Ua Aoina le Manogi o le Lolo: Pasifika Schooling Improvement Research - Summary Report

6. Summary Parent Voices

The parent interviews drew on two important cultural concepts from a Samoan perspective of ‘va fealoaloa’i’ (reciprocal respect of space) and ‘ava fatafata’ (reciprocal respect of face-to-face). The interviews were carried out by the research team leader, and as a Pasifika researcher it was important that the interviews reflected ‘va fealoaloa’i’and ‘ava fatafata’ in order for acceptance between people, for people and with people to occur. Hence a ‘talanoa’ (conversation) format was used. This enabled the collective and unique voice of Pasifika parents to be expressed about their anxieties, their desires for their children’s future and their beliefs about ‘success’ for their children.

6.1 Five Questions Guiding the Talanoa

The five questions guiding the talanoa were: What dreams do you have for your child’s education?; What sort of support is the school giving you in order to help your child?; What sorts of things might you suggest that would enable the school and you to help your children achieve?; What do you do to support your child and do you ask the school for help?; and What are your expectations of schools?

6.2 Pasifika Parents’ Concerns for Their Children

All parents desired the ‘best’ for their children so that children can succeed in life. To be successful in their lives, parents believed that their children must have a balanced and holistic education in order to help families and others. For example:

To have a good education, good life, good work you know, look after their family. That’s …that’s my dream. But yeah, I’m …I’m so happy with [the school]. They look after my family. [Niuean parent]

All I want… [sobs] is to see them achieve before I go … [Tears through the silence] …I want to see my children grow up and lead a happy life and one that I never had. [Tongan grandmother]

In that dream, I mean for my husband and I first and foremost is that we always wanted our children to be good people and good Christian people and anything on top of that is a bonus, but in saying that though we do push our children academically. [Samoan parent]

6.3 Parents Beliefs on How to Support Children’s Success

Almost all parents felt that schools did not fully provide them with the information and practices that they need to best support their children. They suggested improvements in the following areas:

• As parents support their children the only way they know how, they now want schools to tell them explicitly how they can support their children academically to optimise their children’s success.
  
  [still crying] … O la’u fa’agaugauga ia lelei age a lakou a’oga a e ou ke leiloa po’o le a sa’u fesoasoagi ou ke faia i la’u fagau...... e kakau lava ia lakou oga ka’u mai po o a fesoasoagi e fai i la’u fagau ile gumela ae maise a fo’i le faikau kusi aua o la’u kamaikiki e vaivai ia i le faikau kusi …o lea ga ou fai lea iai fa’amolemole pe mafai oga avaku la’u kama iiga e a’oa;o mai ai laga faikau kusi.
  
  [Translation] My desire for them is to have a high level of education but I don’t know what sort of support I should give my children… they [the school] must tell me what kind of help I should give to my children in maths and also reading because my child is weak at reading so at home, I ask my nieces to help because they have reading programmes.  [Samoan Parent]
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• Parents of children in both primary and secondary schools suggested that schools should seriously look at opportunities to create an academically competitive environment for their children.
  
  O le isi mea e tatau ona fai i totonu o a’oga, e tatau ona fai ‘comptetition’ fo’i ia e aoga e tauva ai le tamaititi.
  
  [Translation] One thing the school must implement is the establishment of academic competition where children could be motivated to learn. [Samoan Parent]
  
  
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• Parents prefer schools to give examples and clear instructions of homework tasks and how homework should be done so they can in turn help their children to complete them.
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• One parent commented on the need to see daily homework for his children. But what he wanted was examples and clear instructions on how to carry out homework. He claimed that reading Duffy books and the Bible also helped. However, when children had difficulty, the parent’s sister-in-law who is a lawyer then helped the children instead. When told that his child’s dream was to be ‘just like Daniel Carter and a playmaker’ he laughed and pointed out:
  
  It’s good … but whether sports, you still need a good brain. [Niuean Parent]
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• Parents afford the greatest ‘respect’ for schools and teachers because of their professional knowledge. In return, parents prefer frequent and honest feedback about their child’s academic achievement progress:
  
  E kalagoa mai a le faia’oga ‘o lae lelei lau kama. Po o le a kogu lava le mea la e vaivai ai (her child) [to the child] ... e leai se okooko mai ole mea kogu la e vaivai ai...poo le a le makaupu, pau a le mea o la e alright uma mea uma.
  
  [Translation] Teachers say to me that everything is alright with my child. [But in terms of] the exact academic weakness [her child] there is no specific identification of that or in what subject… only that everything is alright. [Samoan Parent]
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• Parents agree that a home-school partnership is viable but not all schools encourage them to participate. A parent captures what happens when schools strike a balance between school and home support in the following way:
  
  I know the teacher was very good. She liked the teacher. O le fiafia ia i le a’oga. A kuu la i lau fesili lea ga e fai mai e uiga I le support a…poo le support a makua poo le aoga [She loves school. If I have to respond to your question about support …albeit parent or school] I’m pretty sure its both. Aua aga fa’apea e lelei le support a makua ae fa’alekogu le a’oga ia kailo. A fa’apea foi la e lelei le a’oga ae leaga le support a makua ia e fa’apega lava. Ae ou ke iloaiga lava … [Because if there was good support from parents and the school support was not [good], I don’t know. Just as if the school support was and parents’ was not, well it would be like that. But I know…] I know her needs were catered for. [Samoan parent]
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• Parents suggest that schools should run workshops to alleviate confusions with how to help children including with homework, especially aligning how they were taught and how children are now taught.
  
  I just don’t like how they get the questions right, but they have to actually show strategies of how they got there. My children have always just been able to come up with the answers straight away, but when they are told you have to show us how you get that answer they can’t do it. [Samoan parent]
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