Aboriginal Student Engagement and Achievement

Teacher Professional Learning, Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Practices, and Indigenous Students’ Success: A Comparative Case-Study of New Zealand and Saskatchewan, Canada

“…The powerful effect of teacher professional learning on improved outcomes for low-achieving students highlights its potential to enhance the interface between the predominantly White teaching profession and the growing number of Indigenous learners in classrooms (Darling-Hammond, 2008;Papp, 2016Papp, , 2020Paris, 2016). A large body of research also suggests that a critical dimension of such professional learning is that it be informed by what initially was described as culturally responsive educational practices (Bishop & Berryman, 2006;Bishop, et al, 2010;Castagno & Brayboy, 2008;Cherubini, 2014;Kanu, 2011;Ladson-Billings, 1995a, 1995bOrlowski & Cottrell, 2019;Papp, 2016, Pelletier, Cottrell, & Hardie, 2013), more recently described as culturally sustaining practices (McCarty & Lee, 2014;Paris, 2012;Paris & Alim, 2014). Proponents of cultural responsiveness broadly adhere to the "cultural discontinuity hypothesis" (Friedel, 2010, p. 5), which assumes that by acknowledging culturallybased differences related to communication, interaction, and learning styles among Indigenous children and Western schools, more equitable educational outcomes for Indigenous learners can be achieved.…”