Motivation interventions via study programmes for under-achieving students, focusing on Paifika students

<p>Research has shown that lower motivation orientations are associated with under-achievement and that ethnicity may also be associated with motivation and achievement. This study investigates if student motivation can be altered by two intervention programmes — a traditional study (TS) programme and a motivation-enhanced study (MS) programme. A total of 57 students participated, from three different groups, attending Year 11 (median age 15 years) at two New Zealand Secondary Schools. This mixed-methods study used Martin’s (2008) Student Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES-HS) and Meyer, McClure, Walkey, McKenzie and Weirs’ (2008) Survey of NCEA Goals Year 10 and Year 11 Students to gain quantitative data. Qualitative data about perceptions on motivation and achievement were gained from interviews with students. MS students, across all three groups, had steeper gains in academic achievement, showed decreases in maladaptive intra-personal motivation orientations and increases in inter-personal motivation orientations compared to corresponding TS students. However, Pasifika students had the highest gains in achievement, showed stronger decrease on intra-personal adaptive motivation factors, and greater increases on inter-personal motivation orientations compared to non-Pasifika students. These results are discussed within a theoretical framework of how changes in intra-personal and inter-personal motivation orientations may be associated with ethnicity and achievement-related outcomes.</p>

Motivation interventions via study programmes for under-achieving students, focusing on Paifika students

<p>Research has shown that lower motivation orientations are associated with under-achievement and that ethnicity may also be associated with motivation and achievement. This study investigates if student motivation can be altered by two intervention programmes — a traditional study (TS) programme and a motivation-enhanced study (MS) programme. A total of 57 students participated, from three different groups, attending Year 11 (median age 15 years) at two New Zealand Secondary Schools. This mixed-methods study used Martin’s (2008) Student Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES-HS) and Meyer, McClure, Walkey, McKenzie and Weirs’ (2008) Survey of NCEA Goals Year 10 and Year 11 Students to gain quantitative data. Qualitative data about perceptions on motivation and achievement were gained from interviews with students. MS students, across all three groups, had steeper gains in academic achievement, showed decreases in maladaptive intra-personal motivation orientations and increases in inter-personal motivation orientations compared to corresponding TS students. However, Pasifika students had the highest gains in achievement, showed stronger decrease on intra-personal adaptive motivation factors, and greater increases on inter-personal motivation orientations compared to non-Pasifika students. These results are discussed within a theoretical framework of how changes in intra-personal and inter-personal motivation orientations may be associated with ethnicity and achievement-related outcomes.</p>

A’oa’o le tama e tusa ma ona ala, a o’o ina matua e le toe te’a ese ai: If we fail to construct our own realities, others will do it for us

<p>Guided by both my own journey as a Pasifika student and the ideology of Tongan academic Dr. Hūfanga Okustino Māhina, this research seeks to identify ways in which indigenous knowledge can become an integral component within education, specifically design education in New Zealand. This research focuses on the struggles Pasifika students face within an aesthetic education that has within its history, a proud claim for the removal of cultural, religious and historic references from its aesthetic vocabulary. I will argue that the absence of indigenous culture, initiated by the early modernists to embrace the universal, is no longer an appropriate model within design education as it struggles to address cultural diversity in both its content and delivery. The solution, I suggest is not an “either or” scenario but a recognition that knowledge comes from many cultures and contexts. This thesis explores the indigenous beliefs of tā, time and vā, space. It identifies the relevance these and ideologies derived from them, offer design pedagogy. Using visual ethnography, indigenous research methods and photography, I investigate and document traditional indigenous ceremonies and undertake talanoa, oral histories, in order to discover the opportunities and relevance they offer design education. Having compared and contrasted Eurocentric models and indigenous practices I identify and illustrate current initiatives that attempt to change the status quo. This thesis endeavours to tell the story of Pasifika students through a personal lens and identifies Moana ideologies that can be introduced to design curriculum that establish beneficial pathways forward for not only Maori and Pasifika students in design education but design education and thinking as a larger context. As a nexus to this research, I have designed and curated a selection of five photographs to illustrate the journey of indigenous knowledge, practice and language through design education. These photographs pay homage to my cultural ideologies, represent the narrative behind my motivations and illuminate the reciprocal need to nurture the space between Moana students and design education.</p>

A’oa’o le tama e tusa ma ona ala, a o’o ina matua e le toe te’a ese ai: If we fail to construct our own realities, others will do it for us

<p>Guided by both my own journey as a Pasifika student and the ideology of Tongan academic Dr. Hūfanga Okustino Māhina, this research seeks to identify ways in which indigenous knowledge can become an integral component within education, specifically design education in New Zealand. This research focuses on the struggles Pasifika students face within an aesthetic education that has within its history, a proud claim for the removal of cultural, religious and historic references from its aesthetic vocabulary. I will argue that the absence of indigenous culture, initiated by the early modernists to embrace the universal, is no longer an appropriate model within design education as it struggles to address cultural diversity in both its content and delivery. The solution, I suggest is not an “either or” scenario but a recognition that knowledge comes from many cultures and contexts. This thesis explores the indigenous beliefs of tā, time and vā, space. It identifies the relevance these and ideologies derived from them, offer design pedagogy. Using visual ethnography, indigenous research methods and photography, I investigate and document traditional indigenous ceremonies and undertake talanoa, oral histories, in order to discover the opportunities and relevance they offer design education. Having compared and contrasted Eurocentric models and indigenous practices I identify and illustrate current initiatives that attempt to change the status quo. This thesis endeavours to tell the story of Pasifika students through a personal lens and identifies Moana ideologies that can be introduced to design curriculum that establish beneficial pathways forward for not only Maori and Pasifika students in design education but design education and thinking as a larger context. As a nexus to this research, I have designed and curated a selection of five photographs to illustrate the journey of indigenous knowledge, practice and language through design education. These photographs pay homage to my cultural ideologies, represent the narrative behind my motivations and illuminate the reciprocal need to nurture the space between Moana students and design education.</p>

Together as brothers: A catalytic examination of Pasifika success as Pasifika to teu le va in boys' secondary education in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>Pasifika education, the education of students with connections to the Pacific in Aotearoa New Zealand, is intercultural; Pasifika students are generally taught by Palangi (European-origin) teachers in a system originally designed to meet the perceived needs of European settlers. The field has a history of inequity, consigning many Pasifika students to mediocrity in formal education. A cultural reading of the situation connects a need for emancipatory self-description with the achievement of social justice within the kind of participatory democracy imagined by Dewey. Recent government initiatives such as the Pasifika Education Plan have sought ‘Pasifika success’ through targets and initiatives, the most visible focusing on success as achievement understood by comparison to other ethnic groups. This has been critiqued as not seeking success as, but of Pasifika, in effect another assimilative practice. This thesis interrogates how success in formal education is understood, described, and explained by male Pasifika students as they enter the secondary sector. This is complemented by: paying attention to experiences of success in primary education; extending discussion to families; and the catalytic use of Pasifika community-sourced data to create opportunities for teachers to re-vision their practice. The inquiry is a bounded case study in the atypical context of a high-decile single-sex state school. A framework which combines a critical theory, critical race theory, and a Pacific Indigenous research paradigm provides a nuanced strengths-based approach. A dialogical-relational methodology argues for a mediated dialogue to teu le va (care for the relational spaces) between participants. The thesis demonstrates how catalytic attention to relationality can help teachers positively re-vision their practice. Attention to relationality also supports a complex positionality where a Palangi researcher seeks to edgewalk between Pasifika and Palangi concepts and communities, teachers and students, and Pacific-orientated research and the academy. Findings suggest that male Pasifika students hold a wide basket of forms of success which both contrast with and complement success as achievement: ideas about a ‘good education’, acceptance, participation, comfort, resilience, and the contextual extension of competence. These can be understood through Pacific origin concepts such as va (relationality), malaga (journey) and poto (wisdom), disturbing existing thinking about Pasifika education. As a result, the thesis has potential to assist a re-framing of theory and practice in the field as well as providing a model of relational inquiry for further social justice research into intercultural fields such as Pasifika education.</p>

Together as brothers: A catalytic examination of Pasifika success as Pasifika to teu le va in boys' secondary education in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>Pasifika education, the education of students with connections to the Pacific in Aotearoa New Zealand, is intercultural; Pasifika students are generally taught by Palangi (European-origin) teachers in a system originally designed to meet the perceived needs of European settlers. The field has a history of inequity, consigning many Pasifika students to mediocrity in formal education. A cultural reading of the situation connects a need for emancipatory self-description with the achievement of social justice within the kind of participatory democracy imagined by Dewey. Recent government initiatives such as the Pasifika Education Plan have sought ‘Pasifika success’ through targets and initiatives, the most visible focusing on success as achievement understood by comparison to other ethnic groups. This has been critiqued as not seeking success as, but of Pasifika, in effect another assimilative practice. This thesis interrogates how success in formal education is understood, described, and explained by male Pasifika students as they enter the secondary sector. This is complemented by: paying attention to experiences of success in primary education; extending discussion to families; and the catalytic use of Pasifika community-sourced data to create opportunities for teachers to re-vision their practice. The inquiry is a bounded case study in the atypical context of a high-decile single-sex state school. A framework which combines a critical theory, critical race theory, and a Pacific Indigenous research paradigm provides a nuanced strengths-based approach. A dialogical-relational methodology argues for a mediated dialogue to teu le va (care for the relational spaces) between participants. The thesis demonstrates how catalytic attention to relationality can help teachers positively re-vision their practice. Attention to relationality also supports a complex positionality where a Palangi researcher seeks to edgewalk between Pasifika and Palangi concepts and communities, teachers and students, and Pacific-orientated research and the academy. Findings suggest that male Pasifika students hold a wide basket of forms of success which both contrast with and complement success as achievement: ideas about a ‘good education’, acceptance, participation, comfort, resilience, and the contextual extension of competence. These can be understood through Pacific origin concepts such as va (relationality), malaga (journey) and poto (wisdom), disturbing existing thinking about Pasifika education. As a result, the thesis has potential to assist a re-framing of theory and practice in the field as well as providing a model of relational inquiry for further social justice research into intercultural fields such as Pasifika education.</p>

Teachers’ Misunderstandings that Affect the Learning of Their Pasifika Students

<p><b>Much current Pasifika research has a focus on looking at traditional Pasifika ways of learning to find an answer for low achievement among Pasifika students. Non-Pasifika research seems to see the solution as entailing teachers learning about their Pasifika students' lives. Yet neither of these approaches seems to make a difference for Pasifka student achievement. This study has shown that what does make a difference is the employment of good pedagogy by teachers who like and believe in their Pasifka students' abilities to succeed in the palagi education system. This study has also shown that what impedes progress for Pasifika students' achievement is the beliefs that teachers hold about "Pasifika ways of learning".</b></p> <p>For two days per week over a six week period a group of Year 9 Pasifika students were observed across a range of their classes in a medium sized, urban, low decile college which has a high proportion of Pasifika students. Observations and focus group interviews with Pasifika students and their teachers were conducted to explore the Pasifika student's engagement level and learning. A research methodology of mediated dialogue allowed the participants to be heard as authorities on their own experiences. The Pasifika students and their teachers were supported to hear the meanings each had given to the words and actions observed in the classroom. The Pasifika students were involved in the research as they co-constructed [with the researcher as scribe] the information they wanted their teacher to know. Teachers were able to respond to their Pasifika students' words and the Pasifika students were able to hear their teachers' responses.</p> <p>The findings were shaped as four vignettes and interpreted using the metaphor of an enzyme reaction. Each vignette described the type of learning and different engagement levels observed in a specific classroom. The vignettes included three classrooms where: students were not engaged at all with their learning because the relationship between the teacher and the students was poor; there was an appropriate relationship between the teacher and the students but the teachers' practice was poor; and the relationship between the students and the teacher was good but the teacher's expectations of the Pasifika students were low, and Pasifika learning was poor. In one vignette the relationship between the teacher and the students was one of trust and the teacher used teaching strategies that engaged and challenged the Pasifika students. In this classroom Pasifika learning was happening for a time.</p> <p>The study found that good Pasifika learning requires that the teacher must have all three of the following teaching strategies: allowing Pasifika students respect as a learner; being able to scaffold Pasifika learning at the right level and engaging their Pasifika students in active learning. The Pasifika student must have confidence and trust in their teacher to engage with the teacher in the active pursuit of learning. The classroom teacher must also have confidence in the Pasifika student's ability e.g., high expectations. If any of the parts described above are missing Pasifika learning is poor. The study demonstrates that the ways in which teachers fall into poor relationships and poor teaching practices can be related to their beliefs about Pasifika values and "Pasifika ways of learning".</p>

Teachers’ Misunderstandings that Affect the Learning of Their Pasifika Students

<p><b>Much current Pasifika research has a focus on looking at traditional Pasifika ways of learning to find an answer for low achievement among Pasifika students. Non-Pasifika research seems to see the solution as entailing teachers learning about their Pasifika students' lives. Yet neither of these approaches seems to make a difference for Pasifka student achievement. This study has shown that what does make a difference is the employment of good pedagogy by teachers who like and believe in their Pasifka students' abilities to succeed in the palagi education system. This study has also shown that what impedes progress for Pasifika students' achievement is the beliefs that teachers hold about "Pasifika ways of learning".</b></p> <p>For two days per week over a six week period a group of Year 9 Pasifika students were observed across a range of their classes in a medium sized, urban, low decile college which has a high proportion of Pasifika students. Observations and focus group interviews with Pasifika students and their teachers were conducted to explore the Pasifika student's engagement level and learning. A research methodology of mediated dialogue allowed the participants to be heard as authorities on their own experiences. The Pasifika students and their teachers were supported to hear the meanings each had given to the words and actions observed in the classroom. The Pasifika students were involved in the research as they co-constructed [with the researcher as scribe] the information they wanted their teacher to know. Teachers were able to respond to their Pasifika students' words and the Pasifika students were able to hear their teachers' responses.</p> <p>The findings were shaped as four vignettes and interpreted using the metaphor of an enzyme reaction. Each vignette described the type of learning and different engagement levels observed in a specific classroom. The vignettes included three classrooms where: students were not engaged at all with their learning because the relationship between the teacher and the students was poor; there was an appropriate relationship between the teacher and the students but the teachers' practice was poor; and the relationship between the students and the teacher was good but the teacher's expectations of the Pasifika students were low, and Pasifika learning was poor. In one vignette the relationship between the teacher and the students was one of trust and the teacher used teaching strategies that engaged and challenged the Pasifika students. In this classroom Pasifika learning was happening for a time.</p> <p>The study found that good Pasifika learning requires that the teacher must have all three of the following teaching strategies: allowing Pasifika students respect as a learner; being able to scaffold Pasifika learning at the right level and engaging their Pasifika students in active learning. The Pasifika student must have confidence and trust in their teacher to engage with the teacher in the active pursuit of learning. The classroom teacher must also have confidence in the Pasifika student's ability e.g., high expectations. If any of the parts described above are missing Pasifika learning is poor. The study demonstrates that the ways in which teachers fall into poor relationships and poor teaching practices can be related to their beliefs about Pasifika values and "Pasifika ways of learning".</p>

Applying Funds of Knowledge in a New Zealand High School: The Emergence of Team-based Collaboration as an Approach

<p>Underachievement by Māori and Pasifika students in New Zealand schools evidences the need for more effective teacher practices to support minoritized students‟ learning, in the interests of social justice. Learning about students' funds of knowledge (FoK) allows teachers to offer relevant learning experiences, achieving a fuller socio-constructivist approach to teaching and learning (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). This study explores the relevance of the FoK concept in the New Zealand context, and its application at high school level. For the purposes of this qualitative study, participants (n = 21) from a high school community were organized into five teams; three teams included a teacher, students, and their parents, and two included a teacher and students. Each team negotiated, implemented, and evaluated strategies for the teacher to learn about students' FoK. Findings highlight the dual layer of benefits arising from participation in collaborative teams and teacher inquiry into students' FoK. Each team formed a temporary system which transcended school norms and values, allowed members to interact in new ways, and provided a safe space for exploration of the application of FoK. A conceptual map outlining elements of the team-based collaboration (TBC) approach identifies factors related to purpose, participants, and process which generated each team's culture. Complex interplay of contextual elements influenced teams' milieu, decision-making, and valued outcomes. Valued outcomes included: identification of diverse FoK held by Māori and Pasifika students; development of closer teacher-student relationships and increased mutual commitment; greater evidence of effective learning behaviors in class; and pedagogical applications that were congruent with existing teaching programs. Barriers to valued outcomes suggest areas for participant training; these included the matching of strategy choice to participants to illuminate FoK, traditional teacher-student dynamics, and time and timing. Implications for teacher practice and future research are identified.</p>

Applying Funds of Knowledge in a New Zealand High School: The Emergence of Team-based Collaboration as an Approach

<p>Underachievement by Māori and Pasifika students in New Zealand schools evidences the need for more effective teacher practices to support minoritized students‟ learning, in the interests of social justice. Learning about students' funds of knowledge (FoK) allows teachers to offer relevant learning experiences, achieving a fuller socio-constructivist approach to teaching and learning (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). This study explores the relevance of the FoK concept in the New Zealand context, and its application at high school level. For the purposes of this qualitative study, participants (n = 21) from a high school community were organized into five teams; three teams included a teacher, students, and their parents, and two included a teacher and students. Each team negotiated, implemented, and evaluated strategies for the teacher to learn about students' FoK. Findings highlight the dual layer of benefits arising from participation in collaborative teams and teacher inquiry into students' FoK. Each team formed a temporary system which transcended school norms and values, allowed members to interact in new ways, and provided a safe space for exploration of the application of FoK. A conceptual map outlining elements of the team-based collaboration (TBC) approach identifies factors related to purpose, participants, and process which generated each team's culture. Complex interplay of contextual elements influenced teams' milieu, decision-making, and valued outcomes. Valued outcomes included: identification of diverse FoK held by Māori and Pasifika students; development of closer teacher-student relationships and increased mutual commitment; greater evidence of effective learning behaviors in class; and pedagogical applications that were congruent with existing teaching programs. Barriers to valued outcomes suggest areas for participant training; these included the matching of strategy choice to participants to illuminate FoK, traditional teacher-student dynamics, and time and timing. Implications for teacher practice and future research are identified.</p>