"Intercultural" Perceptions, Academic Achievement, and the Identifying Process of Pacific Islands Students in New Zealand Schools

Abstract

This article attempts to find a more effective and accurate explanation for the failure of schools to address the lack of academic achievement of Pasifika (Pacific Islands) students in New Zealand education. It is argued here that a necessary condition of academic success for these students is for them to be able to carry out their own identifying process and to have this process valued by the school. An empirical study using a mediated dialogue methodology was carried out to determine the value given by the schools to this identifying process by having students and teachers examine the accuracy of the perceptions they hold of each other. The results of the study indicate that the perceptions held by the schools and teachers of Pasifika students and their failure to recognize the students' identifying process influence their responses to these students in ways that adversely affect their educational achievement and opportunities. PASIFIKA STUDENTS IN THE NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION SYSTEM Of increasing concern to New Zealand society, and to Pasifika1 communities in particular is the situation of Pasifika students in education. In July 2001, Pasifika students made up 8% of the student population in high school but represented only 4.7% of all students leaving school that year with an A or B grade Bursary2 as their highest level of qualification. This compares with 18.4% of the total student population attaining the same qualifications. Of the students leaving secondary school with no formal qualifications, 24.8% were Pasifika compared with 17% of the total population. At the tertiary level, Pasifika students represent 4.2% of all enrolled students and only 1.87% of those enrolled at the postgraduate level. Pasifika peoples represent 5.7% (1 in 12) of the resident New Zealand population (Statistics New Zealand, 2003). THE TWO PERSPECTIVES OF THE LITERATURE ON PASIFIKA STUDENTS There is not much literature on Pasifika students in the New Zealand education system. Most of the literature is the work of doctoral and master's students and focuses on Pasifika students at the tertiary level. There are also a number of reports that have been commissioned by the government to study Pasifika students' underachievement. The literature mainly reflects a taken for granted acceptance by the writers and researchers of the perceptions held by the dominant culture of Pasifika peoples. Thus, suggested ways of improving achievement among Pasifika students are based on three approaches: (a) comparing the palagi3 constructed images of Pasifika which differ, not only from the image that the palagi has constructed for himself, but also from the Pasifika people's own concept of themselves; (b) distinguishing those Pasifika values that are inconsistent with the values of the palagi; and (c) identifying those images and values as the problems behind, and the causes of, Pasifika underachievement. In general, the literature follows one of two perspectives. The first perspective is related to the three factors mentioned above in that it draws conclusions and makes assumptions based on the authors' perceptions of Pasifika people. The second perspective focuses on the practices of educational institutions that affect the academic achievement of Pasifika students. The First Perspective The literature covered under the first perspective includes an early study carried out by Thomas in 1978 into the cooperative and competitive behaviors of Polynesian and European children in view of their cultural differences. Thomas presented students with a range of activities and found that Samoan and Fijian students showed high levels of cooperation while Cook Islanders and New Zealand Europeans showed low levels of cooperation (Thomas, 1978). The data showed little difference in cooperative behavior between urban and rural groups of students in Samoa and Fiji but a significant difference between the rural and urban groups in the Cook Islands. …