Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu: how can language and literacy be optimised for Māori learner success?

3. Current students

“Tērā anō ōku nei hoa
Kei ngā tōpito o te ao, ko ngā hūmeka,
ko ngā kāmura me ngā parakimete nei” ¹⁴
(The common people are our friends
From all walks of life, the cobbler,
the carpenter and the blacksmith)

“Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou
Ka ora te iwi”
(From your basket and my basket
comes the well-being of the people)

3.1: Background profiles

This chapter presents an analysis of interviews with Māori students who attended a 16-week Introduction to Construction Level 2 programme at Wintec. Students had first undertaken Mauri Ake, a 12-week bridging course, to prepare them for this programme, as many “had been unemployed for long periods of time…left school with little or without any qualifications” (tutor interviews).

Students share common Waikato-Maniapoto ancestral links and at the time the programme was established they were also living in the vicinity of their rural community. The impetus for the programme came from the strategic plan of the iwi rūnanga concerned. Also, iwi representatives worked collaboratively with government agencies and Wintec to provide this programme, as a means of contributing towards housing and employment priorities in their community. Students gained practical course experience by undertaking building maintenance within their local community.

This analysis does not attempt to make generalisations across all iwi or hapū, but hopefully will inform discussions about common experiences.

Approach

Permission was obtained from the iwi rūnanga representative to invite students and their two tutors to take part in this research. There were five male students and one female student present at the interview with ages ranging from approximately 18 to mid-40s. Two interviewers were present, with one person being the main interviewer and the other maintaining recording accuracy. Both interviewers were Wintec academic staff with complementary expertise and extended experience in Māori counselling or academic learning support.

The research purpose was explained to participants prior to the interviews, and interview questions were also made available to participants at the same time. The students and tutors were interviewed as two distinct focus groups, about similar areas of enquiry. The approach used open-ended questions and semi-structured dialogue between the interviewer and interviewees. The interviews were conducted in a whānau room facility that was familiar to all interviewees.

3.2: Whakawhanaungatanga

Historical context of literacy and language

The length of secondary education for the majority of these students was not extensive. In most cases it was interrupted by early withdrawal and at least two students experienced being expelled. While a few students had gained some NZQA units, most had not gained any secondary qualifications. Two students continued their secondary education to seventh form, one achieving the status of head boy. Three students undertook some form of post-secondary education or training. However, regardless of what secondary and post-secondary achievement or underachievement these students had experienced, their pathways commonly led to employment fields such as: labouring, seasonal work, freezing work, factory processing and shearing. One student pursued his passion for kapa haka in the performing arts for several years.

I was kicked out of school so many times. Kicked off the bus so many times. Giving people a hiding, the cheeky ones. The teacher told me to go home. I never finished school, but I’ve had a lot of jobs seasonal jobs, apples and all that, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries. I’ve done a bit of shearing – I’m a shearer. Never got booted out...

I’ve been on a reo course and computer course and did a lot of labouring jobs like scrubcutting and factory jobs. My education only went as far as the third form and from there I just went out to work from then on and working and doing courses right through my life from leaving school. I don’t know how many jobs I had, but there were heaps.

From about 5 to 12 I went to [primary school named after their iwi, then we moved on to... I went to a Kura Kaupapa Māori over there. I’ve done a bit of kapa haka in my lifetime. I’ve never really done hard labouring jobs before, but I’ve done kapa haka jobs for about three or four years. I toured New Zealand with the Royal New Zealand Ballet and done kapa haka... I went all the way to seventh form and I moved on to Boys’ High in my seventh form year. My main goal when I was at school was just to do kapa haka..., just to do that. Then after school I did a Bachelor of Performing Arts at Wānanga o Aotearoa. Then I finished up ...and I worked at Inghams. That was my first job.

Vocational pathways for one student were continuously driven by survival needs.

I haven’t been on any courses in my life. I’ve been as far as college, dropped out, had no education, but as I lived life through the years I kind of learnt how to get on in this kind of a society. It’s only the things that you do, you learn to do. I had no qualifications, but I did a lot of work, seasonal work to get by, because your main thing as you’re growing you’re only living to survive, like to make money. That’s your number one priority. It just goes on and on like that.

The above narratives are indicative of the effects of narrowed literacy experiences upon individuals’ social and historical contexts. For the interviewees this continuously led to a series of low-skilled jobs and a survival approach to everyday living. This is contrary to the ideals of full literacy as expressed in Te kāwai ora (Māori Adult Literacy Working Party, 2001). That is, literacy “at its very heart is a pivotal component of nation building”, and “fully realised, it enables people to take part in the fullness of the society that they live in” (p. 5).

Observation

The literacy and language experiences of these students were also likely to be a product of their previous educational histories and difficulties encountered within that system, rather than being viewed solely as an individual deficit.

Whānau

Whānau is assigned as a key tenet of kaupapa Māori education strategy. According to Graham Smith (1997), “Māori social, economic, cultural and educational transformation is centred on a notion of the whānau” (p. 42), and whānau can be seen as both a ‘structure’ and whānau (whakawhanaungatanga) as a ‘process’. There is much in the students’ interview narratives that relates to both formations of whānau. Therefore, various parts of this chapter will draw on both understandings of whānau to partially frame the analysis of students’ narratives.

Traditional kin concept of whānau

Also known as noho tōnui-ā-whānau, the traditional kin concept of whānau views whakapapa as extremely important for identity within whānau, iwi and hapū. This structure of kinship was very present for students and they naturally adopted formations of whānau to cope with underlying hegemonic influences from mainstream state-secondary and post-secondary systems.

The first narrative highlights how students’ difficulties in engaging with learning during their state schooling years were a factor in feeling alienated by unfamiliar and uncomfortable mainstream integration and assimilation practices. As a consequence, they activated support through the familiar whānau structure. In the following experience, regrouping with whānau members in the playground provided strength and safety, but it also attracted further playground alienation from peers. The assimilative consequences for some of these students represented school experiences that are described by T. R. Williams (1999) “as sites of conflict and symbolic violence, particularly for lower class and Māori children” (p. 15).

... I came from [name of school] to Hamilton; I was just lost. Just like what these fellas were saying. Being in a different environment..., it just put me off. I didn’t want to go to school…And that was to all of us that went... from [primary school named after their iwi] and we moved into [a named state secondary school... As soon as we came out of class, because we were all separated into different classes, as soon as we came out for play time or something like that, you would see all the whānau come back together, all around in one group..., and all these Pākehās are looking at us, you know. “What you all staring at?” And then one by one, all of us started dropping out. I couldn’t handle it...

The next narrative speaks of students assuming whānau structure as a given, to negotiate Wintec’s mainstream tertiary environment. Since leaving school the students have acquired different life skills and their carpentry maintenance programme has direct relevance to their iwi community. However, their images of the mainstream tertiary environment were still predominantly influenced by their prior mainstream secondary experiences, as described above. Once again, inherent to their natural preference to work as a team was their kinship bond. This narrative speaks positively of how supporting each other as adult students affirmed their collective skills, attitudes, emotions, achievements and personal potential and enhanced their comfort levels to stay on the course. Again it reaffirms cultural safety and personal affirmation within the formation of whānau as a structure.

Could I just add – I want to say something for all of us, now. I wrote this about a week ago. To see the happiness on the students’ faces today is a blessing. Each one of us on this course has skills that we have as a team achieved together. Knowing that you can help someone ‘stay’ makes everything possible for the students...

Further, as a form of cultural safety within mainstream state education environments, students inherently adopted kotahitanga practices:

• Te noho ā marae – marae kinship.
• Te hononga ā-iwi – shared iwi links.
• Te noho hei whānau – deliberate act of teamwork.
• Te noho rūmaki – protocols and customs.
• Kanohi ki te kanohi – face to face (implies frankness).
• Te manaakitanga – fostering relationships.
• Te tūwheratanga – openness.
• Te whakapono – trust.
  

In conclusion, the above narratives share a commonality; these students naturally preferred to continue to function as a whānau in mainstream education environments. Perhaps this highlights that pōwhiri, and other pastoral practices, are extremely important in attempting to instil some forms of cultural safety in mainstream tertiary environments. Such practices explicitly value an individual’s emotional and cultural comfort as an essential starting point to their learning readiness.

Whānau concept of knowledge

(The collective ownership of knowledge, and the responsibility to share)

“In Kura Kaupapa Māori, knowledge is regarded as belonging to the whole group or whānau. In this sense, knowledge is not an individual or private property. Knowledge belongs to the whole whānau and individuals are merely regarded as the repositories of knowledge for the ultimate benefit of the total group. Individuals have cultural obligation to share their knowledge in ways that support the welfare and mana of the group…” (Smith, 1997, p. 445).

Students were asked to comment on their prior knowledge and skills that they brought to the course, including how they acquired these. Interview responses indicate that throughout their upbringing there were cultural avenues for acquiring new knowledge and for passing on that knowledge. Accounts of marae upbringing provided clear examples of how kaumātua and pakeke shared their skills and knowledge with rangatahi. Interwoven with marae maintenance and kai gathering tasks were cultural avenues for sharing mātauranga such as karakia and resource sustainability.

I reckon how we had heaps of knowledge before we came here through our upbringing. Like through marae work and stuff, like just helping out other people doing stuff like maybe digging holes for paepae or something and all that stuff. Might be concreting or something doing some work for the marae. Yes, it’s just been through the upbringing, you know. Young fellows going with the uncles going out to do some kai or something. After a while it helped you out at the end. All the knowledge that old fellows give you.

Many students also spoke of helping each other out, a combination of sharing collective knowledge and manaakitanga. One student was particularly active in seeking further information from a cousin who worked in the building industry, and then bringing this back to benefit all.

…and my cousin, he’s doing a builder’s course at the moment, but his one, his job’s paying for it. He’s given me all these sheets about it, like how to do a pitch on a roof…so that’s why when I come back here I’ve got no problems. It’s just – what are we doing... Sweet! And I just go and do my thing and give other jokers a hand.

In Te kāwai ora (Māori Adult Literacy Working Party, 2001), cultural literacy is said to be more than the ability to read and write. This literacy definition, like the literacy definition that informs this research, places importance on literacy as being a vehicle to shape Māori, and other worlds. Furthermore, the notion of habitus – “the way a culture is embodied within an individual” and “one’s personal culture…and...codes of knowledge” (Williams, T. R., 1999, p. 13) are also important elements that permeate the students’ abovementioned accounts of their prior knowledge.

Observations

• Students inherently used whānau structures and other culturally relevant practices to negotiate mainstream state schooling and mainstream tertiary contexts.
• Students inherently shared knowledge for the collective use and success of the whānau as opposed to individual gain.
  

3.3: Goals and aspirations

Students were asked about their early memories of goals and aspirations. This enquiry was not only relevant to their historical context of literacy and language but it also aimed to ascertain if any of their past goals and aspirations had been sustained.

The following response came from a student who had no ‘true goals’.

I never had a true goal, but I had a lot of good jobs. I got sacked on the whole lot of them. That’s my life.

(Interviewer) What sorts of things did you want to do?

(Participant) Nothing.

(Interviewer) All your life, nothing.

(Participant) That’s right, stay on the dole.

Several students had strongly expressed their passion for kapa haka at school, and for one student this had led to pathways in the performing arts.

…I toured New Zealand with the Royal New Zealand Ballet and done kapa haka with them. I never really had goals and dreams and all that sort of stuff… My main goal when I was at school was just to do kapa haka… That’s all my focus was, just to do that. Then after school I did a Bachelor of Performing Arts at Wānanga o Aotearoa”… I suppose I’m loving it here. It’s better than being at Inghams, factory jobs. I never thought I’d be here, really. My main focus now is to pass this course and just to move on from here. Hopefully working next year.

Two students had clear recollections of vocational goals and aspirations.

When I was a young fella I used to think I wanted to be a truck driver or something like that. I got a little bit older and started in college, started seeing my whole future not going the way I wanted it. It just looked like I was going to be like every other Māori in…the teachers kicked me out of school because I was just too violent. I only made it to second year fifth and then I ended up on a music course. Now I’ve got two certificates, Grade 1 and 2 in the Royal Schools of Music. It’s a worldwide certificate so I can practically go anywhere and play music. But that wasn’t my original dream. I wanted to be something else and I didn’t know…

One student’s dream of becoming a builder was clearly defined and ‘on track’.

My dream was to be a builder and I never thought I’d make it there. Now look at me now, I’m doing it. I’ve done a lot of things at that school like kapa haka. I went to nationals, went to sports in area schools. Touch, went to touch nationals. I qualified NCEA Level 1 and Level 2. I left school when I was in seventh form. Made it all the way and I even was head boy...

The final narrative is by a female student whose goals stemmed from her interest in tools, timber and building. When she aligned her goals with her current studies, there were many positive connections.

Before I came on the course I had always a desire – I just love building, I just love tools like hammers, nails, and all that sort of thing. Because back in my years...if I see wood around it was always, I could do something with that and I’d take that wood home and I’d store it up... whenever I want to do something to my home, like put it on the wall where it’s broken or something.. So I had in my heart that I wanted to build a toolshed because I started here… So I started, because I got from here…how to use a measuring tape properly, how to do the profiling…, I put it into action. My shed is starting to turn out to become like a bach.

In spite of their many accounts of negative experiences in mainstream secondary education, most of these students had been able to recall a dream, passion or buzz. During the interview, many students had reassessed their dreams and aspirations as summed up by the following statement:

You can’t stand back all your life. We’ve been doing that ever since before we came here. That’s what we were doing. So now we can step up a notch.

Observations

• Most students valued the opportunity to recall and reassess goals and aspirations that they may not have thought about for many years. This was mostly a useful point of reference against which students could measure the impact of personal changes, as well as validate their pathways and learning performances.
• Tutors needed to be skilled facilitators and build an environment of trust and safety before adopting this approach.
  

3.4: Pedagogical practices and perspectives

Barriers and degrees of hegemony

When Māori pedagogical practices were not present, students felt disconnected. That is, in place of learning experiences that were collective and inclusive, they had encountered historical domination and alienation that were imposed by Western education policies and ideologies.

Alienation

For two students who had attended Kura Kaupapa Māori, there were significant detrimental differences between Western teaching practices and Māori pedagogy.

... Back when I was at school moving from Kura Kaupapa straight to a mainstream school it was like I didn’t know what was going on. If we had to go into one of these other classes, we’d be lost, because they’ve got different ways of teaching than Māori have.

At least three students had started their education with Kura Kaupapa Māori and transferred to mainstream secondary schools. Many shared that they felt lost and struggled to cope with the conflicting pedagogy and different environments between Kura Kaupapa Māori and mainstream secondary schools.

... then, once I left that school I went to a mainstream at [high school] and I was a lost fellow there. I was lost there. Coming from a Kura Kaupapa stream to a mainstream, I was lost there. I got peer pressured for doing things. I started smoking dope and I got expelled…

Frustration

A significant number of students relayed that their alienation in secondary education escalated to unsafe frustration levels. There was an underlying sense of helplessness and hopelessness that fuelled anger, which further alienated them from learning opportunities. A few students described their reactions in reference to violent behaviours. Such descriptions held stronger memories for them than recollections of engaging in literacy and language learning at school.

I was kicked out of school so many times. Kicked off the bus so many times. Giving people a hiding, the cheeky ones. The teacher told me to go home. I never finished schooling, but I’ve had a lot of jobs...

The teachers actually kicked me out of school because I was just too violent. I only made it to second year fifth...

Frustrations relating to lack of support and/or misunderstanding of personal literacy and language needs are expressed more overtly in the next narrative.

Because I dropped out of polytech over in...because the tutor wasn’t – mind you, it was both ways... “No, man, you aren’t helping me. I can’t handle this. I told you I’ve got problems with writing things down because I get really aggro about it, and I told you that when it comes to saying things I’m a dude that says what’s on my mind, not what you want me to say...

Racism

Students spoke about surrounding issues of being Māori. Many spoke of their hurtful encounters in dealing with attitudinal stereotypes and racism within their schooling environments and interpersonal relationships with their peers and teachers.

Yes, typical Māori would get aggro as soon as he hears a Pākehā do a little snigger... That happened to me when I came from Ngāti...school to Hamilton. I was just lost just like what these fellas were saying. Being in a different environment, it just put me off. I didn’t want to go to school. That’s when I got to high school; I only went there for a year and a couple of months and I dropped out…and I worked from then on… And that was to all of us…

Then you get smart remarks from your classmates, all the Pākehās. Someone would come up to you and say, “Jeez, you’re dumb.” Next minute…in the principal’s office.

I reckon the Pākehā tutors really push their Pākehā students… Yes, and they don’t want to focus on the Māoris… I reckon, to them, they just think a waste of time because they’re going to see how long they last. That is what I used to think at school. See how long they’ll last here.

Nevertheless, the same student was able to identify some positive examples of good relationships with a few ‘good’ teachers who were non-Māori. However, this still remained the exception and not the dominant experience of most of the interviewees.

… But there’s some good teachers out there… But you don’t come across much of them. There’s only a few in every single school.

Peer pressure

But even feeling supported by non-Māori teachers carried the risk of double alienation. For one student, being seen as brainy risked standing out as different, or better than the rest of the whānau. It also raised the personal conflict of being separated from other whānau members or leaving them behind. At play are multiple layers of Māori values and practices.

• Te pēhi – suppression; te tāmi – oppression.

...and I think half the time they just saw potential in some of the Māori students, but none of us Māoris wanted to pull it out because we were too scared that we would get the bad eye from the cuzzies because they are going...

• Noho taurite – conformity; te whakaiti, belittle.

“Ya, you think you’re brainy, eh,” and then you get to that point and then you’ve got all those Pākehā saying to you, “Oh, you’d better not fall back, because if you do you are just as dumb as your cousins” and that’s what used to get on my case too.

• Noho mataku – fear; whakaparahako – put down (by whānau, iwi, iwi).

Because my teachers used to push me because they could see that I had a bit of brains on me, but I didn’t want to go too far ahead of my cousins because I was scared that they were going to ditch me because I might think I was a Pākehā and call me a spud, brown on the outside and white on the inside.

Feeling dumb

Many students described schooling experiences where they felt suppressed by their own self-image of feeling inadequate and/or dumb. This was sometimes complicated by the double dilemma of wanting to express their understanding of a given topic but being hindered by negative self-image. For example, in the dialogue below, one student is making the distinction between feeling “dumb” during class discussions and yet being aware that he was as articulate as other students.

Like, back in school, some of my teachers used to freak out on me. Like, I used to think I was literally dumb in school. I always used to say to the teacher, “I’m too thick.” And then when I hear something in a conversation that the teachers are having with the students that I knew, I’d just stand up and, “Blah, blah, blah, blah” and they’d freak out because that’s exactly right and that was my interpretation of the whole thing.

Holistic and Māori pedagogies

Holistic pedadogies also share the essential underpinnings of Māori pedagogy – taha wairua and taha kikokiko. In framing the Māori concept of whānau as a pedagogy, Graham Smith (1997) expresses this as “Māori values and practices devised from whānau [which] are used to facilitate teaching and learning such as manaakitanga (sharing and caring), aroha (respect), whaiti (humility), [tuakana/teina] and so on” (Smith, 1997, p. 446). In the following section, teaching perspectives and teaching practices are drawn from students’ narratives in an attempt to demonstrate their preferences for holistic Māori pedagogical perspectives and practices.

Teaching perspectives

Tuakana/Teina (manaakitanga, aroha, awhi, tautoko)
Students spoke at length about working together and supporting each other. They readily drew from their lived realities of ako-ākonga to facilitate learning opportunities that demonstrated culturally preferred learning styles, based on the abovementioned Māori values and practices. Occurrences of these were both individually and group initiated during their programme.

And it’s neat. When you stick together you help one another out because, you know, I can go to any one of these fellas and, “Give us a hand, how do you do this part in the house, the doorway,” whatever. Straight away, bang, they just show me just like that. You do this, you do that. That’s real neat. You get help from each one. Helping one another.

… Yes, that’s why till a couple of months…to now I’ve been cruising over to Tauranga getting some work experience over there with a couple of builders I know and my cousin, he’s doing a builder’s course at the moment, but his one, his job’s paying for it. He’s given me all these sheets about it like, how to do a pitch on a roof…so that’s why when I come back here I’ve got no problems. It’s just – what are we doing... Sweet! And I just go and do my thing and give other jokers a hand.

One student expressed that their involvement in the course was also a cultural consideration for rangatahi. While this statement shows the value put upon awhi and tautoko, it also demonstrates that these values and practices extend beyond the students themselves and towards other whānau and iwi members, especially rangatahi.

A lot of our young ones, they’re falling through the cracks. I read here how…language and learning can be optimised for Māori learning and that’s for our rangatahi. Hopefully with us doing this course we are opening the door for them to come.

One student spoke of the emotional dimension of learning, that is ngākau māhaki/aroha.

... Where there is kindness in everything you say and do to people, their reactions are reversed back to you. I guess a key to success is to love and respect one another for who they are… That’s how I’ve been feeling about everyone. And each one of these boys, they’ve got skills.

Values and practices such as – manaakitanga, aroha, awhi and tautoko were articulated in students’ descriptions of these, rather than ‘naming’ them directly. It is assumed that because these students had predominantly grown up in their rural iwi community, their avenues for immersion in such values and practices were principally through upbringing. Hence they were part of their habitus that they brought with them to the learning situation.

Establishing and maintaining trust

Allowing students to make mistakes and learn from them is seen as an important practice of Māori pedagogy. In Māori pedagogy, trust is purposely built into the teaching context and the teacher-student relationship aims to assist students to move from initial fears towards confidence. Statements by the following two students demonstrate this point.

What I thought was a fear at first, eh? And then confidence came in. Braver, eh? You sort of stand off because, oh, I might do something wrong. I’ll let them all do it, see how he does it. … That’s how everyone was. Everyone used to stand back before because if you do something wrong then your head would say, oh, you’re bad.

...no, I didn’t want to do this because then this joker down the road might start yelling at me, “What you’re doing? Get on moving, go to…” That’s half the reason why I was like that… I still wouldn’t have said anything if I had been still in the same state of mind as I was when I first started. It’s just a big eye opener over here.

“Māori pedagogy enables people to hold on to their own identity as they travel their journey and to have support mechanisms in place to enable this to happen. A learner comes wanting to know particular things. There needs to be comfort zones to make space for this to happen” (Māori Adult Literacy Working Party 2001, p. 71 ).

Attending the Introduction to Carpentry programme within an iwi support structure was essentially the mechanism that affirmed students’ self-identity and cultural identity.

Raising confidence

A key success named by students was their increased confidence. However, it was very important that acts and contexts for facilitating whakamana and trust need to be considered carefully and skilfully.

…well I reckon the confidence within all of us has really gone higher than what we used to be. Everyone knows what they’re doing; they’ve got a fair idea of what things are all about now. It’s not just looking at – far out, can I – but you know when you look at something now you can just – boom, boom, boom, straight in there. You’re in there doing it, no mucking around. So the confidence thing has really gone higher than when we first started this course. That’s the main one. Once we learn everything, then you’re…there, I suppose. Your confidence goes higher and higher every time you learn something. Don’t have confidence; you’re better off finding something else.

Whakamana

Students appreciated being given individual attention. This is highly valued as good teaching practice, if it is sensitively offered, with genuine regard for the students themselves

Because that’s what Māoris thrive on is being pulled up individually but not in front of everybody… “Because if you do it this way it’s going to be a lot easier in the long run”… that’s what Māoris thrive on, I reckon, because I actually get off on that buzz because you are always guaranteed that you’re doing it right.

Conversely, signalling students’ mistakes in front of the whole class activated belittling levels of whakamā, both outward and inward.

Well, the main one, I reckon is, don’t pull a Māori up in front of the whole class with a book …because he’ll be like, they’ll be all shy and stuff and they won’t want to speak out.

This student’s description of whakamā has commonalities with Pākehā understanding of shyness. However, it also speaks on a cultural level of expressing whakamā through outward behaviour and through deeper inward feelings. Whakamā potentially shatters trust at both intrapersonal and interpersonal levels. What might be seen in Pākehā terms as a slight on a student’s shyness could in reality cause some Māori students to regress internally at a deeper level than can be gleaned from observed behaviour. Hence, it is particularly important for literacy and language tutors to be aware of cultural ramifications of whakamā for students.

Student-teacher relationships

Receiving personal attention from teachers and tutors was a key element in ensuring comfortable teacher-student relationships. When approached and carried out using culturally respectful mannerisms, students felt they could access feedback that assisted them to understand the topic and also affirmed their self-identity. This was seen as a critical success factor for these students.

Because that’s what Māori thrive on is being pulled up individually, but not in front of everybody…because you are always guaranteed that you’re going to do it right.

One student signalled that teachers and tutors should initiate the approach because asking for help, was again another form of standing out. One-on-one classroom mentorship between teachers/mentors and students could be a suitable teaching practice that aligns with students’ wish to engage in supportive teaching relationships during class. It is also recognised that this would depend on certain factors such as class size, pace, human resources and curriculum requirements.

… But they want that tutor, or whatever, teacher to come over to them, one on one. He doesn’t want to stand out… Doesn’t want to be the first Māori to go “I need help” and then his whole classmates turn around.

S.P.A.C.E. – Student, Pace, Attention, Communications, Exchange

This student emphasised the importance of teachers being less controlling in class and having the skills to create a safe classroom environment that encourages and facilitates dialogues between teachers and students as well as among students. He highlighted the need to value verbal expression.

A couple of my old teachers back at school, I’m kind of thankful for letting me say what I want to say in my classes, because if I hadn’t been with those teachers in college... I probably would have been gone in the third form...and I look at myself. Hey, I’m not doing too good at the moment, but it’s going to get better for me…

Feeling connected – feeling comfortable

Being comfortable and having connectedness with teachers/tutors was highly valued by students. One level mentioned where this can occur was cultural connectedness.

…it’s just that I think Māori are more comfortable with their own because I think they’ve got a different mindset to Pākehā…you know, they feel more comfortable. If I had to go to another Pākehā class with about 30 Pākehās and about two or three Māori, you can guarantee the Māori will be sitting like this, quiet…drawing on their papers.

One student made the point that increased levels of comfort between teachers and students and among students was highly conducive to an effective learning environment. However, during their state schooling experiences they commonly encountered daily situations of discomfort and this was a contributing factor to students disengaging in learning.

And it’s better when you’re comfortable, eh, with your tutor? When you feel comfortable with everyone around you and your tutor, then you learn better… And you comprehend what the teacher’s on about… And those things are still happening now, eh, to Māori students… Everywhere… You get a lot of dropouts… That’s why they dropped out, because the teacher’s not giving them enough time.

Observations

• There were teaching contexts where tutors were supportive, positive and approachable, especially when students’ were experiencing difficulties in understanding the lesson(s).
• Individual support was provided where specific teaching strategies such as teacher-student dialogue assisted students’ understanding and comfort to participate in lessons.
• There were culturally safe learning/teaching contexts where factors such as trust, personal identity, self-confidence have importance equal to that of the curriculum.
• Having culturally inherent processes and structures in place is important.
  

3.5: Teaching practices that progress literacy and language

Prior skills

Many students expressed raised awareness and validation of their prior skills and knowledge. The Introduction to Carpentry programme was a means not only to ‘draw out’ their previous maintenance skills but also to extend these in practical and meaningful ways, using correct building practices. For instance, there were several references to knowing about and using tools correctly.

Hence, by the final week of their programme, when the focus group interviews occurred, students recognised that they had arrived with a set of transferable skills. This is viewed as one measure of literacy and language success.

They’ve really got the skills, it’s just bringing them out. Yes, expressing our skills on practical things…

Making it real… I reckon how we had heaps of knowledge before we came here through our upbringing… It’s like bringing knowledge here. We really know what some of those jobs were.

You benefit, eh. I think just working around at home patching up broken-down stuff like a wall or something, or for me I think it was when I was at school, woodwork, learning things there. I think when I came here, then you learn more as you get here, then when you are learning, say you’re home doing mahi, and then you come to the course here and they show you how to do it properly and what your tools are used for.

Well, you’ve seen the uncles or the ones who’ve been through it and they’re using all the skill saws. They bring their skill saws from their homes or whatever, and you are there watching them. “Can I have a go, uncle?” “No, no, you don’t do it like that.” Well, when you get here then you really learn, you find out at the course here. You see someone else – “Oh, gee, that’s a clever way of doing it.”You’re not supposed to – you use the right tools.

Moving from practical learning to teaching theory

Students preferred and felt more confident with practical learning tasks.

... Yes, expressing our skills on practical things…

Transferring theory to practice was also carried out through practical manipulation and problem solving; however, mastery of written theory was more problematic.

I started figuring out what does what, what tools are used for what. And then, other than that, practising the writing’s just killing me.

Observations

Students’ valued quality teaching that was characterised by:

• validation of students’ prior knowledge, skills, interests and future aspirations and that these are taken into account in curriculum design
• learning that was designed to scaffold students’ progress from practical instruction to theoretical/written work
• acknowledging that for many of these students writing still remained a considerable barrier, in spite of attempting to scaffold them by teaching practical workshop skills prior to theory.
  

Delivering quality teaching to Māori students

As stated in Te kāwai ora (Māori Adult Literacy Working Party, 2001), “good tutors were described as pivotal to the success of things because of their drive, the way that they work with materials, their ability to adapt materials and to contribute to the success of the programme” (p. 65).

Students valued and trusted teaching that enabled them to learn from their mistakes. They also valued teaching that was ethically responsive by teaching them building practices that adhered to building codes. They admired tutors who adhered to their responsibility to teach according to these benchmarks.

But yes, human error, you can’t stop yourself from making mistakes, it’s human error, but you do learn by them… But you learn by them if you’ve been told correctly… Yes, it will help too, if your tutor tells you, “No, that’s not right, bro. Just do it again.

Teaching instructions

All students emphasised the importance of clear, simple instructions and lessons. Likewise, building upon basic information and language structures was agreeable to their learning style, comfort and pace.

... Like, we like to have it broken down… Yes, all the way down, eh? Just simplify it.

(Interviewer) In the verbal instruction or in the right way of doing it?

(Participant) In both.

Observations

Students valued quality teaching that was characterised by:

• a good balance between challenge and support in the teaching and learning mix
• trust in tutors’ ethical standards, and hence having assurance that students receive vocational training that meets industry codes of practice
• tasks that were first simplified into manageable learning blocks
• using simplified language – both verbal and written
• having confidence in tutors’ up-to-date content knowledge and expertise.
  

3.6: Teaching practices that hinder literacy and language

Impact of class size on seeking teacher attention

If personal teaching moments are fundamental to affirming and valuing students and therefore the basis of establishing a comfortable teacher-student rapport, then larger class numbers were seen as a barrier. Teachers’/tutors’ abilities to spread their attention equally among all students imposed competitiveness for teacher attention. A whole-class focus was seen as a melting-pot approach where students’ present and future education and vocational goals faded. It was felt that their exact needs could be met with one-on-one feedback and clarification with teachers. The last sentence in the narrative below also indicates that being overlooked in class had ramifications of not feeling able to get individual guidance with future education goals.That is, it had a wider social effect that extended beyond the classroom:

I reckon it’s better learning in a smaller class than a big class… Some tutors can’t get to what other people want to say or think. In a big class you’ve got to actually do things on your own, because in some cases you’re too shy to ask, or you don’t want to… That’s what I found that in the mainstream, eh… Yes, but you’re just focused on the class instead of the individual. What I was used to at Kura Kaupapa is individually coming to you and telling you this is exactly how it goes…but when you’re in a class, you’re by yourself and no one cares about you, your education; they don’t care.

…it’s a bit hard because you’ve got 15 other dudes asking for the tutor’s help and one dude’s just sitting there quiet because he doesn’t want to ask…and he doesn’t want to feel rude and butt in and go, “Come and help me. I’m in a bad way.”

Ratio of tutors to students

What if you have two tutors in the class at the same time? It would be easier amongst a bigger group of class members.

…because then they can go, “What was he talking about on that section?” and they’d just get along with it. When you spread your tutors around thin as, it’s not going to work, it will never work. I think they’re just trying to incorporate mainstream high school into polytech things and it’s kind of hard, especially when you’ve just got out of school a couple of years ago and then you find out you’re practically back at school...

The above two narratives strongly suggest that vocational and foundation level programmes need to have good teacher to student ratios, and team teaching where appropriate.

Answering questions

While students wanted to fulfil the correct requirements of their carpentry workbooks, much confusion and mystery existed about how to answer questions to expected technical and vocational standards. A contradiction exists whereby some students want to adopt critical language and thinking skills by expressing their ideas in their own words, yet are reluctant because they might be penalised for using the wrong terminology.

…and some of these rules in the books, that’s even harder on some of the older students than it is on the newer ones because you can’t write in your own words how it’s done and you really want to, but you’ve got to go by the book, by the rules and everything like that, and that’s pretty hard on the Māori, because he doesn’t want to do it that way, but he does want to do it right, and the only way he can do it is by telling you in his own words, so you get a perspective on what he sees it as.

Demystifying language expectations

Frustrated attempts to understand technical language and defined workbook practices presented significant confusion for many students, for instance, the practice of reading the entire workbook to find answers and then summarising technical language into a given space. Again, the student in the narrative below felt that his interpretation had less importance than the exact words that were used in the workbooks.

For me some of the work that we do in these books really muddles me. Like, I just sit there for a good hour or two trying to contemplate what’s the right answer. You’ve got to read the whole book and that kind of pisses me off, too, because I’ve got to go through the whole book to find out what the answer is, then stick it down as a four-sentence answer, and it kind of bums me out because you can’t use your own interpretation of the words, because … you get marked as wrong, but it practically means the same thing. It’s just that you didn’t want to use that whole paragraph to just put in for one answer and you’ve got a space about that big and you’ve got, like, 16 other words to go in there. You can’t really put in a key word as well, eh? Use your own words, eh?

Because I’m the type of person who writes things how I’d say it, not how I’d see it in the book and just write the book out, because that’s how I’ve been ever since I was a kid… And that’s what I can’t understand about some of these worksheet books is that you can’t use your own interpretation and it’s kind of hard. I’m not a man of writing out somebody else’s words. I’d rather write my own words so that people can understand me.

Observations

Students valued quality teaching that was characterised by:

• a team teaching approach to cover what students are saying would be a quality delivery and retention strategy
• teaching literacy and language skills, such as understanding questions and course-related jargon, to clarify academic expectations
• establishing trusting teacher-student relationships, and that this not be jeopardised by large class sizes
• breaking down the language and jargon in vocational textbooks to make them accessible to students
• instructing students how to prepare for tests and modelling written practice test responses.
  

3.7: Changes in students

Achievements

While students’ historical literacy and language context indicated that they had predominantly experienced limited educational and vocational accomplishments, a general theme from the interviews is that by the end of their course many of these students had a heightened sense of practical achievement.

Now look at me now, I’m doing it…

It was getting beautiful as I was going. See, I didn’t have a plan. That’s one thing I don’t know how to do a plan. How we’ve learnt here how to plan your work and all that. I had a plan in my head. I knew what I want and I knew how to measure and all that, that’s how I got started. It’s through this Wintec here I’ve learned how to use tools… Yes, so I’ve completed my bach now. It’s got windows on. Not the straightest, but at least when it rains it doesn’t get wet inside, so that’s something I look at now and know that each one can do it. They could build their own house because you get the skills from here. I’ve learnt a heck of a lot in this place, heaps, big time.

It should be noted that one to two students offered minimum or no comments about their achievements; however, their continuous attendance on the programme was inferred as an achievement.

Personal perspectives – self-determination and empowerment

The following narratives summarise the positive attitudinal changes that had occurred for some students as an outcome of attending the Introduction to Construction programme. They both spoke of having a positive and broader ‘mindset’ about themselves and their future, taking responsibility for self-determination and empowerment. That is, this education experience had provided pathways to being empowered about learning to start shaping some pathways in the building construction industry.

When I first came to this course, the only thing I knew was the freezing works, plastering, jib stopping and that’s it – those were the only three things I knew. Since being on this course it’s kind of made the old mind a bit more open to more opportunities... So education practically saved my life.

I think it’s all about you, yourself, isn’t it? How you can represent yourself, how you can present yourself in this kind of a world, in this kind of society, eh? So it’s all about you, what are you going to do about it?… It’s up to the individual…

Observations

• This interview process had provided students with possibly their first opportunity to reflect on their literacy and language experiences; and also to engage critically as to how they would now use literacy and language to reshape their futures.
• The interview responses from many of the students showed an increased critical awareness of how literacy and language experiences impacted on all levels, personally and in the wider social context.
  

3.8: Significant chapter observations

• Students’ difficulties in engaging with learning are a product of their prior education experiences, rather than individual deficits.
• Students’ disengagement from learning and early withdrawal from mainstream state education is influenced by impacts of dealing with negative stereotypes and racism.
• Students recognised when Māori pedagogical practices were not present, and as a consequence they often felt disconnected.
• Students preferred holistic Māori pedagogical perspectives and practices.
• Students expressed raised awareness and validation of their prior skills and how these were relevant to their course of study.
• Students preferred a smaller ratio of students to tutor. This was seen as important to establish learning contexts that engendered a more personal tutor-student relationship, and individual attention.
• Tutors need to be upskilled in making the language of texts accessible to students.
• Tutors need to be skilled in planning, facilitating and managing the learning experiences that are unique to foundation learners. They need to understand where these students have come from and how this influences their learning needs.
  

Footnote

14. Ngā tongi a Tawhiao.