This amazing degree allowed me to pursue my interest in making a change for students and their learning. As a leader I cannot wait for change or standby and wait for a time when I can complete an assignment. I decided the natural course was to get going with a project and see where that led and if a smaller project fell out to four on for my masters project.
It was a realisation in my second assignment on cultural responsiveness that I got quite angry with the New Zealand Education system.
Some of my thoughts were drawn out in my conclusion:
I have critically reflected on the opportunities and implications of cultural diversity in education and in my own critique of my own practice I can not escape the feeling that this is just the new buzz word for equity for all. Therefore, if this is another form of equity, how do we actually make a difference for all learners at the proverbial “coal face” rather than continue to frame up equity under different buzz words? I believe cultural diversity is important and the evidence and evaluations in this essay support this importance but it is not without some significant challenges in a wider school context. There are provisions for change, adaptation and improvement for cultural responsiveness in schools and educator practice but there is no practical form of implementation and only pockets of some success - a gap in literature.
