Exploring the Educational Potential of Social Networking Environments for Indigenous K-12 Students in New Zealand

Abstract

This presentation will detail PhD research on the factors that promoted e-learning engagement in online social networking sites (SNS) for a small sample of indigenous Māori students (Y9-11) in the rural Northland area of New Zealand.The study helps address a lack of data on how indigenous students, in particular, engaged with e-learning through a series of secure educational social networks (ESN), and how they functioned as a community of online learners operating both inside and outside of their classrooms, demonstrating increased bonding and bridging social capital, and incorporating peer group learning relationships.The methodology and process followed a problem-based methodology investigating challenges to practice with a view to changing it within a participatory research framework, to enable teachers to work with a researcher. The use of indigenous pedagogies was an underlying theme in this study to recognise the importance of decolonising discourse in the use of terminology, the process of organising research, and utilising a code of conduct to benefit indigenous people for all research.We will see how students were able to manipulate their online identity by forming their own student led, self-directed learning program that was represented as a 'crossover learning framework'. We will also see how students sometimes chose self-instruction in e-learning, over face to face teacher instruction, as observed in classroom 'dual learning pathways' adaptations. The presentation will also identify some of the challenges between SNS and ESN, when developing an understanding of public vs private boundaries.