Teaching stories: Who am I?

Cultural identity is the key to increasing the level of education for each learner. This video demonstrates awareness of the diverse identities Pacific learners bring to the school environment. 

Relevant turu: Turu 1 

Cultural identity is the key to increasing the level of education for each learner. Identity includes their culture, language, experiences—who they are—and their understanding of their world. Cultural capital and prior knowledge impact a learner’s educational experience. Recognising the effect of cultural capital will help to build an education system that responds to the needs and supports the achievement of all learners. This video demonstrates awareness of the diverse identities Pacific learners bring to the school environment. 

Reflections for individual teachers 

This video demonstrates valuable links between cultural identity and learning. As you watch this video, think about deepening your own understanding of the different cultural identities in your classroom and how you can lift educational achievement by motivating your learners to express their cultural identity. 

• How are you addressing the cultural identities, experiences, and backgrounds of your learners? What do they tell you about themselves and what they value? How do they express themselves? How do they feel about themselves? 
• What activities can you create to enable your learners to express their self-identity, heritage, and whānau? How can you translate that learning for other children from different cultures?
  • Ask each learner to bring a photograph of a successful person who they think will look like themselves when they grow up. Display those photographs on the wall, and ask your learners to talk about their photographs. This will encourage identity, cultural sharing, and self-awareness in your lessons.

Reflections for staff or departments 

If you are watching as a staff member or member of a department team, you may see ways to collectively change your systems and influence your wider team or school planning to become more responsive to the cultural needs of each learner. Which of these ideas could you address now? 

• How are you encouraging staff and department teams to create identity-enhancing classrooms as a place to foster belonging and value for all students of all backgrounds? 
• How are you cultivating cultural competency as a resource for learning for teachers of Pacific learners? How are you challenging the system to ensure that it is culturally responsive to the needs of the learners and supports their learning and achievement? 
• How is your school providing a caring classroom environment that enhances positive student relationships as a foundation for trust? Genuine warmth and blending humour and lightheartedness with academic content help to create a sense of belonging for Pacific learners.

Understanding your own identity means you are more likely to try to understand the identities of others. In this video, Sojung Yoon discusses his own cultural identity and life experiences and reflects on how this impacts his practice as a teacher.

Relevant turu: Turu 1 

In this video, Sojung Yoon discusses his own cultural identity and life experiences and reflects on how this impacts his practice as a teacher. Sojung talks about the importance of sport as a place for learners to value community and service. He also talks about his commitment to Pacific learners, recognising their potential, and listening to what they want from their education.   

Reflections for individual teachers 

As you watch this video, think about your role as a teacher working within a Pacific context. 

“It is important that teachers understand their own distinctiveness, identity, and culture in deep and meaningful ways in order to genuinely engage and respond to the distinctive identities, languages and cultures of others.” 
- Tapasā (p.7) 

In pairs: 

• discuss the ways that Sojung Yoon brings this statement to life in his practice as a teacher
• reflect on your own cultural identity and life experiences and how these impact your teaching practice and behaviours, especially in relation to your Pacific learners
• identify the ways that you reflect the distinctive identities, qualities, and cultures of your Pacific learners in your planning and teaching practice.

Reflections for staff or departments 

If you watch this video as a staff member or member of a department team, think about effective leadership in Pacific cultural practice. 

“Knowing yourself is not only about identity and self-reflection; it is to also understand ones’ own biases, prejudices, and actions of privileging.”
- Tapasā (p.7)  

• Work with your staff to help them understand their own identities and cultures and how they influence the way they think and behave as teachers. Encourage them to consider their own upbringing, their relationships with people from different cultures, the cultural stereotypes they have been exposed to, and the biases they have. 
• As a staff or team, work collaboratively to identify a range of actions and practices you can use to create relationships for learning with learners who have cultural knowledge, languages, and experiences different from yours. 

Creating an environment that nurtures and values diverse cultural backgrounds means that learners feel supported, respected, and able to uphold their cultural identity in their learning environment.

Relevant ethnicities: Samoa, Tuvalu 

Relevant turu: Turu 1

In this video, we can see how cultural identity creates a strong sense of belonging for a learner. Embracing the identity, culture, and language of diverse learners is a huge motivation to encourage them to strive for success. It is important to create an environment that nurtures and values diverse cultural backgrounds so that learners feel supported, respected, and are able to uphold their cultural identity in their learning environment. 

Reflections for individual teachers

The various narratives in this video illustrate what can be achieved if teachers and a school embrace their learners’ cultural identity. As you watch this video, reflect on:

• what excites you about learning about the diverse Pacific cultures and how you are fostering culture and identity in your teaching and lessons? Think of cross-curricular activities and focus on your Pacific learners
• which techniques will you use to embrace the culture and identity of students from different backgrounds, and how can you create a culturally responsive classroom where your learners can uphold their cultural identity
• how you are promoting the home languages of your learners inside the classroom and outside their home communities and families, and how you can build up a classroom of diverse learners so that they can do their best
• how you are communicating your own cultural identity to your learners. Think about how you will lead the conversation and how you will share with your students that you do not have all the experiences or answers needed to fully address the diversity in your classroom. 

Reflections for staff or departments

If you are watching this story as a staff member or member of a department team, think of a culturally relevant curriculum—what does culturally responsive pedagogy look and sound like to your staff and departments? 

• How do your teaching staff use culturally relevant teaching methods to connect with their Pacific learners, and how do your teaching staff feel about themselves and their teaching methods? 
• Imagine that there is a disconnection between a student’s cultural background and a teacher’s cultural background in your school. How could you bridge this gap? How can you collectively build a community culture by catering to individual needs? 
• How are you creating a school environment that supports cultural diversity? What professional development and tools are you offering to your teaching staff to assist with respecting differences and enhancing diversity in their classroom? 

The video is all about the importance of strong, reciprocal, responsive, and collaborative relationships. Teachers need to use Pacific constructs to engage, collaborate, and empower learners.  

Relevant turu: Turu 2 

This video is about the importance of strong, reciprocal, responsive, and collaborative relationships. It is about partnerships and engagement between teachers and their learners and taking the time to really get to know them. Teachers need to use Pacific constructs to engage and collaborate with Pacific learners and their families to empower learners. In practice, this involves pronouncing Pacific learners’ names correctly, knowing who they are and their place in their families and communities, and recognising where they come from. 

Reflections for individual teachers

The stories in the video illustrate what these teachers know about their learners. This can be achieved through reciprocal learning and power-sharing relationships, acknowledging and understanding what each learner brings to the classroom from their own surroundings. 

As you watch this video, think about each learner in your class. On a piece of paper, write down the names of all the learners in your class. Beside each name, note what the meaning of their name sounds and feels like to you. 

• As a class activity, ask each of your learners to say their name out loud. Give them some time in advance to ask at home about who named them, who they might be named after, and if their names have a special meaning. 
• Write each name on the board and the meaning or significance beside it. 
• When everyone has had a turn, refer to your piece of paper and compare what you wrote initially with the meanings provided by your learners. 
• Repeat this exercise with your learners. This time, ask your learners to provide their parents, grandparents, or siblings' names and find out what their names mean. Use two names for this exercise.
• Each learner can write a story about each name and read their stories to the class. Then it is your turn to share. 

Reflections for staff or departments

Schools need to recognise the importance of names by pronouncing them correctly. Do not shorten or translate names into similar or “sound like” English names. This creates a safe space for learners to feel valued, supported, and special. 

• Think of a time when you created a connection with a Pacific learner that you felt was effective and meaningful. Reflect on how you maintained and built on that connection throughout their learning journey.
• Explore your own thoughts and experiences of successful relationship-building with your learners. List your ideas and any reservations based on your reflection. How can you put your ideas into practice?
• Now reflect on the possibility of developing new ways of communicating and working with your learners. What kind of work can you do in yourself in order to become more engaged with your learners?