Abstract:
This thesis investigates how Pākehā university students engage with New Zealand’s history
of colonisation, interviewing a small sample of undergraduate sociology students to explore how they
confronted the challenges and complexities of these pedagogical encounters. Many decolonial and
educational scholars have contested the common assumption that education can be an antidote to
racism and intolerance. Despite this, the findings of this thesis suggest that studying New Zealand
history can be a moment of radical transformation for some settler students: an ‘aha’ moment that
prompted them to question deeply held understandings about settler identity and society. Learning
about New Zealand’s history was a difficult emotional experience for these students. Having learned
this history, they expressed overwhelmingly critical views about the nature and impact of colonisation
in New Zealand. They recognised that the impacts of this history reverberate in the present with
destructive consequences, particularly for Māori. Many of these students saw the historical role of
Pākehā in New Zealand as a shameful role, one that they abhorred any connection with. As a result,
some disavowed any ties to New Zealand’s history and struggled to make the connection between the
actions of early settlers and the privilege they experience as Pākehā in the present. However, there
were also seeds of change buried in the testimonies of many of the students interviewed for this thesis.
Even as they struggled with their connections to New Zealand’s history, these students had begun to
see themselves and society differently, in ways that oriented them towards taking action and creating
change in the present.
