The Art of Autonomy: Developing Competencies in Māori and Pasifika Learners

Abstract

This study investigates the beliefs and understandings of senior Māori and Pasifika students working in the visual arts curriculum in New Zealand secondary schools. Māori and Pasifika learners (often from low socio-economic backgrounds) are over-represented in those leaving school without qualifications. The involvement of Māori and Pasifika learners as participants for this research is relevant to the Ministry of Education priority agenda. The research considers opportunities for agency and enhanced self-efficacy throughout the art-making process and investigates possible flow-on effects to other subjects. Students’ organization, and planning for their art-making, involves conceptual thinking and self-management skills that unfold throughout the year. The results are students’ final art portfolios and their development as self-efficacious learners. My research involves interviewing ten year 13 visual arts students of Māori and Pasifika descent, to investigate their beliefs and self-reported practices in relation to the visual arts curriculum and to the key competencies of thinking and self-management. Managing self relates to students’ self-efficacy whereas the key competency of ‘thinking’ suggests elements of both creative and conceptual thinking skills, which lead to deeper constructions of understanding, and in turn to autonomy and success both inside and outside the classroom. Through identifying students self-reported competencies, I investigate the conceptual thinking and self-management skills developed in visual art subjects. Students who are achieving well in visual arts subjects, have the potential to apply these skills to other subjects. I began by speculating that the arts curriculum has an important role to play in developing key competencies in students, which could potentially assist in lifting achievement in other subjects. This research explores these possibilities for the potential relevance to the priority learners’ policy agenda.