resource you have found useful etc.
Optional Resources:
Explore the resources most relevant to you.
Working effectively with iwi and hapū, Melanie Taite-Pitama: https://vimeo.com/242861287
Puketeraki Kāhui Ako: Culturally responsive practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQusPg98GcQ
A website with many useful resources and links: https://elearning.tki.org.nz/Leadership/Culturally-responsive-leadership#js-tabcontainer-1-tab-5
Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (BES): https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/5959
“The real conspiracy is that education is for the rich” L. O’Connell Rapira – https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-08-2020/the-real-conspiracy-is-that-education-is-for-the-rich
“They didn’t care about normal kids like me”: Restructuring a school to fit the kids” A. Milne – https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/6234
“Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools” A. Milne – https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/7868
10 Responses
Use students’ cultural knowledge, perspectives and skills as a resource for teaching:
As a school we have just recently celebrated ‘International Cultural Week’. Throughout the year we celebrate, along with other schools in NZ, different cultures from around the world. As a school we have found that these weeks only touch a certain percentage of cultures within our community, so we wanted every student to feel a part of a celebration.
For the week, we used the students’ direction to help plan and teach lessons across the curriculum, and be involved in activities that they were able to express who they are. In my pod, we had 6 students stand up and present their cultures and traditions to the class, together with parents traditional food was cooked and shared, and our students then presented it in other classes across the school. This gave all students in the pod a valuable insight into the other students’ lives and how their cultures impact their daily lives. To end the week, we held a Culture Parade where students, teachers, parents and wider whānau were invited to dress in their chosen culture outfits. This was a beautiful moment for everyone, as for 45 minutes, every student got to showcase their culture and walk with pride in front of their peers.
As a Leadership team we reflected on the success of this week and have decided to make it an annual celebration for our students. Our next steps is looking at having making sure things are not put in place at the last minute, have more school wide events so that all classes are involved, advertise the week with more information for whānau and the community, share ideas across the teaching staff so we not in isolation with what they we are doing, use our senior students to help plan events, activities and presenting opportunities to share their knowledge and expertise.
An area that I personally want to continue developing with my school’s culture responsiveness is our teachers celebrating the diversity of their students in class and being willing to share their own culture – being proud of who they are as well. I did find it hard that not many teachers put in the time and effort that our students had and want to encourage their engagement as well.
Learn about your students & Connect with Families:
At our school we start each year with students completing tasks sharing about themselves (their likes, dislikes, hobbies, strengths, culture, family etc). We also encourage teachers to send home a letter introducing themselves and their family and ask parents to write their child’s teacher a letter about their child. This is always insightful and helpful information and gives staff a good understanding of each individual student in their classrooms. Asking parents for these letters also opens up the lines of communication and connection between home and school. Throughout the year we also have whanau evenings, huis, fonos and parent/teachers/student conferences to have opportunities to continue these discussions. Twice a year we celebrate our cultural diversity at school and students and parents are given the opportunity to share about their culture. Students look forward to sharing about their culture with their classmates and teachers.
Our huis and fonos and parent/teachers/student conferences have given parents the opportunity to share their concerns, hopes and dreams for their children, and their background which has strengthened relationships between staff and parents. One outcome from one of our fono evenings was that our Pasifika families connected with each other and staff and then banded together to offer to run workshops for the classes celebrating and teaching about the different Pacific cultures and countries. This has become an annual event that students, staff and parents enjoy.
We also run a weekly coffee group for our new entrant parents which is run by our NE teachers. The teachers take turns sharing tips with the parents about how to support their child at home but it is also a great opportunity to build relationships and connections between the NE teachers and parents as well as parents to connect to other parents at school.
Next steps you would take to further develop your school’s cultural responsiveness
Encourage staff to reflect on their cultural knowledge and teaching assumptions related to culture and become more aware of the impact that has on their students. Continue to develop staff’s knowledge, understanding, awareness and pedagogical approaches for Maori students to improve opportunities for Maori to achieve success as Maori. (We have started to work on this with the Maori Achievement Collaborative).
To foster a safe, supportive and culturally rich learning environment for all students, we have established Curriculum Lead Teams. These teams, consisting of diverse staff members, play a crucial role in ensuring that our curriculum reflects the cultural richness of our community. By bringing together a cross-section of voices, these teams support us to ensure that all aspects of our school’s curriculum are informed by a culturally responsive lens.
I really resonate with what most of the previous responses have said in regards to ‘connection with families and communities. This is an area that our Kura continues to work on. I really enjoyed reading about the regular hui and fono evenings, as mentioned by Brieta. I have taken note of the ideas behind these regular sessions as well as the cultural weeks. These are areas that we have tried, but in reflection, we didn’t invest enough passion behind these to allow them to be a feature of our school calendar and a positive impact upon our culturally rich school whanau. I feel enlivened to re engage in these ideas to see the connections within our school grow further, deeper and more meaningful for all of us. A celebration of WHO WE ARE.
Hi Phillip
I highly recommend these regular huis and fonos as they are a very valuable time to connect with families and get them involved. I work alongside Brieta, and as a result of our fonos we have seen our Pasifika community in particular take ownership of running a Pasifika Celebration Cultural day each year. It is a highlight of our year and it is assuring to know that we have people who are experts sharing about their culture authentically.
Provocation:
Learn about your students
Taking the time to get to know students and their whanau is paramount in creating a supportive environment at school for all students.
The beginning of the year starts with Teachers inviting families to share a family photo (with their child) and write a small blurb about what their child likes, doesn’t like, what is important to them as a family and how they spend time together.
This is then organized as a class display where students can share with each other and when we have our Whanāu evening where Parents are invited into the classroom it encourages conversations with the family and the teachers.
For the Parents – it helps them feel that their child matters and is known. For the Teacher it highlights the funds of knowledge and cultural capital families bring to the classroom and to the school – tapping into these “funds of knowledge” / strengths with the learning happening in class, asking Parents to come and share or teach from their rich cultural backgrounds in language, culture and identity.
Throughout the term students and Teachers refer back to the display, and add as the year progresses. It becomes a wall of celebration and successes.
Connect with families and communities
Celebrating cultural diversity in our school within cultural weeks, having Parents volunteering their time to come and teach students about their culture and broadening the horizons of teachers, students and our community as we learn from each other.
Having had regular hui and fono evenings, it helps to build on connecting with our families and community. The first of these evenings were focused on getting to know the families, and how they ended up at our school. The second evening was focused more on the students in our classrooms, learning about their strengths and areas that they shine in school and outside of school. Following up from there our focus was on what our Parents hopes and dreams are for their tamariki’s futures. Hearing this and then coming alongside our families to support our students for a future and a hope to reach their potential.
In a previous module there was feedback about shifting / minimizing the power imbalance and having cultural evenings at a different venue. This was the route one of the schools went and found it very successful.
I have been reflecting on this statement/success story, and looked at our fono and hui evenings to see if it would benefit our families / community to have a different venue.
The conclusion I reached is because we are a primary school and we are building connections with families starting from year 0, having these evenings on-site is a way for our students to feel safe and secure in the known school environment.
Continuously reflecting and checking to see if we are connecting with our families, by asking questions and having conversations rather than relying on assumptions we as a school have made. Leaning into our elders in our community to help guide us in the where next with our families.
I’ve posted here as well as I am not sure which thread to post to.
Connecting with Families
My school has implemented the following strategies to connect with families:
Regular communication: We have consistent communication channels, like newsletters, weekly emails from class teachers, and parent-teacher conferences which help keep families informed about their child’s progress and school events.
Family involvement: My school encourages family participation in activities like volunteering, field trips, and after-school programs.
Cultural celebrations: At my school, we celebrate diverse cultures through cultural events, language weeks and lessons that help create a welcoming and inclusive environment.
Parent evenings: We have parent evenings on topics like internet safety, health topics that we are teaching and on educational resources that can empower families to support their children’s learning.
While these practices are valuable, I believe that my school can further enhance their cultural responsiveness by:
Having a culturally relevant curriculum: By this I mean that we can incorporate diverse perspectives and experiences into the curriculum to ensure all students see themselves reflected in the learning materials.
Building staff cultural competency: I believe that we need to provide professional development opportunities for staff to increase their understanding of different cultures and how to effectively interact with diverse students and families.
Building community partnerships: It is important for schools to foster relationships with community organizations and cultural leaders to provide additional resources and support for students and families.
Having inclusive practices: We need to ensure that all school policies and practices are equitable and accessible to students from all backgrounds.
By implementing these strategies, I believe that my school can create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all students and families, fostering a sense of belonging and academic success.
Hi Kalpana
Reading through your list, we have quite a few similarities to what we do as a school and what your school is doing. Building staff cultural competency is such a big and important goal for all schools and educators.
We have had a few Teachers do further study in Tessol and the benefits of encouraging students to bring their rich heritage languages, culture and identity to schools as a strength. In some of the research, Villegas and Lucas (2002, p. 26) argue that: . . . teachers who are knowledgeable about their students’ family lives are better prepared to understand the children’s in-school behaviour, and to incorporate into classroom activities the ‘funds of knowledge’ those families possess.
Which comes back to Teachers knowing their students and the funds of knowledge they bring to the classroom.
I agree, Brieta. Teachers who are culturally aware are more likely to communicate respectfully and avoid misunderstandings. Also, cultural knowledge can help teachers tailor their communication style to meet the needs of diverse learners. Then students feel valued and respected when their cultural backgrounds are acknowledged and celebrated.
Kalpana and Brieta, you have both written about the importance of staff being culturally aware so well. As teachers, taking the time to get to know our students, understand their culture and how to communicate with them and their whānau is valuable.
This year I have 9 students from India in my pod and I didn’t realise how different some of their traditions, religion beliefs, language and hierarchy systems are even though they are from the same country. It was through a conversation with one of these students parents that the teachers within my pod and myself realised we needed to broaden our cultural understanding of all 9 students and show our respect. It has been a really fun journey, along with the students, learning about all of these differences and being able to support them correctly and these students learning about how our traditions and culture works
Connect with Families:
Our family-centered approach in the IEP process is a key strength. By treating families as experts and incorporating student voices, we’ve created an inclusive environment that respects and prioritizes each student’s unique needs and aspirations. This collaboration ensures that educational strategies align with family values and goals, which is essential in a specialist school setting. Our next step is to build on this strength by engaging more effectively with families who may have a lack of trust in the education system or are reluctant to engage.