Creating a Culturally Safe Classroom

Creating a Culturally Safe Classroom

1. Whakapapa / Identity & History

• Learn students’ cultural backgrounds, iwi affiliations, histories, and languages.
  
  

• Integrate local stories, pepeha, whenua connections into classroom content.
  
  

• Affirm their cultural identities by weaving them into curriculum.
  

Suggested practice: Co‑construct pepeha with students; use identity projects or whakapapa trees.

2. Whanaungatanga / Relationships & Connection

• Prioritize trust‑based relationships with each student and their whānau.
  

• Use relational practices first (i.e. regulate → relate → reason) rather than immediate discipline.
  

• Value informal connections—check‑ins, storytelling, shared laughter.
  

Suggested practice: Greet students personally, learn about their lives beyond school, build relational rituals like circles or shared meals.

3. Manaakitanga / Care & Respect

• Show respect, hospitality, and uplift students’ mana (dignity).
  
  

• Avoid shaming, sarcasm, deficit‑based language, or low expectations.
  
  

• Empower student voice and agency.
  

Suggested practice: Offer student choice in tasks; regularly ask for feedback on how the class environment feels for them.

4. Trauma / Stress Awareness:

Regulate → Relate → Reason

• Recognise behaviour as communication; regulate first, connect second, then reason/problem-solve.
  
  

• Use frameworks like Zones of Regulation to help students name and manage emotional states.
  
  

• Respond with calm presence, empathy, and co‑constructed strategies.

  
  

5. Ako / Co‑Construction & Dialogic Learning

• Move from top-down instruction toward participatory learning.
  
  

• Value students’ worldviews and lived experience as assets.
  
  

• Use dialogic teaching (open questions, discussion, inquiry) rather than lecture.
  

Suggested practice: Co-create success criteria, invite students to design tasks, integrate their cultural knowledge into lessons.

6. Critical Reflexivity & Feedback Loops

• Continuously reflect:
  

  • Whose voices are centered?
    
    

  • Am I holding equally high expectations for all?
    
    

  • Where might I be reproducing bias or colonial practices?
    
    

• Invite regular feedback from students and whānau on how culturally safe they feel — and act on that feedback.

7. Systemic & School‑Wide Advocacy

• Understand that classrooms are part of broader systems.
  
  

• Advocate for inclusive policies, equity-driven professional learning, culturally responsive curricula.
  
  

• Support your colleagues in developing cultural safety and relational practices.