Is our school culturally safe?

MacFarlane (2007), explores how culturally safe a school is for Mori students by considering the Treaty of Waitangi, The Educultural Wheel, The Hikairo Rationale and Restorative Justice. In Part 1 of this document current bicultural and multicultural practice in our school is examined against the Educultural Wheel, The Hikairo Rationale and Restorative Justice (MacFarlane, 2007). In Part 2 the schools practice is evaluated against a legal and political perspective (Durie, 2005).

Part 1

The Educultural Wheel is based 5 Mori concepts listed in the chart below. The How is our school performing? Already Starting to Not Yet Happening Happening Happen Bonding at the Teach whole Mihi in morning start of the school school together ritual year Visibility of Homework ritual Whole class Principal Hui Whakatika rewards Whole class Treaty Person to person

Ktahitanga unity and bonding N t rourou, n taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive. Whanaungat anga relationship s Ahakoa he iti, he pounamu. Although small (child), it is a treasure. Rangatirata nga selfdeterminatio n and effectivenes s He moana pukepuke E akengia e te waka A choppy sea

Know your students backgrounds Use people in the community as a resource Involve parents and whanau Teacher to share own experiences Ihi-assertiveness Teacher demeanour Body language Passion and enthusiasm Provide real live examples Student friendly vocabulary

Use co-operative learning strategies and structure

Oragnise a hui whakataki

withitness or mana

Be firm, be fair, be brief, be gone

can be navigated Manaakitang a ethos of care and encouragem ent

Classroom as a safe haven Obligatory care Head as well as heart Greeting and seating Mana tu mana Content and ora mana manner noho mana Attend to the mate student Content and Empathy manner motivates Whos who? And apathy Whats what? demotivates Opening closing, dismissing Pmanawata nga a beating heart

Moral, tone and pulse

The Hikairo Rationale is based on the 7 concepts of:

Huakina Mai: Opening doorways Ihi: Being assertive Ktahitanga: Unity between home and school and student and teacher Awhinatia: A helping process with interventions involving restorative practice I Runga i te Manaaki: Growing a caring community, pastoral care Rangatiratanga: Motivating learners through a collaborative approach Orangatanga: Developing a nurturing environment and well-being through shared love, self-worth, having fun, and self-discipline

Ihi, Ktahitanga, I Runga i te Manaaki and Rangatiratanga have already been looked at in the Educultural wheel a number of these concepts are also part of Te Pikunga Ki Runga and have been discussed already in artefact 5 for goal

1in this domain. Orangatanga is similar to the Pmanawatanga concept in the wheel that considers the tone and moral of the staff, students and whole school. Awhinatia does not appear as a concept in either the Educultural Wheel or in Te Pikunga Ki Runga, although te hui whakataki is mentioned. This considers intervention and restorative justice. The restorative justice process is based on a model by Judge Michael Brown.

This model moves away from looking at: What wrong was done? Who did it? How should they be punished? and moves towards: Who has been wronged? What are their needs? Who is responsible for making it right? Within our school we currently run the Cool Schools Peer Mediator program which embraces some of these restorative justice values. However we are about to embark on a whole school professional development journey around restorative justice. This will be led by staff who have had both pakeha and

Mori children with very challenging behaviour this term and have recently done some work with Greg Jansen (http://www.restorativeschools.org.nz/aboutus). This model is explained by Moana Brown in the following You Tube clip:

Although all these models are considered by MacFarlane from a bicultural perspective there is much in both that can be applied to a multicultural setting or to a pakeha setting.

Part 2
Durie (2005, p1) shares the following idea of what biculturalism and multiculturalism means: Biculturalism is about the relationship between the states founding cultures, where there is more than one. Multiculturalism is about the acceptance of cultural differences generally. He goes on to list objectives related to multiculturalism and biculturalism that may be useful for legal and political considerations.

Bicultural New Zealand: Acknowledge and respect things distinctly Mori e.g. te reo Mori, traditions, schools, land and Mori governance Evidence in school: Waiatas at the start of staff meetings, whakatauki at start of professional development sessions and Board Meetings, waiatas shared in assembly, mihi from the Principal in assembly, social skills presented bilingually in assembly.

Mori representatives on student council, Mori trustee to be co-opted onto Board of Trustees as none stood for election.

State operated facilities such as schools and hospitals need to be culturally appropriate for Mori Evidence in school: Mori art is displayed in public areas of the school, some signage and school moto is bilingual. A bilingual syndicate option is offered. Some Maori staff teaching in mainstream classes. All bilingual teachers are Mori. Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, the new curriculum for Mori medium schools and Ng Whanaketanga Rumaki Mori, national standards for Mori are being implemented in the bilingual unit and some aspects, especially linked with key competencies are planned to be used in mainstream classes as well.

Encourage relations and engagement between Pakeha and Mori through education of te Reo Mori and tikanga Mori Evidence in school: Te Reo Mori and tikanga Mori are taught in all main stream classes and the bilingual unit aim to be delivering 50% of instruction in Mori. A lunch time kapa haka club is run for children in mainstream classes. Some mainstream classes are buddied up with bilingual classes. Matariki was celebrated school wide with a whole school hangi and a staff rep from each syndicate was on the working committee. Provide for Mori in Parliament and other national organisations Evidence in school: Mori staff are part of the senior management team and our Principal is Mori. Teachers from bilingual classes attend the mainstream syndicate meetings for the appropriate age group and much sharing and learning takes place because of this. Curriculum teams are made up of 1 teacher from each mainstream syndicate and 1 from the bilingual unit. The structure of the AGSN( Advisory Group of Special Needs) is the same and valuable sharing of behaviour strategies have been taken place between pakeha and Mori teachers.

 Encourage settlement of land claims Evidence in school: After a 2 year trial of year groups moving classrooms it was recognised that for the bilingual classes this was not promoting the development of kaupapa that they wanted. The decision was made to try a different arrangement allowing the bilingual classes to all be located in the same block and one classroom to be used as a whare. The whare is available for use by the whole school and Mori protocol such as removing shoes before entering is adhered to. Combine aspects of both cultures to create a national identity Evidence in school: The school has a strong identity that celebrates both its pakeha and Mori culture. We are made culturally richer by the presence of a bilingual unit. When key visitors come to the school they are welcomed by the whole school at a powhiri. At perspective parents evening teachers from mainstream and the bilingual potiki class present to interested parents. Multicultural New Zealand: To tolerate cultural differences Evidence in school: 17 different ethnicities share our school and generally interact happily together. To celebrate cultural differences. Evidence in school: A limited amount of whole school celebration of cultures other than pakeha or Mori takes place. The amount delivered at class level varies from teacher to teacher and on the ethnic make-up of the class. The ESOL classes which children with low levels of English attend for 45 minute a day is significantly more proactive in celebrating and valuing these other cultures. However, not all minority culture children have low levels of spoken English so not all of them can access these classes.

Conclusion

The conclusion from this artefact supports that made in artefact 3 What does Multiculturalism Look Like in Our School? We seem to be well on track to create a safe school for our Mori students and whanau providing culturally relevant experiences and fulfilling our Treaty of Waitangi commitments. However, with regard to our other cultural minorities the degree of culturally appropriate education they receive is to be dependent on which teacher they are placed with and if they are able to gain a place in the ESOL class. The models put forward by Macfarlane and Justice Brown can easily be applied to a multicultural setting. As noted by Singham (2006), Maori have helped to guide the process of multiculturalism in New Zealand. Given the predicted dramatic rise in the population of ethnic minorities moving to New Zealand in the next 10 years maybe these models can provide a starting point to help us effectively face the challenges this change in demographics will bring. The positive response to the planned staff professional development on the restorative justice approach will be the first step in this process.

References
Brown, M. (n.d.). Restorative Practice in the Classroom - Trailer. Retrieved June 2013, from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I74Mf9QZsOQ Durie, J. (2005). The rule of law, biculturalism and multiculturalism. ALTA conference, (pp. 1-8). Macfarlane, A. (2005). Inclusion and Maori ecologies: An educultural approach. In D. Fraser, R. Moltzen, & K. Ryba, Learners with Special Needs in Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 99-115). Thomson Dunmore Press. Macfarlane, A. (2009). Discipline, democracy and diversity: Creating culturally-safe learning environments. Retrieved Month 2013, from http://www.minedu.govt.nz/theMinistry/EducationInitiatives/PositiveBehaviour ForLearning/TaumataWhanonga/~/media/MinEdu/Files/TheMinistry/TaumataW hanonga2009/Presentations/AngusMacfarlaneCreatingCulturallySafeLearning Environments.pdf Macfarlane, A., Glynn, T., Cavanagh, T., & Bateman, S. (2007). Creating culturallysafe schools for Maori students. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36, 65-76. Singham, M. (2006). Multiculturalism in New Zealand- the need for a new paradigm. Aotearoa Ethnnic Network Journal, 1(1), 33-37.