The Engagement of Māori and
Pasifika Students at ITPs:
Sharing Good Practice
Dr Jerry Hoffman
Dr Jo Whittle
Dr Sally Bodkin-Allen
Lecturers at the Southern Institute of Technology
1
Authors
Dr Jerry Hoffman: Jerry is involved as a Learning Assistance
lecturer and also teaches a research methodology paper for the
Postgraduate Diploma in Businesses Enterprise. He is the
Academic Leader for that programme and the Senior Editor for
the Southern Institute of Technology Journal of Applied
Research. Jerry received his PhD in Education from the
University of Otago in 2002. He has taught in the tertiary
sector for the past 23 years and has a particular interest in
the teaching and learning fields with a specific focus on
student engagement. Jerry is one of the authors of the
Committed Learners Project.
Dr Jo Whittle: As the Research Assistant at SIT, Jo Whittle is
involved in a diverse range of projects relating to tertiary
teaching and learning. Her role is to support of staff
2
research across the institute, and to foster collaborative
projects with the local and regional community. Jo has a PhD
in environmental history from the University of Auckland. For
the last two years she taught a paper on conservation
management as part of the Environmental Management
undergraduate degree programme.
Dr Sally Bodkin-Allen: Sally is the Research Manager at SIT
and also the Academic Leader for the Bachelor of Contemporary
Music and Bachelor of Audio Production degrees. She has a PhD
in early childhood music education from the University of
Otago, and her research interests lie in that area, as well as
music and sport, and student engagement. She is a member of
the MENZA (Music Education New Zealand Aotearoa) Board and in
her role as Research Manager has worked on projects ranging
from the Committed Learners Project, to Parenting in
Southland, and an Evaluation of the SwimSafe Programme.
Abstract
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The engagement of Māori and Pasifika students in relation to
retention and progression in tertiary institutions has been an
important factor at a national level for a number of years
(Harrison, Marshall & Beckham, 2009; Ross, n.d.). This paper
reports some of findings of the Committed Learners Project
(CLP) a two- study to share good practice among institutes of
technology and polytechnics around student engagement and
retention. One of the major strands of the CLP related to the
engagement of Māori and Pasifika students in tertiary
institutions. Specific areas of focus included level of
awareness among teaching staff about the engagement of Māori
and Pasifika students in the classroom; the role of support
staff in the engagement of Māori and Pasifika students and
methods of fostering belonging and a sense of place. This
paper highlights current good practice while concluding that
application is uneven. It recommends approaches that
institutions can take to assist Māori and Pasifika students to
participate and achieve at a tertiary level.
4
The Engagement of Māori and Pasifika Students at ITPs: Sharing
Good Practice
“It’s amazing how many things are the same but just explained
differently. What we’re doing is giving strength to any individual’s own
culture. And when you have strength in your own culture you’re more
accepting of others. But you need your strength first and we recognise it;
that’s how we help promote Māori culture. We make sure that everyone’s
culture is strong to them.” Quote from ITP tutor.
Introduction
Participation, retention and progression of Māori and Pasifika
students have long been issues of specific attention among
tertiary educators. This paper documents a range of ways in
5
which this attention manifests in practice among a number of
New Zealand Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs).
The information is drawn directly from the Committed Learners
Project (CLP), a collaborative research project to identify
practices to foster student engagement, improve student
retention and enhance successful completion of programmes.
The project brought together a ‘basket’ of good practice
examples gathered from ITPs around Aotearoa/New Zealand in
2010-2011.
The CLP was motivated in part in response to current
government policy that links a proportion of government
funding for tertiary providers to student educational
performance. From 2012 a maximum of five per cent of a
tertiary provider’s tuition funding will be at risk each year,
based on its performance the previous year against educational
performance indicators of qualification and course completion
rates, retention and progression (Tertiary Education
Commission, 2012). The project was based on the assumption
that tertiary providers themselves can make a major impact on
student commitment to learning.
6
Māori and Pasifika students have been two under-represented
groups in tertiary study, and traditionally the focus has been
on encouraging enrolment in programmes (Benseman, Coxon,
Anderson & Anae, 2006). More recently, however, as Benseman et
al. note, there has been more attention paid to factors which
increase completion of courses of study, as well as those
factors which can impede retention. Participation, retention
and progression of Māori learners in tertiary study are
important concerns on a national level (Harrison, Marshall &
Beckham, 2009). Despite growth in the number of Māori and
Pasfika students enrolling in tertiary study, engagement and
retention continue to be problematic (Ross, n.d.). While it
is important to acknowledge that Māori and Pasifika students
are two distinct groups, here they are considered together.
This has a precedent in the literature (Ross, n.d.).
The project involved three phases: a review of the literature
relating to student engagement; a questionnaire distributed to
a variety of staff employed at ITPs, including those in
administrative and management roles; and interviews with
teaching staff and those involved in learning support. One
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hundred and forty-three questionnaires were returned from nine
ITPs, and thirty-nine interviews were carried out at six ITPs.
The thirty-nine interview participants represented both
genders and include teaching staff across a variety of
programmes and levels, from certificate through to higher
level degree teaching. One limitation of this study is that it
did not seek demographic information from the participants,
however, 15% of the interview participants did self-identify
as Māori with none self-identifying as Pasifika during the
course of the interviews. It was not a primary aim of the
study to focus on teaching and learning for Māori or Pasifika
students, but rather this became an emergent theme during the
analysis of the data. The authors acknowledge that, as with
most qualitative research, a different group of participants
may have produced different themes and issues.
This paper outlines the findings of the CLP in relation to the
engagement of Māori and Pasifika students. It examines:
awareness of teaching and learning issues for Māori and
Pasifika students among teaching staff;8
good teaching practice around the engagement of Māori and
Pasifika students in the classroom;
the role of support staff in the engagement of Māori and
Pasifika students, and
fostering belonging and a sense of place.
Ethical approval for this study was granted by the SIT Human
Research Ethics Committee. All participants were provided
with an information sheet giving details about the study.
Participants were assured of their anonymity and that neither
they nor the institute that they were representing would be
identifiable in any presentation of the data.
Data from the questionnaires and interviews is presented here
in the form of a series of anonymous quotations, in the blue
shaded text, or in text boxes. Quotations have been amended
for clarity of meaning and to preserve anonymity where
necessary. The chosen quotations reflect the general tenor of
most of the interviews and highlight both good practice as
carried out at ITPs and issues around lack of knowledge or
guidance on supporting Māori and Pasifika students.
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Awareness among teaching staff
Some of the teaching staff interviewed showed understanding
and recognition of Māori and Pasifika cultures within their
teaching, and they incorporated relevant content within the
structure of courses they taught.
We have quite a strong area in our programme for the Treaty and bilingualism is
part of the early childhood curriculum, so the students do have to learn quite a bit.
But I find that we don’t get a lot of Māori or Pasifika students through. Even though
we recognise Māori students, or I do, as being special and they are recognised as
tangata whenua, we don’t do anything specifically for them, but I certainly have a
commitment to teaching things as part of the programme. I say that our children
should be learning some of these things.
For our programme, the tikanga that we implement is that we start with the karakia;
that’s come from the local iwi here and our local kuia. The kuia who does the
karanga, or the calling on when we have powhiri at the beginning of each semester,
she’s the one that advises me on what kind of things I should implement in the
programme. So that’s linking back to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and making sure that I’m
making connections to the local iwi to guide my practice.
Many of my students are Pacific Island students, and one of the unit standards in the
national certificate is a Pacific Island unit standard. So I’m sensitive to the kind of 10
things that those students find important and it’s important in my conversations
with them to mention their families, it’s important to acknowledge that many of
them bring quite a strong spiritual base to their learning. I try to be sensitive and
respectful of that; if they want to say a little prayer at the end of our conversation
then that’s ok.
Most teaching staff acknowledged that some understanding or
awareness of Māori culture was a part of teaching at a
tertiary level:
My philosophy of the classroom has been influenced from my study in relation to the
Māori culture and what we have been exposed to. I think as a tutor you need a little
bit of awareness or background of the culture.
The following participant recognised that Māori are a diverse
group:
What I see is there is a huge diversity. I can’t really say that there is one method for
encouraging Māori to learn. I have some of these old school Māori, that’s what they
call themselves, who strongly believe Māori are visual learners and that’s how they
are and that will never change and we are born with that. They have this essential
11
belief in these things. And I have some who would easily be the opposite and they
say, ‘visual learning’s not my thing’. To me they are such a diversity of people, when
I look at the Māori people, that I can’t really say there’s a specific way of
encouraging Māori to learn.
The comments of other participants suggested that they
questioned why Māori and Pasifika students should be regarded
as any different from the wider student body. A common
response was that they treated everyone the same in their
classroom:
There’s not really anything special done for Māori and Pasifika students, it’s just ‘this
is us, this is the big picture’.
We sort of talked about that and the belief out there amongst our tutors is that once
they come into our class, they’re part of the team. Unless a student specifically
requires it, and to be honest generally they don’t. Everyone’s just treated the same:
women, men, race, creed, it doesn’t matter.
I don’t feel that people need to be treated any differently. All the students are given
a lot of help in my level five course to engage with the online campus page.
12
Some expressed
uncertainty about what
it was that they
should be doing to
engage Māori and Pasifika students:
Most of my Māori students tend to come into my class and get treated like everyone
else and kind of wander off. To be perfectly honest with you, I’m not sure what we’re
supposed to do differently. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do. I’ve sat down
and thought about this for a while and yarned away with a few other tutors. We’ve
sort of thought: do we start class with a karakia? Does that help, does it not? I’m
not sure. Everyone runs round and says you’ve got to do the engagement bit, but no
one ever actually tells you how.
There was a great deal of variety of responses from the
participants when they were asked about the engagement of
Māori and Pasifika students. While the government’s strategic
tertiary policy remains focused on increasing Māori and
Pasifika student participation and achievement at a tertiary
level (Ministry of Education, 2010) there appears still to be
confusion over issues regarding biculturalism and the
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Even though we’re a bicultural institutionhere, no-one knows what the hell that
means.
engagement of Māori and Pasifika students in the tertiary
learning environment.
Engaging Māori and Pasifika students in the classroom
A recent study by Hall (2011) of a group of non-Māori
university lecturers who had found successful ways to
incorporate Māori content into their teaching suggests
practical ways of creating a learning environment that are
culturally safe and supported. Hall’s participants put
forward a number of ideas including the importance of
positioning yourself honestly “don’t try to give a Māori point
of view if you aren’t Māori” (p.71) but at the same time
presenting and showing respect for a Māori viewpoint (p.72) ;
taking informal or formal training (such as a Māori language
course, spending time on marae, or being mentored by a Māori
colleague), and proactively including Māori examples in course
content (for example taking students to a marae for a field
trip and referring to Māori historical events, people and
scenarios) (p.73). Some of Hall’s interviewees talked about
actively modelling tikanga Māori (Māori customary practices)
such as not sitting on tables, sharing kai (food), and ending
14
the course with a poroporoaki (an opportunity for students to
say good bye and thanks) (p.73). Similar ideas were put
forward by some participants of the CLP:
As part of the communications paper, I do a series of tikanga Māori classes and one
of the things I do is get them to do the assignment, basically do their introduction.
They don’t have to do it in te reo; they can do it in English but I get them to try a bit
of te reo. Get some connection there. I’ve done
it for the last three years. I find it really
connects the Māori and Pacific Island students.
Like we might finish a run or something like
that and there’s Jake at the end of it - he’s our
cultural advisor - and he’ll talk to us about a
Māori concept like pushing yourself or working
together (manaakitanga). We are very
conscious of it. They do a unit in tikanga and
it’s about just kind of firing it in where we can.
Having a more open setting; a more interactive,
less formal setting; a more social setting. And
what we’ll do is put our tables in a circle or a square so everyone faces each other, so
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Good practice hints from ITP tutors:
o Pronounce Māori and Pasifika names correctly: check the pronunciation with students
o Start courses with amihimihi (introduction)both from teaching staff and students
o Observe Māori tikanga in the learning environment, avoid sittingon tables, touching heads etc
o Incorporate Māori terminology and
it becomes much less formal and Western-directed. Things like that are what we’re
trying to do. We incorporate the Noho Marae. We have a lot of Māori content
embedded into our courses as well, and all our art history courses to make it
relevant to the culture. So those are things we do just in our department.
Having a Noho Marae needs to be acknowledged here. It was
mentioned by several participants as being a particularly
significant element of their programme. A recent study by
Greenhalgh, Walker, Tipa-Rogers and Hunter found that Noho
Marae provided Māori students with “a sense of pride and an
opportunity to enhance and share their knowledge of whakapapa
protocols, in its historical and contemporary context” (2011,
pp. 18-19). The following quotes also illustrate this:
We have courses in our qualifications that cater for the strengths of Māori; apart
from our marae, which they feel totally comfortable in and they realise that being
Māori is something proud. And one of our lecturers does a history lesson while they
are all lying in their beds during the Noho Marae. He will do a bit of a history on the
marae: the carvings, the paintings, what it means. So while they’re lying there it’s a
lesson to all students, but what it does is it invokes Māori to be proud of themselves.
Well we are conscious of building that into our programme so that we would send
everyone to a marae for a couple of days with our students’ core guide; that works
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amazingly! What we found is that a lot of our Māori students haven’t actually
explored that side of them; when we go to the marae for a couple of nights it’s like a
key that unlocks some things. They start finding out about these things about
themselves and their past and have quite deep and meaningful epiphanies.
Pronouncing Māori names correctly is also one way to
positively acknowledge Māori students. In the study by
Greenhalgh et al. (2011, p. 18) a tutor’s willingness to
attempt to pronounce Māori names correctly was seen as more
important than their competence at it.
Teaching staff also gave examples of situations where the
incorporation of particular principles of Māori tikanga could
be observed, although they might not be aware of it
themselves. The following comment expresses an implied
understanding of the concept and importance of whanau, or
extended family:
We’ve got a young Māori lad who came in here who didn’t ask many questions and
who completely flipped out on his first assessment. My bad call, I wasn’t monitoring
him enough. And so I went to have a talk to one of his relations and then had a talk
to him. He said ‘I can’t do it’ and I said ‘yeah you can, you just don’t realise that you
can’. Well that boy has absolutely flown! Absolutely taken off.
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One teacher acknowledged that he always put Māori students
together on work placements because they could support each
other:
What I’ve learnt about Māori is, halfway through the year you can’t turn around and
put them on a farm for two weeks, you cannot put a Māori by himself, you’ve got to
put them together. If you get one, they fall apart and come home. You put two of
them together, it seems like they’ve got someone to push each other, someone to
lean on, they work well. But one-on-one, no way.
This quote provides an example of peer support which has
principles of manaaki (hospitality and mutual support) and is
similar to the model of tuakana-teina (a peer support concept
between older and younger students).
Formal peer support programmes also have value for Māori and
Pasifika students. Research by Ross (n.d.) into a telephone
peer support programme for Māori and Pasifika students
studying by distance found that they valued the opportunity to
have regular contact with knowledgeable fellow students, as
well as their tutors. Ross (n.d.) found that the contact was
“encouraging and motivational” and enabled them to deal more
effectively with the demands of study (p.17). The results
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could be equally applied to learning in the face-to-face
environment. Interestingly, no formal examples of such
programmes were found in the data from the CLP.
The role of support staff and the engagement of Māori and Pasifika students
At institute level it seems typical to engage the services of
a designated support person (or people) for Māori and
sometimes Pasifika students. A common response of the teaching
staff interviewed for the CLP when asked if there was anything
in particular that was done to increase the engagement of
Māori and Pasifika students was to talk about such people:
So if I have Pacific Island or Māori students that I think they just need a hand up or
there’s something wrong with them and I don’t know what it is, I go and talk to
Audrey and say ‘could you just get alongside this person, I don’t know what’s wrong
but they look quieter or they’re not engaging in class’.
We have a Māori liaison officer in our student support team, and we now have a
Māori/Pasifika tutor in our learning support team.
Well, there’s the unit over there, and tomorrow we have a hui on the marae on
teaching Pacific Island and Māori students.
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For some of the teaching staff there was little connection
with these support services. They seemed to function quite
distinctly from the teaching of their own programmes:
Our institute actually has a group of Māori people, I’ve forgotten the name of them,
they’re supposed to interface with the Māori. To be perfectly frank, I haven’t seen
them, I haven’t laid eyes on them, I don’t even know where they are.
The learning centre has a Māori support person, a Pasifika support person, and they
have strategies and things. So if those students get in touch with them, and I think
they’re encouraged to when they enrol, they’ll be helped.
Participants in the CLP who showed the most recognition and
awareness of these specific people, came from the instances
where the support staff and teaching staff worked together.
In some cases it happened within the classroom, and this might
lead to students actively approaching such people outside the
classroom more. Attendance at the meetings of teaching staff
was also raised as being significant:
She comes into the classroom and supports our Māori students. So our Māori
students can go and find her if they’re struggling with an assignment and sit down
with her, if they’ve got anything to do with housing, finance issues, anything; so it’s
looking at the student holistically. So she always comes to our team meetings and is20
involved with our team to support our Māori students. We’re just trying to increase
that completion rate for Māori students. Having her in the classroom means that
Māori students know that she’s down in the whanau room, and know her face and
can access her and get to know her. I was saying to her the other day, when I
actually looked at the results of the Māori students, at the moment they’ve all
passed, they’re competent in all the things they’ve done so far. And that’s changed
compared to last semester.
It is important to note that often these support services
provide care on a holistic level: not just in terms of
classroom support, but help with issues outside the classroom
as well, as outlined above. Another concept was to use such
services to support not only the students, but the teaching
staff as well:
When we talked about tikanga in our classroom environment, she came in and team
taught it with me, which was great because it was Pakeha and Māori coming
together. So it was good collaborative team work. And she also comes in and she
helps with waiata regularly too, which builds up their repertoire of waiata, so when
they go out into centres they can actually use that and feel confident about singing.
The tutor in the above
example makes a significant
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You change a tutor, you change a lot morestudent lives.
point. While providing staff to support Māori and Pasifika
students directly is seen as valuable and productive, she also
values the input of support services staff directly with
teaching staff.
22
Belonging and a sense of place
The importance of fostering a sense of belonging needs to be
addressed as it relates to Māori and Pasifika students.
Greenhalgh et al. (2001) found that a sense of belonging in
the classroom was identified as being paramount to successful
completion of study. “Waiata and karakia were noticed and
appreciated where they were included in classroom routines and
were effective tools in creating a sense of belonging (Mana
Whenua) and classroom cohesiveness” (p.18). Many examples of
these kinds of practices are outlined above in the quotes from
particular teaching staff. Another idea that encourages a
sense of belonging is the provision of a particular place for
students to feel connected to: a place to celebrate their
culture and meet other students and staff.
So the whanau room predominantly caters for Māori and Pacific Island students,
although anybody can base themselves there; we’ve got Pakeha students who base
themselves in the whanau room.
We also encourage the students to go into the whanau room here, because on a
Wednesday they have shared kai; usually the students bring some form of
ingredients and it’s usually cooked in the whanau room. Mainly the Māori students
23
will come in, but there are four students from our programme who regularly go into
the Māori room, not actually Māori themselves, but they want to learn more about
the culture so they actually go in there.
Ross (n.d.) also found that the Māori and Pasifika students in
her study placed a lot of importance on belonging to a
learning group. So the development of a class culture, while
important for all students, can be viewed as particularly
significant for Māori and Pasifika students:
I think what students get when they come here is they start to build a family of
people. One of the wonderful things I got from doing my own adult teaching papers
was understanding culture. And thinking well culture is all about our New Zealand
Māori. And then going ‘oh yeah, now I get it’. So we build a culture within the
classroom and within the broader community. So I think making that a really cool
environment to be a part of, they take that with them wherever they go.
Summary of findings and recommendations
This section of the article presents the findings and
recommendations of the CLP as it relates to the engagement of
Māori and Pasifika students.
Summary of findings Recommendations
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While the government has a
strategy that focuses on
strengthening participation
and achievement for Māori and
Pasifika students, many
teaching staff showed
confusion and limited
awareness of what this
actually means at the
classroom level.
Courses that incorporate Noho
Marae provided an opportunity
for Māori students to feel
proud of their culture, and
for some, an opportunity to
connect with their culture for
the first time.
Institutes typically employed
specific people to support
Māori and Pasifika students in
a holistic way: from the
classroom through to their
Institutes should continue to
offer courses for staff that
increase awareness and
understanding of the issues
facing the engagement of
Māori and Pasifika students.
Institutes should continue to
offer professional
development opportunities for
staff that provide practical
and applicable ways to
incorporate Māori tikanga in
the classroom. A Noho Marae
is one particularly
successful way to do this.
Consideration should be given
to appointing advisors to
support and work alongside
teaching staff to incorporate
Māori content into courses.
Institutes can provide a
place, such as a whanau room,
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personal lives.
Fostering a sense of
belonging, while important for
all tertiary students, was
seen as being particularly
important for the engagement
of Māori and Pasifika
students.
Some institutes provided a
whanau room for Māori and non-
Māori students to encourage
engagement and interactions.
where all students can make
connections to other students
and cultures.
Institutes could consider
establishing peer support
programmes that incorporate
concepts such as aroha
(respect for others) and
kaupapa (the notion of
community). These can
operate in a tuakana-teina
sense to mentor Māori and
Pasifika students.
26
The basis for kotahitanga (self-governing, unity)is what’s good for Māori is good for everyone,
and honestly it really is, because you create thatwhanonga (behaviour) with everybody.
References:
Benseman, J., Coxon, E., Anderson, H. & Anae, M. (2006).
Retaining non-traditional students: Lessons learnt from
Pasifika students in New Zealand. Higher Education Research &
Development, 25(2), 147-162.
Greenhalgh, A., Walker, S., Tipa-Rogers, K. & Hunter, R.
(2011). Tutor practices that increase completion for Māori PTE students.
Retrieved from http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/
Hall, M. (2011). ‘You model what you want to see from them’.
New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 8(1), 68-77.
Harrison, G., Marshall, G., & Beckham, A. (2009). Improving
participation, retention and progression of Māori tertiary learners in the Whanganui
region. Retrieved from http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/
Ministry of Education. (2010). Tertiary Education Strategy 2010 – 2015.
Retrieved from http://www.minedu.govt.nz/
27
Ross, C. (n.d.). Culturally relevant peer support for Māori and Pasifika
student engagement, retention and success. Retrieved from
http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/
Tertiary Education Commission. (2012). Performance linked funding.
Retrieved from http://www.tec.govt.nz/Funding/Policies-and-
processes/Performance-linked-funding/#sac
Author contact details:
Dr Jerry Hoffman
Southern Institute of Technology
PB 90114 Invercargill
Email: [email protected]
The full report on the Committed Learners Project can be
viewed at:
http://www.sit.ac.nz/documents/pdf/Research/34652SIT_CLPReport
_final_small.pdf
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