"Intercultural" perceptions and institutional responses : explaining Pasifika students’ achievement in New Zealand secondary schools

Abstract

This thesis examines the achievement of Pasifika students in education, and attempts to find a more effective and accurate explanation for the failure of schools to address Pasifika students' under performance. Although the subject of mathematics is used initially to illustrate the lack of success that Pasifika students encounter in secondary schools, the thesis seeks to understand the overall performance of ethnic minority students in education. The thesis approaches this issue from two directions. It examines the effect on Pasifika student achievement of the organizational routines and practices of schools; and highlights the importance in achieving academic success of what is referred to as an 'identifying process'. The 'identifying process' is the students' construction of their own identity, and the thesis argues that their success in education is conditional upon having this process valued by the school. Using a method of 'mediated dialogue' to allow for students and teachers to examine the accuracy of the perceptions that they hold of each other, through the author acting as a mediator, it becomes possible to determine the value given by the schools to this 'identifying process'. The results of this study indicate that the 'taken for granted' assumptions and perceptions held by the education system of Pasifika, and the failure of schools to recognize, through valuing, the 'identifying process' for Pasifika students, influence the institutional responses to these students in a manner that adversely affects their educational opportunities.