We are all culturally located individuals and together can support the development of culturally responsive practice in our schools. Leaders managing change will use their cultural lens to identify and address authentic problems that might affect the change and effectively support cross-cultural learning.

Just as cultural responsive practice needs purposeful and special targeting of priority learners, school employers should consider purposefully targeting diversity in the teaching force in their schools. Culturally diverse teaching force could make cultural responsive practice easier if we as practioners take the steps to understand one another and by so doing get equipped to lead others in effective responsive practice.

Scheetz and Senge(2021) in their research findings reiterates that "educational leaders need to build trusting and reflective cultures to support people to look closely at how they perceive their world and how they operate in it. This needs to include nuanced understandings of privilege and its part in institutionalised bias."

In my context, school-wide family hui is conducted for Pasifika students and whanau to deliberate on issues affecting their learning. Also is a mentorship program that supports priority learners. It was easy for students to request changes to some recipes which had cultural implications because there are teachers and other support staff who identify with the same religious cultural believes like the students. I have taught in 2 different schools before, but this kind of change never happened because the students did not have representative in the teaching and working force that were perhaps that influential in leading a change. Instead, students chose to bin the food they cooked.

We must initiate change, maintain leadership, and, most importantly, inspire hope and optimism(Kotter, 2021, Lewis, 2017 & Heathfield, 2020). We always have to focus on what works for the priority students we may focus our change on to sustain our motivation for innovative change at all times.

References

Culturally located practice. (2021). Retrieved 1 December 2021, from https://tapasa.tki.org.nz/teaching-stories/where-am-i/keeping-culture-at-the-centre/culturally-located-practice/

Scheetz, M.,Senge,P.(2021)Systemic change and equity. Retrieved 10 December 2021, from https://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Leading-cultural-change/Systemic-change-and-equity