The Main Influences on Māori
Students’ Achievement
The Narratives of Experience
Te Kotahitanga Phase 5
Interviews-as-chat with …
Year 9 and 10 Māori students in five
secondary schools:
• Non-engaged Māori students
• Engaged Māori students
• Their whānau
• Their teachers
• Principals
Why use Narratives of Experience?
Students’ experience and understandings:
• Can improve educational practice by providing teachers
with an understanding of how students see the world
(within school and in the community)
• Can help teachers make what they teach more accessible
to students
• Can contribute to the ways teachers view teaching and use
more collaborative processes
• Can make students feel more empowered in the classroom
as active participants in the classroom planning
• Can motivate students to participate constructively in their
education
• Can inform educational reform
• Can provide a means whereby students’ prior learning and
cultural understandings can be brought into the classroom.
(Bishop, & Glynn, 1999; Cook-Sather, 2002)
For more information about
Narratives of Experience
Cook-Sather, A. (2002). Authorizing students’
perspectives: Towards trust, dialogue, and change in
education. Education Researcher, 31, (4), 3-14.
Bishop, R. & Glynn, T (1999). Culture counts:
Changing power relations in education. Palmerston
North: Dunmore Press.
Positioning
Analysis of unit ideas in the narratives identified that
these teachers held three major discourse positions
to explain Māori students’ educational achievement.
Māori students
& communities
(Outside the
school)
Structures
(Within the
school; outside
the classroom)
Relationships
(Within the
classroom)
Non agentic
Non agentic
Agentic
“I can’t do …”
“I can’t do …”
“I can do…”
Where the discourses were positioned
Discourses explaining Māori achievement:
Students, Whānau, Principals and Teachers
100
90
80%
Student
Whänau
80
Principal
Percentage
70
63%
61%
Teachers
60
49%
50
40
29%
22%
30
19%
18%
20
20%
19%
11%
9%
10
0
Child
Structure
Relationship
What did the discourses
sound like?
Discourses to do with being Māori
When you play up you get withdrawn from class. Yeah, you get sent
out. Sometimes it’s not your fault, but you don’t get a chance to tell your
side until you get to the deputy principal. So you tell your story and you
are allowed back, but you’re shamed out. It’s stink.
Some teachers pick on us Māori. Some teachers and kids are racist.
Being Māori. They say bad things about us. We’re thick. We smell. Our
uniforms are paru. They shame us in class. Put us down.
Don’t even try to say our names properly. Say things about our whānau.
They blame us for stealing when things go missing. Just ’cause we’re
Māori.
Discourses to do with engaging Māori
students
Don’t yell at kids. Don’t start thinking about what you are
going to teach us when we walk in the room. Get prepared.
Have a smile on your face. Look pleased to see us. Treat
us respectfully. Look like you want to be here. Say hi to us
as we come in. Have a joke with us. Don’t bawl us out. If
you don’t like something we’re doing, tell us quietly.
Just ‘cause we’re a C class don’t expect us to be dumb. We
might be there because we were naughty at Intermediate.
Don’t have us writing all the time and being quiet. Let us talk
quietly to each other about what we’re doing. We know we
have to be quiet sometimes – like tests.
I think they need to try and understand us and the way that
we learn.
Treat them equally. Treat them the same as the other
students.
They never even actually make an effort to understand our
culture. They don’t try to understand where we are coming
from.
Make it easier for us to learn. Slow down sometimes ‘cause
you don’t learn much when you go too fast.
Cut down copying. We’d rather collaborate about the notes.
You know, do them together so we can all understand.
What makes a difference
for Māori students’
participation and
educational achievement?
The Effective Teaching Profile
Culturally appropriate and responsive teachers demonstrate
the following understandings:
a) They positively reject deficit theorising
b) They know and understand how to bring about change in
Māori students’ educational experience and are
professionally committed to doing so in the following
ways:
1) Caring for Māori students as culturally located individuals
2) Caring for the participation and achievement of Māori
students
3) Creating a secure, well-managed learning environment
4) Engaging in effective teaching interactions
5) Using a range of teaching strategies to promote change
6) Promoting, monitoring and sharing outcomes for and
with Māori students