The Influence of Mentoring on Pasifika Secondary School Students

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of mentoring on Pasifika students attending a large urban secondary school. The research questions focused in two areas. The study examines the extent to which Pasifika students perceived value in mentoring, whether ethnicity, academic achievement or any other variable influenced the effectiveness of mentoring within this group. The study included an examination of which elements of the mentoring process were valued by Pasifika students and how students perceived the value of mentoring compared to other forms of support offered within the school. The second phase of the study investigates students views about effective mentoring practice. The research followed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design with a questionnaire providing the quantitative data and a focus group generating the qualitative data. Overall, mentoring was found to have a small but positive influence on Pasifika students enrolled at the participating school. Students agreed that mentoring had a positive influence on both their academic performance and their wider learning. The study found that student ethnicity, levels of prior achievement, language, ethnicity of mentor, degree of student agency and length of relationship did not have a statistically significant impact upon the students’ perception of the effectiveness of the mentoring they had experienced. Factors that did demonstrate a positive relationship with student’s perceptions of mentoring were the degree of engagement that students felt with their academic life at the school, the perceived status of the mentor and the frequency of mentoring meetings. Updating individuals on their academic progress and informing families were seen as the two most important components of mentoring for Pasifika students. The study highlighted that having high expectations, building a positive caring relationship and showing empathy and respect for Pasifika students as individuals were the key practices mentors needed to demonstrate if they were to be effective for Pasifika students. Combining these practices to create an effective relationship the key finding, and when that happened all the other factors became secondary to the relationship between mentor and student. These findings suggest that when mentoring is effective it can have a strong influence on students, but that influence is dependent on the quality of the relationship between the mentor and student mentee.