Welcome

It is our great pleasure to extend a warm welcome to the Culturally Responsive Research and Pedagogy Symposium at the University of Waikato, in the heart of the Waikato, beside the mighty Waikato river, under the shadow of Mount Pirongia. The image of the painting by Donn Ratana which features on the cover of this booklet, is based around the whakatauki or proverb ‘Nau te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te tangata ’ which roughly translates as: With your basket and my basket, we will feed many people. The proverb suggests that if we pool our ideas, with equal respect for all parties, we will get a superior result and everyone will benefit. This symposium is an opportunity for researchers to share ideas about how to define and achieve ideals of cultural responsiveness in the educational setting. The participants in this symposium come from throughout New Zealand and from wider afield, and they will be examining the theme of the conference from a variety of perspectives: from Māori immersion settings and settings where English is being learned as an additional language to culturally responsive approaches in the arts, science education, multimodal literacies and in Fourth World settings. We welcome all perspectives and all speakers, and we look forward to sharing from each of our baskets. We extend a warm welcome to our keynote speakers, Nancy Hornberger, Luis Moll and Mere Berryman, who will give us the benefit of their considerable expertise in the field of culturally responsive research and pedagogy. We hope you will join us for a traditional Kiwi barbecue to be held at the Faculty of Education cafeteria by Kowhai Court on the evening of Wednesday, November 13. Partners and friends are welcome. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the Faculty of Education which is sponsoring this symposium