ACCESS AND EQUITY IN
THE CLASSSROOM.
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?.
When people look at the
cultural issues that can arise in the classroom this can get very complicated.
If you read the text below that is attached to the link further on it clarifies
what we need to know when teaching students of different origins, cultures.
HUI TAUMATA MĀTAURANGA IV
Increasing Success for Rangatahi in
Education
Insight,
Reflection and Learning
This taught me a lot as
a tutor to be aware of cultural differencs.If we want to teach fairly for
everyone then we need to teach so everybody becomes involved and feels part of
it.
I have Maori students
in my classes and they seem to enjoy the interaction with the tutors and other
students .If you read the link it says of Maori students needing good feedback
from their peers, teachers and whanau.I believe we have this in our
workshop/classroom and we make sure that our Maori students along with the
other students always get good feedback and positive comments after they have
achieved their necessary credits or projects.
WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO
PROVIDE BETTER ACCESS AND EQUITY?
Other students that
need equity are the ones who don’t have a good understanding of L&N. We
include them in the decision making in the team environment so as to not single
them out. We also give them extra tuition in L&N to give them a better understanding,
this helps them out for when they have to do some of their theory and we try
and include a buddy system depending on the individual’s requirements.
At the start of the
course we put all the students through the Harassment and Bullying procedure so
that they are aware of any prejudices that they might have towards others. This makes the
equality start off well.
If I look back on last year’s
students then I think they were not as fortunate as this group because they
were put into teams straight away and this could have made them feel exclusive,
what I mean by this is rather than the guys doing each task themselves they
would let a team member do it for them.
WHAT WE HAVE DONE TO
HELP OVERCOME EXCLUSIVENESS.
This year for the first
eight weeks we started with the individual underpinning projects, these have
been well received with the guys building toolboxes, step punch’s, car ramps
and of course exploding cubes that they have had to weld together. They have
nearly completed all of these and when they have they will be split into teams
to build their karts, this will then enable each team member to be able to do a
given task and thus become more inclusive with the team and lift their
capabilities.
As you can see all the
learners can access this so nobody gets left behind or feels undervalued, some
will always be better than others but at least the guys who were left behind at
school will actually feel part of and participate more., another strategy we
are implementing is recording key tasks. This will mean that if the student does not fully understand say
a machining task then if we film the procedure and edit it correctly they can
then access it through a touch screen in the workshop and have the ability to
reflect on the task and then proceed especially if it is a complex task. This
also lets the tutor get around the workshop easier knowing that the students
have the relevant
One of our students
machining his axle for his kart.
Some excellent description here Nick to illustrate the ways you have ensured inclusive teaching. The team approach will certainly contribute to developing relationships for learning, and enthusiasm for learning; two of the themes discussed in Mason Durie's paper about Maori achievement that you mention in this post.
ReplyDeleteI am feeling a little excluded reading this post since I don't understand the term L & N - please enlighten me. See how easy it is to exclude even with the best intentions.
I try to be careful to make sure I am providing resources that are inclusive yet participants in this course from some of the more practical disciplines find the use of university-based articles irrelevant - so effectively I am excluding them. I guess we can't please all the people all the time, but at least if we are aware of the issues then we have a better chance of making the correct choices, and helping students to do the same. At the very least if we as teachers take the time to reflect on our choices and whether they are working this will help us to change our practice, for the better. Do you agree?
Just a quick question - did you ask the student's permission to use his image on your blog?