This is my third attempt at
writing this blog post. It is a topic which is close to home to me and my first
attempt would probably offend some people. I started to question; am I writing
blogs to entertain people or educate people?
Goals
When I look at Masterton
Intermediate School, one of our strategic aims is: “To ensure that the Maori culture is
alive and well at Masterton Intermediate School.”
To be fair, staff at our school works hard
in this area and we have key people with the right ideas to pursue these
strategic aims. ERO stated that “Te ao Māori is valued and there are a
number of opportunities for Māori learners to lead, learn more about and engage
in the curriculum through their language, identity and culture.”
Their recommendation is “Continue
to build individual teacher practice to respond to Māori students’ culture and
weave te ao Māori across learning areas.” I believe that this is something
that we can all strive for at the most emergent level. I would like to see more
in depth study and learning for students about the history, language, and
culture of the clientele of our school. What we
do keeps currently ERO happy, but leaves me with no extra fulfillment.
School Wide Learning activities
I fear that we are dealing with bias Bucher (2008) because we assume, deficit
theorise, and we react by ‘catering for Maori’ in the only ways we know how. We
scratch the surface with superficial things like Kapa Haka, and learning of
basic vocabulary that can be wrote learnt. A massive emphasis is put on
pronouncing Maori names correctly.
Moving Forward
I really believe that we give into the hegemony of what is perceived
as culturally responsiveness. Surely there is more to being culturally
responsive than pronouncing a name correctly. In a PD session on culturally
responsive practice at the end of last year an article by Tipoki (2016) was
presented to us. The main point was about pronunciation of Maori words
correctly. What a first world problem we have. When you see refugees coming
into our schools from horrendous circumstances, grateful for the opportunities
presented to them. Many of our ESOL students really inspire me, and we can all
take a page out of their books.
I like Russell Bishops quote where he asks the question “If Maori people can achieve at tertiary level, to the highest degree that a tertiary has to offer, how come they can’t get through secondary school.” His belief that Maori are an educable group of people is one that I hold as a belief also.
Story Time
Before you judge me as an
insensitive soul, hear out a bit about my background. I was the ‘ahua pakeha’
kid at Kohanga Reo and Kura Kaupapa. We moved to Dunedin when I was 6 to a
predominantly non-Maori school, where I was in remedial reading for 2 years. I
went through life with people unable to pronounce my name: Niheta, and
eventually got the nickname ‘Nuts’. I am still called that daily, even at work.
For me, my name isn’t a reason for failure. I can’t back to my high school
maths teachers and say “It was because you
couldn’t say my name properly and treat me like a Maori learner that I failed.” We all have some baggage, its how we store it that matters.
My question for educators is: Who are you really letting
down, and how much will it impact them?
No comments:
Post a Comment