What Does Multiculturalism Look Like in Our School

7/28/2019 What Does Multiculturalism Look Like in Our School

1/13

What does multiculturalism look like in our school?

This artefact begins to look at what multiculturalism looks like inour school and its meaning for all of our students from the

17 ethnicities represented on our roll. This is considered from the

perspectives of the whole school, classrooms and the ESOL teacher.

The chart opposite provides a breakdown of these ethnicities into

European/Pakeha, Mori and other ethnicities.

I was surprised that our percentage of Mori students was not

higher but then considered that one third of our bilingual unit

is non-Mori. The general figures for Nelson,

from the 2006 census show 78% European and 8% Mori, so our schoolprcentage is actually slightly higher than the regional numbers.

Image retrieved from:

http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/about-nelson/facts-and-figures/
http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/about-nelson/facts-and-figures/http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/about-nelson/facts-and-figures/http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/about-nelson/facts-and-figures/


2/13

During an informal discussion with our school office staff they shared their opinion that most on the non- Mori parents whose children were

in the bilingual unit had travelled overseas for work in the past, or were from overseas and had a more open mind about culture and wanted

to provide opportunities for their children to learn about and value more than just their own culture.

The school percentage for other ethnicities is slightly lower than the figure in the Nelson region 2006 census.

Other Ethnicities for at NC school


3/13

What does multiculturalism look like at a whole school level?

Some non-European festivals are mentioned at whole school assemblies e.g Chinese New Year and challenges set that are suitable forthe senior school

The Mori festival of Matariki has had strong focus over the last 4 years and this year included a very successful whole school hangi.There are plans to celebrate Parihaka day in Term 4

Twice a year we are visited by officials from Asian countries who are studying at Nelson and Marlborough Institute of Technology. Theyshare with us some basic greetings in their own language, their national costumes, maybe a dance or song from their country and we

look at where they come from on the globe or Google Earth. In the older classes children are able to interview the visitors about their

culture.


4/13

A few years ago we took part in a community project for a boards around a local building site. Our board was based on t evaevae quiltdesigns from the Cook Islands. This is now on display in the school playground but with no sign to explain its origin or cultural

background.

Two years ago we took part in the city mask parade for which the theme was The Playful Pacific.

We have an annual whole school fundraiser for an orphanage that I was involved with in Cambodia. The blog created to support thisproject is shown in artefact 6 for goal 3.


5/13

What does multiculturalism look like at a classroom level?

Greetings from different countries are used to take the morning role in some classes Mori tikanaga and te reo Mori is taught in all classrooms but to varying degrees depending on the confidence of the teacher to

deliver this subject.

Individual classes with children from other cultures may choose to celebrate and find out more about these cultures e.g. we havecelebrated Diwali in our class when our class included an Indian child (see artefact 5 for goal 3, the relevant section is in blue text plus

the slide show that follows).

Posters of different languages spoken in New Zealand are available for classes to display. Some classes use a world map to look atwhere the children and their families have come from and where in the world their relatives live.


6/13

Our reading books at the junior level include characters from a variety of ethnicities but often the story still represents a majorityculture perspective. The photos below show the titles which specifically dealt with beliefs and values from other cultures.

Stories addressing Mori culture Stories addressing other minority cultures

Teachers bring with them their own cultural experiences either from travels, working in other countries or originating from othercountries. Coming to New Zealand from the Uk I have been able to explain differences in vocabulary used between British famil ies and

New Zealand families e.g. pants or trousers, pots or pottles, jandals or flip flops, togs or swimming costumes, cut lunch or packed lunch.

These differences not only occur in daily conversation but in story books published in the UK as well. I am also able to share

experiences of my time spent in Romania and Cambodia with the children and also colleagues wishing to travel in these regions .


7/13

An ESOL teachers perspective

To learn more about our own schools response to students from other cultures I interviewed the ESOL teacher. She responded by email and

my original intention was to select sections to use in this document but having read her reply I feel it is all equally informative and with her

permission am including the whole response as an artefact.

Can you give me some general information about the numbers of children you work with, their first language, their home country, the main

language spoken at home and the English levelof the parents?

At present I am working with 8 EAL learners. They are currently all MOE funded, however we do at times also have International students who

pay fees. In 7 out of 8 cases, they are the only students that I know (other than siblings) in our school that speak their L1. In the 1 case, a Thai

student is not fluent in her first language so speaking to the other Thai girl is not an option. My learner came here at age 6 and has lost nearly

all of her Thai.

1. MMT (Year 2) -1st Language is Vietnamese. She is NZ born, of Vietnamese and Cambodian parents. There is a fluent English speaking

teenage brother at home but I have not met parents. I am told that both have very limited English. Moved from ********, to ******* school,

then to us, all since turning 5.

2&3. SA (Year 5) MA(Year 3) - 1st language is Dari/Farsi. Birth country is Afghanistan. Dari/Farsi spoken at home. Mother (a widow) speaks no

English, there are siblings all learning English too. These girls are 12th and 13th children of the family; they have 1 sister in NZ and 4 brothers in

NZ. A great deal of trauma in their lives before arriving on 24.10.12

4 & 5 AA (Year 6) and twin AA (Year 6) - First language is Nepalese. Birth country is Nepal. Nepali spoken in the home. Dad is fluent in English

but works 3 jobs. I have not met Mum but she has also been in NZ some years. Boys arrived in NZ Feb 2013 having been in boarding school. Had

not lived with their parents for approx. 3 years.

6. CC (Year 2) First language is English. Birth Country is South Africa. English is spoken at home. Both parents speak English fluently. CC arrived

in NZ 5.7.11 and presented at school having been in an Afrikaans speaking preschool.


8/13

7. MCC (Year 3) First language is Spanish. Birth country is Chile. Spanish is spoken at home. Dad is a Kiwi, Mum is Chilean and speaks no English.

Arrived in NZ 11.12.12

8. NK (year 6) First language was Thai. Born in Thailand. Speaks mainly English at home, both parents speak English. Was tested for Special

Needs possibility 3 years ago due to lack of progress. A bi lingual tutor advised school that her Thai was 'baby talk' and that she was not fluent

in her first language. Arrived in NZ 9.5.09 and ESOL funding is due to expire at the end of 2013 and she is still not at cohort.

How do you communicate with the students families?

I communicate with the parents by giving them a letter of introduction when I start seeing the children. It gives info about me and my email

address. I ask parents to please let me know of any difficulties the students might be having and also of any festivals or celebrations that are

special to the children and their culture. I also try to meet the parents at school; this is not always easy especially with older kids who are more

independent at walking or cycling to school.

How involved you feel the parents are in their child's education? I remember the little Japanese boy who spent time in Room 11 with us forphonics having his grandparents and parents coming to watch him in class.

Parental involvement varies hugely from case to case. I have had some families who would pop in almost daily to see me and or the child

working with me. I have others that I have never met. In some cases this is due to high work load (at present the Nepali dad is working 3 jobs

and the Mum full time also) I have an open door policy and am happy to have them visit. This is also in my letter of intro. In another case, I met

the mother of an international student in and out of school hours as she was very isolated, with her spouse back in Korea while she and the

child were in NZ for a year.

How you find out about and value the childrens culture in your teaching?

The first part of working with these students is for me to get to know them. When they first arrive,

we put their home country on the world map with a string showing their journey to NZ.


9/13

I also put up on the wall display, the days of the week in their first language.

I also do a profile poster with their photo, saying hello in

first language and if possible I also get them to write the

greeting in their first language. This is not always possible

depending on age and stage of the child.

I share the info from the MOE book 'New to New Zealand' with the class teacher, to provide awareness of culture and a little bit of background

for them.

I try very hard to build up a relationship with these kids so that they feel comfortable asking questions. In some cases, speaking English at

school only happens in the small withdrawal group for quite some time, before the student feels brave enough to speak in the while class

environment.

Once there is a level of understanding in English, I usually work on a Duality Map (learned about by me on my ELA course). In this we compare 1

aspect of life from their home, to the same here in NZ. It provides us with a lot of scope for sharing of ideas. Both the children and I too learn alot from this task.


10/13

For Race Unity day I also do a wall display of many greetings from other countries and encourage students to learn new greetings from there. I

always encourage my learners to teach me some words in their language which can cause a great deal of hilarity and is a great ice breaker.

Have you come across any problems or challenges relating to the culture of your students or their families and if so how have you dealt withthem?

Asking about difficulties, I went through the profile cards of some of the students that have moved through NCS and have a few things to share.

In several cases, levels of inappropriate physical play /fighting have been shown especially by older boys who are new to NZ. With low levels of

English, disagreements can often flare into blows being exchanged. Class teachers and senior management have at times had to speak to

parents asking them to explain to their children the NZ 'way'

Other cultures can be seen in our eyes to 'baby' children so they arrive at school, but are not school ready.

As we accept International fee paying learners, sometimes parents arrive for a short time in NZ intending their children to be totally immersed

in English learning. It can be tough knowing how to get the most from the time, and sometimes the parents have unrealistic expectations about

the amount of tuition their kids will receive.Some new learners lack experiences of everyday life that make it hard for them to relate to what topics are about i.e. camping, fishing, even

trips to the beach in some cases.

When there is a delay in language progression, it's hard to know if it is a Special Needs issue, or and ESOL one.


11/13

Being in a small centre such as Nelson, the availability of interpreters can be limited and this makes things difficult if there are important issues

to be discussed with parents. A major difficulty we had this year also was our Afghani family who arrived under a "Family Reunification' visa.

This meant they did not have access to the 6 week time in the Mangere refugee facility. They then arrived here needing huge input and help

from school and volunteers to access health, welfare, banking and IRD services etc.

I know that we are trying to celebrate the different cultures within our school as encouraged by the MOE, however in a school our size with sofew ESOL students this can be very threatening, especially if the learners are shy. Even having the Duality Map posters displayed in public has

caused some students a great deal of stress. We have suggested at times that our EAL learners go in front of assembly to share experiences but

so far the majority of our kids have totally refused. They at their stages want to fit in and not be singled out as different. For this reason, we

have kept things to just a class level, or just in the ESOL groups.

I always stress to the children that their first language is so important to maintain. Its all about who they are and to keep speaking it. This can

be difficult when parents want their kids to succeed in English and do well at school, and who promote only English at home. I use an analogy

about a box or balloon that contains our languages, the more we learn, the bigger the balloon gets and it never pops.

In further discussion the ESOL teacher explained how she would like to do some shared activities with the ESOL children from a school acrossthe road from us, but timetabling issues make this very difficult. She does however have a meeting once every 3 weeks with our school

DP/SENCO and the ESOL teacher from the other school to share experiences and brainstorm ideas.

Our ESOL teacher is also involved with promoting multiculturalism in the general community. She was involved in a local news item where 2 of

our Afghan children received a book donated to the school of World Refugee Day.

In celebration of World Refugee Day, the Nelson Multicultural Council, in collaboration with Red Cross Refugee Services, presented

Sarah Garland's Azzi In Between to the Nelson Central School library.(Nelson Mail, 2013)


12/13

Conclusion

With regards to Mori culture I feel we are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of valuing and celebrating this as one of the

founding cultures of New Zealand. All classrooms are including te reo Mori and tikanaga to some extent and the bilingual unit provides a rich

source of experiences and knowledge if teachers choose to draw on this.

However our attempts at celebrating other cultures seem to be at a surface level only, with the exception of the ESOL classes . Our books

representing other cultures are few and tend to be at the higher reading levels making them inaccessible to non-native English speakers just

arriving in the country. Opportunities provided for exploring and celebrating cultures such as Diwali or Chinese New Year are again either not

taken up or a looked at very briefly in most classes.

There is certainly work to be done to improve the acknowledgement, understanding and celebration of the minorities cultures in our school.

Suggestions to consider include:

Professional Development

Building relationships with community such as the Samoan church next door Links with other schools such as the highly acclaimed Victory school that is held up as an example of being all inclusive to many

cultures.


13/13

References

Book echoes new chapter for girls. (n.d.). Retrieved June 2013, from Nelson Mail: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/8819329/Book-echoes-new-

chapter-for-girls

Facts and Figures. (n.d.). Retrieved June 2013, from Nelson City Council: http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/about-nelson/facts-and-figures/

What Does Multiculturalism Look Like in Our School

Documents

Transcript of What Does Multiculturalism Look Like in Our School