"It's Like Going To The Moon": The Experiences of Samoan Tertiary Health Students at The University of Auckland

Abstract

A social determinants of health approach suggests increasing ethnic diversity in the health workforce as one strategy to reduce ethnic health inequities and inequalities. Subsequently, this illustrates a need to increase the capacity and capability of the Samoan and Pacific health workforce in New Zealand given the growing health inequities and inequalities of these communities. In this qualitative thesis I examine the enablers and barriers to academic success for Samoan health learners at the University of Auckland. Social and cultural identities are important as they inform how we learn and how we teach. Drawing on ideas of power and difference I demonstrate that culture and identity are fluid, historically located, and discursively constructed. I use the Samoan concept of lagimalie and Turner’s concept of liminality to illustrate how processes of identity for Samoans in New Zealand are shaped by Samoan and New Zealand/European culture. I further explore how Samoans negotiate the competing demands of academia and home. In this thesis I adopt an inductive qualitative methodological approach embedded within fa’asamoa. I conducted interviews and focus group with thirty-two past and present Samoan students from the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. Supplementing the interview and focus group data with current students, solicited diaries were also administered with twenty-four students. Two gendered focus groups were also conducted with twelve Samoan parents of students from the University of Auckland. From the narratives and diaries of the students I identify the key factors that constrain and enable their learning under the categories of individual agency, family, university, spirituality, and friends. Family support is a central concern of this thesis. Parents and students describe how family support for academia is embedded within fa’asamoa. Students identify key discourses used to position themselves within their home and university and how their ethnic and cultural identity impacts on their learning. The findings from this thesis describe how some participants had successfully managed the competing demands of academia and Samoan cultural obligations. The findings also suggest learning environments that facilitate meaningful engagement and participation enable positive learning outcomes. The results illuminate important teaching implications for educators when engaging with Pacific and other ethnic minority learners. In addition the results aid in formulating recruitment and retention initiatives for Samoan and Pacific tertiary health learners.