Culturally Responsive Education Whats in a Name

[Music]

ace whale

sam siaya

hello my name is tasanglia and i am from

chilquake territory

and from skull kale i’m acknowledging

acknowledging the territory that i call

home

chocolate territory is located up the

fraser river in the eastern fraser

valley

of british columbia canada by

acknowledging where i come from i am

connecting myself

to thousands of years of tradition the

land that

my ancestors have been stewards of and

my truth

humans are inextricably linked to one

another but have been forced apart

due to cultural experiences and colonial

narratives

my work as an educator began well before

i was aware

as i began to create a sense of who i

was and what my truth is

my work continues now as i question how

can i acknowledge and

elevate the lived experiences and

cultural backgrounds of my students

they are after all living breathing

curriculum

and they bring with them so many stories

we teach who we are we are what we teach

my maternal ancestors are stallo and are

intimately connected to the land that i

call my home

on my paternal side my father is a dutch

settler

i live in a very interesting space that

i’m still trying to make sense of

on one side i have very strong stallow

ties

and on the other i’m a settler canadian

i’ve garnered ways to navigate my world

by bringing forward pieces of both

i am not only a proud stallow woman

exploring what it means to be hualmuk

but i also acknowledge that i grew up in

canada on the foundations of colonial

displacement

cultural genocide and western world

views

i bring these identities with me when i

teach

my learning journey centers around the

teachings embedded in shwokuyam

our oral histories in my early

undergraduate years i spent time as a

researcher

and summers were spent in libraries and

archives

listening to interviews from early

ethnographers these

interviews were with incredibly

significant knowledge keepers

our knowledge keepers are highly

respected for their ability to share

teach and carry our culture we as stella

come from an oral tradition

that connects us to others and to the

land around us

i urge anyone i come across to get to

know knowledge keepers in your area

and to listen to what they have to share

and hold those teachings close

through this process of research which i

acknowledge and remind you as a very

western way of learning i began to feel

a massive

amount of responsibility because these

knowledge keepers were sharing their

world

and their being with the interviewer and

indirectly me

shokuyam is our way to transmit the

teachings about our beginnings

as a people in the beginnings of our

land

shokuyam instruct us on how to respect

our land and acknowledge the spaces that

connect

us the shrokram

also help us to use active listening

listeners not only use their ears they

use their mind

and their heart i return to my previous

mention of research

and its very strong connection to

western ways of being and determining

what

and who education is for indigenous

educators and academics across the world

are working extremely hard

to redefine and re-establish what

education looks like for our people

so what is the purpose of education and

how does that relate to culturally

responsive teaching practices

i’ll start with my journey to becoming

an educator

i asked myself why do we need to share

knowledge with young learners

what is integral to their development in

this world

to answer these seemingly immense

questions my mentors suggested looking

inward

we explore who we are and the identity

that we carry with us

and develop a sense of purpose within

our work and it’s that willingness that

makes us strong educators

for me this purpose was to help students

to develop their ability to learn from

one another

and from the world around them the

culture and teachings within our society

is embedded within the people that

surround us if only we could tap into

these knowledges

developing the skills needed to do this

comes from us the educators

this does require some deconstruction on

what and

who we think education is for i’ve come

to recognize the immense

impact of colonialism on not only my

family

but also the society in which i live

the world that i grew up in is very

different

than the stallow world that i live in

and learn from now

we also have a responsibility to

remember that our generations

are still living with the trauma and

influences of the residential school

system

this system removed children from their

homes and communities

to systematically deny them from their

culture and language

settler colonialism is a purposeful

violent act

and it’s a way of being and navigating

our world

and it has deep implications on what we

think education is for

i grew up in an educational environment

that didn’t allow

me to bring my cultural identity into

the classroom

for generations our classrooms have

continued to reinforce

world views that negate our stala ways

of being

an example of these approaches to

knowledge is are the is the language

that we use

and our practices of bringing diversity

into the classroom

diversity is a euro-centric white word

and it’s about making sense of through a

white lens

difference and by creating curating and

demanding palatable definitions of

diversity

examples of lived experiences can be

incredible incredibly powerful

there’s a strong push for culturally

diverse literature in our classrooms

and we meaning educators cannot

put a parameter around what we determine

to be diverse

what books and whose voices are going to

be shared

we should focus on our students and the

stories that they bring to our

classrooms

it is a powerful experience to explore

our identities

and our truth our truth is what grounds

us in the world

just as i grounded myself when i

introduced

who i am where i come from and the land

that i’m connected to

we as educators do a really great job of

teaching about different people and

places and concepts

but can we move to a place where we are

learning from the world around us

when we are learning from others we are

listening to their truth

this is especially important when we’re

exploring culture

we can build stronger connections when

we connect story to a person

the history of irish and the

dehumanization of indigenous peoples

has impacted our ability to forge strong

relationships

by learning from the stallo people we

are opening ourselves up to this process

we open ourselves up to learning through

connection

when students practice exploring their

own identity they can then apply these

skills of curiosity

empathy and openness when exploring

other stories

how does their story connect to other

peoples

and how does your story connect to other

perspectives

from my stallo identity i carry with me

the teachings of shokuyam and skulkwell

we all carry stories memory and history

with us

and it is those lived experiences that

influence our world

in my experiences culture has been

central to my learning

it contributes to the way that we

develop communication and

interpretations of the world around us

and interpretations of each other we are

all cultural beings

and we have cultural backgrounds that

influence our perception of the world

and therefore constitute who we are as a

human being

it is a very real fact that stella

culture is alive and resilient

we have strongly rooted cultural

practices that acknowledge

and respect our place in this world as

stallow

so moving forward and away from the way

that we’ve included culture in our

classrooms in the past

we need to elevate the lived experiences

of our students

i recently had the opportunity within my

home community to push our school

district in the way

we think about stalled teachings

beginning with walmook teachings names

are sacred

they not only identify a person or a

place but they carry

massive amounts of history with them

our names are carried through the

generations and we have a responsibility

to uphold

and share the teachings that belong to

each ancestral name or place name

our language is another sacred piece of

homework identity

and deeply embedded in those languages

are our ways of being

a new school is being built in the heart

of telkwik territory

about a kilometer or two up the the

walmall river

near stitaz where the promontory

mountain meets the vetter mountain

what a perfect opportunity to elevate

the culture and identity of our stall of

students

so that community members can explore

and learn

from the stallo people

my experiences with colonialism have

prevented me from learning my ancestral

language

knowing the significance of our language

and the teachings embedded in our

shokuyam

i know that the longer we continue to

not elevate indigenous languages

the longer we continue to determine what

is acceptable diversity

moving forward after generations of

systemic racism

oppression and discriminatory policy

against indigenous people

this school can hopefully provide an

immediate space for stalls students to

have a sense of belonging

by elevating their lived experiences

culture and language

we are saying that you determine what is

important to your cultural identity

not us your lived experiences are not

being placed below

any others when we teach from a position

that elevates the stories and lived

experiences

we acknowledge and respect that each

student is a cultural being

and we don’t determine for them what

diversity looks like

they bring their experiences into the

classroom and we can and it enhances our

learning from each other

i’m going to leave you with this thought

my experiences are very context specific

and directly relate to the territory in

which i live

but ultimately i want us

as human beings to think of the

communities we could create

if only we stepped away from our

palatable definitions of diversity

and looked to move forward together to

build shared understanding

and build equity within our communities

la hi i’m finished