During this 9 years of my teaching journey in New Zealand I felt that my classroom to some extent wasn’t culturally inclusive for all my students. Many of my Māori and Pasifika students were disadvantaged. Either it was due to not enough time, busy schedules, lots of other extra curricular activities happening and the pandemic that took so much of our precious learning time.
After completing my TESSOL studies with The University of Auckland I feel good Pasifika learning requires that the teacher must have all three of the following teaching strategies: allowing Pasifika students respect as a learner; being able to scaffold Pasifika learning at the right level and engaging their Pasifika students in active learning. The Pasifika student must have confidence and trust in their teacher to engage with the teacher in the active pursuit of learning. The classroom teacher must also have confidence in the Pasifika student’s ability e.g., high expectations. If any of the parts described above are missing that means we as teachers must make some changes in our practice.
At GI school Term 1 is always very rewarding and we teachers are blessed to see our students showcasing their talents and culture. They celebrate their culture in a huge way and the whanau is so proud to see their children performing. However, this only lasts till term 1 and afterwards I could see our multicultural school is not doing much for what our children already have. One of the most valuable assets that they have is their cultural values. They know so much yet we as teachers do not actually see the full potential and other great benefits. We are not using their cultural capital which in fact carries so much weight. We are trying to use other modern online teaching resources like Twinkl, Resource cupboard, Reading Eggs and so on to improve their Reading and Writing. I am not saying these resources are of little value . I do agree that it helps, our tamariki enjoy and we as teachers are able to get so many good things for our tamariki. In saying that if our learners interact socially and share their cultural stories, that would actually help them to gain more confidence. Instead of knocking on their prior knowledge, we begin to introduce more new and foreign things that go over their head. Why can’t we understand that this problem can be handled in a much easier and traditional way!
So this is how I have stepped into 2023 by being more visible in culturally responsive teaching. That means using students' customs, characteristics, experience, and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction.
I love your comment in regards to some of the resources that we chose to use as teachers, like Reading Eggs and Twinkl. They are often effective but do not always reflect our learners cultural identity. I know, I have found it challenging over the years to find or create resources that reflect the Pacifica culture of my learners. I am interested to see how you design learning for you class that brings out the absolute best in them as young people! You're amazing!!!
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