Consultation

Consultation regarding the data gathering tools was carried out with all advisors (cultural advisors, student advisors, and teacher experts). The views of all advisors were collected through informal semi-structured interviews. Summaries of the key ideas from each interview were returned to the advisors to check that they matched the views discussed and to invite further comments. Their input will be discussed in turn.

7

roughly translated as The School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, which sits within the University’s Faculty of Education.

Involving cultural advisors throughout the research study rather than solely at the outset, was a deliberate act aimed at generating understanding about, engagement with, and commitment to the entire study. The cultural advisors were consulted throughout the development process. Their advice was sought on the initial drafts of the data gathering tools, revised drafts after consultation with the student advisors and the teacher experts, as the trials progressed (Figure 3.2), and during the data collection and analysis. This extended involvement ensured multiple opportunities for the cultural advisors to inform the study and for the researcher to ensure the study as a whole, and the design and use of the data gathering tools in particular, was responsive to their advice.

The cultural advisors described the benefits for research quality of the use of cultural advice for studies involving multicultural classrooms as: including safety for the researcher; increasing the depth and scope of the findings; and increasing the standing of the research:

Involving cultural advisors input [is] he whakaaro rangatira (a chiefly thought). This is the most important stance one could make…this will help set ‘safe’ guidelines for the researcher and perhaps add another dimension to the topics being researched. Using cultural advice gives mana (standing), credibility, and integrity to the project. Kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) dialogue is extremely important. (Māori Cultural Advisor)

I think it’s really important, for example if you’re going to be going in and you’re going to be looking at multicultural [classrooms] there is no way you’re going to have all that knowledge by yourself so you have to go and seek advice… because it just gives you just a little bit more insight and gives you more of a background on what you’re heading into and a bit of knowledge of why and how kids are acting…the types of kids that you’ll have, or the backgrounds that they come from. I see [Pasifika students in multicultural classrooms] as communities within communities. I think [cultural advice] is really important. It benefits the researcher. (Pasifika Cultural Advisor)

Particularly important additions to the observation schedule from the cultural advisors’ input included methods for recording:

• how well the lesson matched Durie’s (1998) ‘”whare tapa whā” (p. 76) model for personal health and well-being (Māori cultural advisor); and

• how the community of practice was re-established at the beginning of the lesson (Pasifika cultural advisor).

The cultural advisors’ advice led to audio-taping of observed lessons to allow interpretations of specific teacher-student interactions to be sought.

The majority of suggestions from the cultural advisors were fairly consistent with the literature on teacher care; however, further specific modifications made to the observation schedule (Appendix 3) following their advice included:

• sections for holistic anecdotal statements of the impact of teacher interactions (the cultural advisors’ views indicated a greater interdependence of facets of caring relations than conveyed by the distinct sections of the schedule); and

• making sufficient space for quotes, anecdotal notes, and the researcher’s views regarding the consequences of teacher and student actions. (Cultural advisors expressed strongly that how teachers or students displayed each component of the schedule was as or more important than its presence. For example, a checklist can record how often humour is used by a teacher but not how students appeared to interpret the humour or how it appeared to affect the classroom climate.)

Cultural advisors’ suggestions also led to additions to the questionnaires and interviews. In particular, many questions were added to the third set of questionnaires (Appendices 6 and 9) in response to a discussion with the Pasifika advisor regarding achieving greater depth to the investigation of participants’ views about the relevance of their culture to themselves and to their mathematics learning. Corresponding changes were made to the student and teacher questionnaires to allow comparison of teachers’ and students’ data.

The student advisors’ responses were also fairly consistent with the literature and those of other advisors. However, the observation schedule was adapted to enable greater specificity in recording student-initiated interactions (Appendix 3) in response to their advice regarding the importance of teachers’:

• ability to respond to students’ body language:

Teachers have got to work the crowd. They have to read the kids and [when appropriate] change the activity. (Student advisor)

• knowledge of the students as individuals; and

• sensitivity with such knowledge.

Discussion of these aspects also increased the researcher’s sensitivity to actions and reactions in the classroom thereby increasing the effectiveness of the use of the schedule.

In contrast to the literature and the cultural advisors’ and teacher experts’ views, the student advisors were initially surprised that the observation tool included certain components (e.g., ‘mathematical contexts which reflect Māori and Pasifika cultures’, ‘teachers sharing of themselves’, and ‘smiling’). However on reflection they agreed that, dependent on the teacher, these factors could be useful in developing a caring atmosphere for mathematics learning. Further, they reported that it was not important for mathematics teachers to know their students’ ethnicities stating that teachers should “treat all students the same”; and that they did not all regard sustained eye contact as a positive aspect of teacher care:

I hate eye contact. You feel like they are singling you out. (Student advisor)

Subsequent to advice from the cultural and student advisors, the researcher carried out over twenty classroom visits in a wide range of school types as the visiting lecturer for student teachers’ teaching practice. As a result of reflecting on these classroom experiences in light of further consultation, more modifications were made to the schedule (Appendix 3) to allow greater specificity to be recorded regarding teachers’:

• explanations of their practice (e.g., “I would like you to listen to one another in the presentations because it shows and it allows us to hear and think about….” in contrast to “Be quiet”);

• use of humour (from the teacher directly (related or unrelated to the lesson’s mathematical content) and through the teacher using learning experiences which allowed students to incorporate their own humour);

• ways of building a sense of shared endeavour (for example using language such as “We are going to explore…” rather than “You are to copy what is on the board”); and

• sharing aspects of their personal identities.

Practices such as these are described in the literature concerning effective classroom practice (e.g., Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; McInerney & McInerney, 2006) but appear less often in the literature on teacher care. Reflections on the classroom visits enabled them to be considered and incorporated into the study data collection.

Teacher experts were the last group to be consulted. Their opinions largely matched those gathered from the literature, other advisors, and the researcher’s classroom reflections, in itself a useful reinforcement that the data gathering tools were fit for

the purpose. However, incorporating a way to record how teachers make

opportunities for students’ sharing of themselves was an example of one addition to

the schedule as a result of discussions with the teacher experts.