Parents and Y5/6 boys' views of modern learning environments: A Pacific perspective

Abstract

The rapidly changing landscape of education due to the advancement of technology has caused a paradigm shift in the content of learning. This reflects the need for today’s learners to acquire skills needed in an everchanging globalised world. Consequently, the focus of education has shifted from industrial economy to the knowledge economy. Such shift has caused global education to move from traditional teaching practices to more modernised pedagogies. Suggestions that traditional single cell classrooms are not conducive to the new teaching pedagogies of the 21st century means schools’ infrastructures must be transformed accordingly (OECD, 2013). Influenced by these global changes, New Zealand’s education system has undergone subtle changes since 2010 when the first modern learning environments (MLEs) started erecting around the country. This subtle move has been controversial and many education stakeholders voiced concerns about the impact these changes could have on children already underserved by education. While Pacific students feature in this underserved group, the Pacific community remained silent about their thoughts on the issue. Therefore, this study derived from the need to hear Pacific parents and learners’ (boys aged 9-10 years) experiences and perspectives of MLEs in New Zealand primary schools. The participants included 6 boys from 4 Auckland primary schools and 5 of their parents. The data was collected by one-on-one semi-structured interviews using the talanoa approach. An inductive thematic approach was initially used to identify emerging codes and themes, which were further deductively analysed using an adaption of Si’ilata’s Va’atele framework. Key findings include the consistency of the big open spaces in MLEs with the participants’ views of the value of a communal lifestyle. The importance of communication in developing home-school reciprocal relationships through conversations and consultation also emerged as the other key theme. This study concludes that communication appears to be the most important, yet a missing link in the chain of efforts to raise Pacific learners’ achievement. It argues that regardless of the amount of resources invested in projects such as Pacific Education Plans, a breakdown in communication between stakeholders, will result in opportunities to collaboratively develop and establish sustainable change not eventuating.