Cultural Biases

It wasn't until I did a paper for my Masters on The Role of the Female in Traditional Storytelling that I began to evaluate and understand my privileged position in society as a white, middle class male. I have always thought of myself as being caring and understanding to all people, regardless of race, religion, beliefs, or gender. That paper helped me see that it was easy for me to hold to the belief system I had, simply because of the position I held in society, simply because of my gender, race, and financial stability.

When I did that paper, I found it difficult to actually conceptualise what my culture actually was. I am from English, Irish decent with parents born in the British Isles, and yet, I feel neither a connection, nor an affinity to either of those places. With globalisation (brands, sports teams, music) and the Californication of our ideas through the American film and television industry, I felt devoid of a thorough understanding of what my white, middle class culture actually was.

This feminism paper helped me address megaskill 8 & 9 from Bucher (2008) list: Dealing with Bias & Understanding the Dynamics of Power. (Vavrus p52) challenges us: “Unravelling issues of political dominance and oppression is a task that critical pedagogy attempts to undertake.” And Richards et al says that culturally responsive teachers “can confront biases that have influenced their value system.”

With this in mind, it can be difficult for some of us to fully comprehend how or why other minority cultures (many of them indigenous) struggle with getting a good education. The effects of colonisation, and the continued marginalisation and racism that has pervaded our schooling over the last 100 years is not something I can ever fully understand. But the educational results of indigenous and minority students in all corners of the globe are similar highlighting gross disparities: results inferior to the pervading majority culture. So, even if I can’t fully comprehend it and have never personally experienced it, I know that education systems must have a negative, marginalising effect on these students.

Being a culturally responsive teacher is a challenge for most teachers in New Zealand, because like me, most teachers represent the majority (79% Anglo-European ancestry, MOE, 2005). Because of this Anglo-Saxon predominance, school-wide cultural change can also be a challenge.

Goals

My goal is to help all children, regardless of race, gender, beliefs or religion achieve by attaining their full potential and being successful in becoming a purposeful, useful member of society. I see myself trying to be that agentic teacher that Bishop describes in his video. Agentic teacher sees themselves as being able to solve problems, help all students, and believe all students can achieve. He then goes on to describe a culture very much in line with Professor Hattie’s research on visible learning.

This is a culture of Co-construction with your peers, getting feedback and feed forward, and knowing your next steps. This is learning amongst your peers. Students have evidence of their performance, and know the outcomes. As a group, we care for each other’s success and take some responsibility for how others are learning.

High expectations are the norm. Group work is fostered. Students work often on group problem solving activities. We reflect on how different people and cultures view the world, and why. We look for similarities with our own, and differences. I develop high expectations alongside positive relationships.

This is relationship centred education. This is the classroom environment I try and promote and develop. This is the environment where all students can and do succeed. I am not seen as the white, middle class male with all the power and authority. I am seen as a supporter, as a co-learner, as a friend and a helper. Savage et al describe a class similar to mine. “Authentic caring entails getting to know students, attending to student input regarding teaching and learning, respecting students’ intellectual abilities, and valuing identities students bring into school from home.”

Communication Methods

I am an expert at communicating with my students. I am far from expert at communicating with some of the other stake holders. I know I could do much more to communicate with parents and whanau, and community groups in the student’s lives.

I do parent interviews and I write reports. I talk to parents at the gate and at sports events, or when they drop their child off at school. But this is an area I need to work harder on.

Much of my readings point out that teachers that make the commitment to include the whanau in the child’s learning, and who listens to the whanau’s thoughts, ideas, and considerations, are much more likely to get a successful outcome than teachers who don’t. Cowie et al state that “a person who is visible in the community is more likely to be respected as having a commitment to, or investment in, the community (he kanohi kitea).”
This area of communication is going to be my area of focus. Initially, I will enquire with my students about activities, events and places they would like me to share with them: places they identify with, events they are proud of. In doing that, it will be a chance to talk to whanau not about the negatives i.e. school only ever rings me if something is wrong, but about the positives.

Bibliography

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., Kara, H., Anderson, M., Doyle, J., ... & Te Kiri, C. (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Summary report. Wellington: Teaching and Learning Research Initiative.

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge.

Howard, J. (2010). The value of ethnic diversity in the teaching profession: A New Zealand case study. International Journal of Education, 2(1), 1.

Hynds, A., Sleeter, C., Hindle, R., Savage, C., Penetito, W., & Meyer, L. H. (2011). Te Kotahitanga: A case study of a repositioning approach to teacher professional development for culturally responsive pedagogies. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(4), 339-351.

Ministry of Education. (2005). Report on the findings of the 2004 teacher census. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. Retrieved April 12, 2010. [Online] Available: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/teacher_census.

Richards, H. V., Brown, A. F., & Forde, T. B. (2007). Addressing diversity in schools: Culturally responsive pedagogy. Teaching Exceptional Children, 39(3), 64-68.

Savage, C., Hindle, R., Meyer, L. H., Hynds, A., Penetito, W., & Sleeter, C. E. (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: Indigenous student experiences across the curriculum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183-198.

Stewart, G. (2014). Te reo Māori in classrooms: Current policy, future practice. Journal issue, (3).

Vavrus, M. (2008). Culturally responsive teaching. 21st century education: A reference handbook, 2, 49-57.