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