Culturally and contextually responsive schools: what are they and why do they matter?
2 likes1,160 views
The document discusses the importance of culturally and contextually responsive education for remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. It highlights research findings on successful education practices, challenges in conventional education, and emphasizes the need for relational and process-driven approaches rather than programmatic fixes. Key recommendations include local community involvement in educational decisions and adapting teaching strategies to support cultural and contextual relevance.
![On language and culture
Well me and [name] worked on the curriculum, getting everything from the
elders, because they wanted language and culture to be taught in the
school.
If they learn Yapa way from elders, if they really learn, they can teach young
ones about Yapa way.
Anangu have important stories for the children to learn, the dreaming
tjukurpa, the land, family connections, culture and other learning. This is our
foundation.
Cultural competence is critical –[we] all are aware of this.
…if you don’t have a relationship in the first place and if you don’t have
knowledge of the culture of the people and the language and how you can
then employ that in the work that you do with the students?
13](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/guentherculturallyandcontextuallyresponsiveschools-160215065514/85/Culturally-and-contextually-responsive-schools-what-are-they-and-why-do-they-matter-13-320.jpg)
![On cultural awareness
A quality teacher might mean… responding to the kids around them and being
more open to that than someone who came with a vast amount of teaching
experience… [who] is completelyconflicted with their experience and what doing
a good job might mean and [then] they’ve had to leave.
They’ve got to be able to adjust pedagogy, adjust their cultural understandings
and if they're not quality learners, they get stuck in a hopelessly structured way of
operating that doesn’t connect.
I don’t think it’s about teaching them about Aboriginal culture… but it’s about
providing learning opportunities where they can start to see themselves as
cultured people, that’s where you start.
Teachers need to understand our culture too
Teachers need to know how to read the hand [and] body [language] signs
14](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/guentherculturallyandcontextuallyresponsiveschools-160215065514/85/Culturally-and-contextually-responsive-schools-what-are-they-and-why-do-they-matter-14-320.jpg)
Culturally and contextually responsive schools: what are they and why do they matter?
- 1. Culturally and contextually responsive schools: what are they and why do they matter? Remote Education Systems project Armidale, 2 September 2015
- 2. Introduction • The RES lecture series: what’s it about? • Outline • What does culturally or contextually responsive mean? • Methods and data sources • Findings • Implications • Q&A 2
- 3. What does the literature say about culturally or contextually responsive education for remote communities? • Indigenous education in history (Lee et al. 2014 on NT schooling) • The rise of both ways, two ways and bilingual education in the 1970s (Harris 1990, Yunupingu 1999) • Mutual obligation, reciprocity, give and take (Lee et al. 2014) • No compromise in epistemology (Chirgwin and Huijser 2015) • Batchelor as a case (Ober and Bat 2007) • Key Indigenous academics (Arbon 2008, Yunkaporta 2009, Sarra 2011, Nakata 2007, Nakata et al 2012) • Generative knowledge creation (Christie 2011) 3
- 4. The prevailing media and political discourse • Disadvantage, Closing the Gap, deficits and failure (Hughes and Hughes 2012; Abbott 2014; SCRGSP 2014) • Magic bullets to fix the problem: SEAM, AL, NTER, SSNP, NARIS introduced with fanfare, but then found wanting (Gray 2007, Atelier 2012, DEEWR 2012, Wright et al 2012) • And so many more… 4
- 5. Quick fixes built on false premises • ‘teachers make the most difference’ (Hattie 2003); • Attendance programs will yield better academic outcomes (Ladwig and Luke 2013); • Education is the ‘key’ (Guenther 2013b); • No jobs in communities(McRae-Williamsand Guenther 2014); • Remoteness and Indigeneity are disadvantages (Guenther et al 2013); • The ‘goodness’ of boarding schools (Penfold 2014; Wilson2014); • The myth of best practice (Guenther et al. 2015). 5
- 6. RES project Aim • To find out how remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can get the best benefit from the teaching and learning happening in and out of schools. Research questions • What is education for and what can/should it achieve? • What defines ‘success’ from the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint? • How does teaching need to change to achieve ‘success’? • What would an effective education system in remote Australia look like? 6
- 7. RES Project data sources • Publicly available datasets (my school and Census) • Community surveys in 10 remote communities • Observations from site visits in 3 jurisdictions (WA, SA, NT) • Engagement of over 200 remote education stakeholders in research processes (20 Thinking Outside The Tank sessions) • Dare to Lead Snapshots in 31 Very Remote schools • Reading of the relevant research literature • 6 Post-graduate research projects in progress 7
- 8. Distribution of RES results 8 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% What is education for? (n=725) What is success? (n=740) Teaching to success (n=1052) How should the system respond? (n=921) Percentageofrespondents RQs Remote Aboriginal Non-remote
- 9. Teaching to success 9 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% Health and wellbeing at school Local language Aboriginal teachers Relationships ESL and multi-lingual learning Teacher qualities Contextualised curriculum Culturally responsive Pedagogy Both-ways and two way Contextually responsive High expectations Classroom management School leadership Professional learning Assessment and Progress Experience Informal learning opportunities Time Whole of school practices Unsuitable teaching Per cent of references within group Response Non-remote (n=753) Remote Aboriginal (n=299)
- 10. What does contextually responsive mean? Themes related to being contextually responsive Descriptors Remote Aboriginal Non- remote All sources Flexible teachers, curriculum and pedagogy Adaptable teachers, humour, schools, learning teachers, EAL/D skilled, patient 4 31 35 Context of learning environment Responding to opportunities in the local context, importance of place, making learning meaningful 4 17 21 Context of the student Importance of safety, relationships, health, meeting student needs 3 16 19 Context of language and culture Connecting to Aboriginal terms, ways of thinking 3 11 14 Meeting community expectations Recognise the aspirations and expectations of parents and communities for children 0 10 10 Understanding knowledge systems Recognising the differencebetween western and local knowledge systems 0 8 8 Context of complexity Competing expectations of the various elements of a complex system 0 6 6 Contextual definitions Being aware of local application for standards, what is success?, avoiding assumptions, understanding local concepts 0 6 6 Other meanings for contextual responsive Situational, one size doesn’t fit all, flexible education endpoints, developmental disadvantage, context of change 0 6 6 14 111 125 10
- 11. What does culturally responsive mean? Themes related to being culturally responsive Descriptors and examples Remote Aboriginal Non- remote All sources Both ways or two ways Creating generative spaces, knowledge exchanges, accreditation, privileging local knowledge, sharing learning, respect. 21 36 57 Language and culture Teach kinship, drawing on the centrality of learning language and culture, cultural maintenance 10 16 26 Cultural awareness Understanding, sensitive, competence, self- aware, asking questions, appropriateness 7 7 14 Local elders involved Elders involved in teaching and decision making, teachers learning from elders 3 6 9 Recognise Indigenous norms and values Respect for local ways of being and valuing 3 5 8 Recognise Indigenous advantage Promote pride and respect, celebrate e.g. NAIDOC 3 3 6 Include Indigenous ways of teaching and learning Stories and out of school learning 2 7 9 Use local ecology and environment Concept of country, learning on country 2 5 7 Adopt both ways philosophy Community involved in decisions about content 1 5 6 Community taught inductions Locals teaching non-locals 0 2 2 Local role models Drawing on community and family role models 0 6 6 Other culturally responsive approaches Young people as teachers, school as an incentive for participation in rites of passage, community taught inductions 0 5 5 52 103 155 11
- 12. On both ways and two ways 'Two way' learning is about respect, we respect English, they have to respect our language. We all need to learn two way, Kardiya and Yapa because we are both equal. We have strong relationships with young people from across Australia. We go to them and we learn from them. They come to us and we teach them. Kids need to learn on country – two ways…learning from senior community members/elders. They need the AEW there to help teachers - both ways - they listen when you talking in English they know. Aboriginal culture is not formally taught but we sit with staff and tell them about our ways, language and help them in dealing with local issues 12
- 13. On language and culture Well me and [name] worked on the curriculum, getting everything from the elders, because they wanted language and culture to be taught in the school. If they learn Yapa way from elders, if they really learn, they can teach young ones about Yapa way. Anangu have important stories for the children to learn, the dreaming tjukurpa, the land, family connections, culture and other learning. This is our foundation. Cultural competence is critical –[we] all are aware of this. …if you don’t have a relationship in the first place and if you don’t have knowledge of the culture of the people and the language and how you can then employ that in the work that you do with the students? 13
- 14. On cultural awareness A quality teacher might mean… responding to the kids around them and being more open to that than someone who came with a vast amount of teaching experience… [who] is completelyconflicted with their experience and what doing a good job might mean and [then] they’ve had to leave. They’ve got to be able to adjust pedagogy, adjust their cultural understandings and if they're not quality learners, they get stuck in a hopelessly structured way of operating that doesn’t connect. I don’t think it’s about teaching them about Aboriginal culture… but it’s about providing learning opportunities where they can start to see themselves as cultured people, that’s where you start. Teachers need to understand our culture too Teachers need to know how to read the hand [and] body [language] signs 14
- 15. What does this all mean? 15
- 16. Key issues and solutions • Shifting the dominant discourse: how do we do it? • The challenge for boarding schools • Practical steps to make schools contextually and culturally responsive 1. Operation school councils with local representation 2. Employ at least as many locals as non-locals 3. Local leaders involved in developing curriculum offerings, local educators teaching local knowledge 4. PD opportunities for local staff 5. School leadership accountability for these goals 16
- 17. Conclusion 17 Towards a culturally and contextually responsive remote education system It isn’t about closing the gap. It’s not a programmatic response. There is no formula to follow. It requires non-local people coming in to remote communitiesto teach, to be honestly reflexive and recognise their cultures as different but certainly not superior. It’s not outcome driven. Rather, it is relational and process driven. It works constructively towards the goals of justice and reconciliation.
- 18. Suggested readings Guenther, J., Bat, M., & Osborne, S. (2013). Red Dirt Thinking on Educational Disadvantage. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 42(Special Issue 02), 100-110. doi:10.1017/jie.2013.18 Guenther, J. (2013). Are We Making Education Count in Remote Australian Communities or Just Counting Education? The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 42(Special Issue 02), 157-170. doi:10.1017/jie.2013.23 Guenther, J., Disbray, S., & Osborne, S. (2014). Digging up the (red) dirt on education: one shovel at a time. Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues (Special Edition), 17(4), 40-56. Osborne, S., Lester, K., Minutjukur, M., & Tjitayi, K. (2013). Red Dirt Curriculum: Reimagining Remote Education. Paper presented at the Sidney Myer Rural Lecture 3, Desert Knowledge Precinct, Alice Springs. Video recording retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za6w8ph_VDg&feature=youtu.be 18
- 19. More about RES http://crc-rep.com/remote-education-systems John Guenther 0412 125 661 john.guenther@flinders.edu.au 19