Educators need to better understand the strengths Pacific students bring to school in order to lift their achievement, says Dr Diane Mara who has 40-plus years in education as a teacher, lecturer and consultant.
Students take part in the Aha Mentoring Programme facilitated by the Pasifika Foundation which uses music to engage with vulnerable youth. Oct 2015 Photo: Pasifika Foundation
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At the end of 2018, Dr Mara was invited by the Pacific health manager at the Hawke’s Bay DHB to join the team working on their youth strategy.
The team developed a survey to find out more about Pacific youth in the region, surveying almost 400 students at 12 different schools, and then followed up with focus groups.
The study looked at identity, education and wellbeing.
“The reason that prompted me to think about what’s happening here is that many of the responses that we were having from the Pacific students here in 2019 sounded very familiar with work that I had done with Dr Tanya Wendt Samu in Auckland University over 15 years ago,” she says.
“Why haven’t things changed? Why are students still saying things like; ‘the teacher talks too fast, they don’t listen to me, there’s bullying in my school, they think I’m dumb’.”
While there’s been pilot studies and innovations throughout the country, particularly in early childhood, Dr Mara says there has not been a comprehensive evaluation of small scale studies.
“When you start looking at the data, to think that there are a lot of things that have not changed for Pacific students, you do have to start asking questions.”
Many teachers are monolingual and mono-cultural, making it difficult to respond to and understand the strengths of Pacific students, Dr Mara says.
“The biggest one…that’s been a gap historically is their bilingual talents and knowledge.
“We all know, international studies show, that the cognitive flexibility and cognitive advantage of being able to speak and communicate in more than one language is really important. It’s important in terms of being able to see different perspectives of questions…problem-solving and so forth.”
But it’s an area that still hasn’t been adequately recognised in teaching and learning practices or in policy, she says.
“It’s been a bit frustrating in the sense that we had a number of different Pasifika education plans, a number of consultations…but actually, there’s been no substantive work in saying OK this school over there is doing really well with their Pacific students, what are the elements here that we could perhaps transfer somewhere else.”
An overarching policy or plan would outline what the specific goals are and how to achieve these, she says.
“When you’re working in the areas of equity and equality there has to be some leadership shown to make sure that actually there are some gains being made, otherwise if you’re investing in all of these little projects all over the place, how do you know that your investment is paying off?”
For educators, it’s about looking at your current practice and adapting it, she says.
“This is about the way you do things, not necessarily about adding another subject.”
It could be things like having a meal with families when you invite them in to meet them, she says.
“Get to know your students first and find out how best they learn.”