Savage et al. (2011) make reference to the school in the film that inspired me to develop my inquiry question, Precious Knowledge. The authors believe that the program implemented for Chicano students in high schools in Tucson, Arizona, is the best documented case of a successful program where culturally responsive pedagogy leads to increased academic achievement. The aim of culturally responsive teaching is to reduce academic disparities between students of minority groups and students of the dominant culture by increasing students’ competencies in order to sustain their cultural resources (Ladson-Billings as cited in Debnam et al., 2015). Richards and Vining state how important education is for Indigenous people specifically, noting that “education represents a key pathway to ameliorating negative outcomes (as cited in Debnam et al., 2015).

Ebersole et al. (2016) note the difference between teaching about something versus teaching through something. This is the difference between creating lesson plans that either incorporate culturally responsive activities (teaching about) or with a culturally responsive perspective (teaching through). A teacher in Ebersole et al.’s study notes, “… you already teach through a culture… As teachers we all infuse culture every minute, every second during the day in our classrooms and we are not conscious of it.” (Ebersole et al., 2016, p.101). Lewthwaite et al. (2014) offer simple practices students in a Yukon First Nation setting respond well to, such as allowing more physical space and extra time for students to respond to questions. What is critical is that the teachers in Lewthwaite et al.’s study implement “low-inference behaviours” which correspond to the preferred teaching practices of their communities (2014). Rather than explicitly teaching about First Nations content, they “respond to the learning styles, pattern performances, and interests (Gay, 2000) of their students” (Lewthwaite et al., 2014, p. 19). Another First Nations principle is that learning should be holistic and lifelong (McIntosh et al. 2014).

In Curtis Rattray’s presentation, he emphasized the significance of sovereignty and personal autonomy to Indigenous Peoples. It is important that we, as teachers, show our students respect by giving them autonomy (C. Rattray, personal communication, November 23, 2016). Our students should know exactly what is expected of them, and we need to give them autonomy to fulfill these expectations without always explicitly telling them what to do. I will definitely show all of my students respect by giving them the freedom to experiment and to learn things on their own, but I may need to guide them in order for this to be most effective.

What has become clear to me now is that the best way to implement culturally responsive teaching is through the subtle practices teachers incorporate into their everyday teaching. A key element to linking my inquiry question to practice is that my implementation must be responsive to my students. My teaching practices should reflect what they need, and until I meet them at the beginning of my practicum I can only speculate as to what my teaching methods will be. My anticipated explicit implementation strategies will be:

– Incorporating First Peoples story-telling techniques of humor and repetition (First Nations Education Steering Committee, 2015).

– Showing my students respect by giving them personal autonomy in our learning environment (C. Rattray, personal communication, November 23, 2016). This can be done through giving my students academic freedom to pursue their topic of choice on certain assignments, for example.

– I will include First Peoples Principles of Learning in all of my unit plans.

– Explicitly discussing connections to the land, the role of family, and the relationships between the individual and community (First Nations Education Steering Committee, 2015).

This will be most successful when all stakeholders are involved in changing schools in order to implement culturally responsive teaching practices (Savage et al., 2011).