Ha'otā: Transforming science education in Aotearoa New Zealand for Tongan students

Abstract

Enhancing the education outcomes for Pasifika learners has been a priority focus of Aotearoa’s education policy for several decades, yet for many Pasifika science learners very little has changed. At the same time, while there is some evidence how to engage Indigenous science learners, including Pasifika, little is known about how to specifically engage Tongan science learners to improve their educational outcomes and enhance their teaching and learning experience. Influenced by a combination of Tongan, Pacific and mainstream qualitative research methodologies and frameworks, the stories of 26 successful Tongan science learners were collected and analysed regarding enjoyment, engagement, success and pedagogical practice in their secondary school and university science education experiences. Their stories have driven the development of a pedagogical framework for science educators to use which considers and locates factors contributing to Tongan science learner success. Ultimately this may be used by educators and policymakers to address concerns around retention of Tongan (and other Pasifika) students in science, particularly how education policy and practice can address the underachievement of Tongan (and other Pasifika) students. Drawing on Bhaksar’s critical realism (1978), relationality in the form of vā, Ogawa’s (1995) Multiscience Framework, and several Tongan and Pacific methodologies as theoretical frameworks, this research engages in a critique of the valuing of relationships in western modern science education, and formal educational institutions and mainstream culture in general. It uses Epeli Hau’ofa’s (1993) seminal essay ‘Sea of Islands’, and the articles of support and critique found in ‘A New Oceania’ (1993) to employ Oceania as the context, connector and source for the participants’ stories. The findings not only challenge assumptions about the neutrality of the learner experience in secondary and university science education, they also identify the deficit views of the Pasifika science learner identity (both externally and internally). The findings also highlight the resilience Pasifika science learners must display to succeed in Aotearoa and the predominantly negative outsider perceptions of the ‘Tongan Education Experience’ in Tonga. This research proposes that remembering our humanness and the importance of social connectedness, readily visible in Tongan and other Pasifika cultures through the emphasis on tauhi vā (maintaining of the relational space), would improve the educational outcomes for all science learners regardless of ethnicity. This thesis also explores perceptions of Indigenous science knowledge and Tongan science knowledge and its presence in formal education in Tonga and Aotearoa and the impact of westernisation on the valuing of Tongan science knowledge. The findings argue that the inclusion of Tongan science knowledge in formal education acknowledges its existence and value and creates the opportunity for positive impacts on wider factors such as learner identity, especially for Tongans raised and educated in Aotearoa New Zealand.