Running the Gauntlet: A Gifted Māori Learner's Journey Through Secondary School
Negative feedback from society and peers
Gifted Māori students are bombarded by negative statistics. Rarely a day goes by when they are not told, in one way or another, that Māori have lower incomes, poorer health, die earlier and have higher rates of unemployment, crime and teenage pregnancy than Pākehā. They also learn that at school Māori students are more likely to get suspended and expelled, be in "cabbage" classes and leave school earlier with fewer qualifications. Despite the concerted efforts of many parents, whānau, caring teachers, organisations, and supportive media attempts, the message that gets through to far too many Māori teenagers is that Māori are "dumb", second-class citizens. This is well illustrated in the story told by a 14-year-old Māori girl. She was one of two Māori in a fifth form accelerate class. On one occasion Navy recruitment personnel addressed the class. They were asked what qualifications were necessary to join the Navy. The answer was three A Bursary passes to which one of the Māori students replied in a loud voice, "Well that cancels Māori out!" With the exception of the young girl who told the story, all the other students laughed raucously. Neither the teacher present nor the Navy personnel made any comment. One week later the 14-year-old withdrew from the accelerate class.
The message that Māori are dumb is a message that is picked up not only by Māori students but also by their Pākehā peers. This is illustrated in the story of a Māori boy who moved from a school with a high proportion of Māori pupils to one that had very few Māori. The boy reported feeling uncomfortable being the only Māori in his maths class. The situation wasn't helped when his high maths test marks were read out in class and a peer declared, "Well, he must have cheated!" The boy had only been in the class for a week and his peers were unaware of his maths ability. Not only had it been assumed that he was "dumb" but also that he was dishonest!
The teenage years are arguably the most difficult time in our lives. The need to be accepted by peers is paramount. Research shows us that gifted students are often socially isolated because of their ability. It can be a time of great loneliness and emotional anguish. Add to this the burden of belonging to a cultural group whose members are perceived as dumb, second-class citizens. Can you imagine the self-esteem and cultural identity issues many gifted Māori students have to face and is it surprising that so many of them leave college early never having achieved their potential?
In this presentation I have purposely not touched on home-related barriers that gifted Māori students face. This is not because they do not exist. Rather it is because my time is limited and I prefer to spend it on school-related issues that teachers have greater opportunity to address. There is also a secondary reason. As illustrated in the quotes relating to negative teacher attitudes, many teachers have a leaning towards the "blame the victim" mentality. Introducing home issues often fuels this and sidetracks discussion. I firmly believe that in all teaching we must look at our own backyard first. We must examine our own attitudes, behaviours, and practices to see if they are helping students or contributing to the problems they face. Change must start from this point. Having said this we will now consider what we can do in our own schools to make sure gifted Māori students are not running the gauntlet.
The first thing we must do is to raise our expectations of Māori learners in general and gifted Māori students in particular. Research clearly shows that teachers' behaviour is influenced by the expectations they hold and that students perform up or down to these expectations. If teachers expect the best from their Māori students they are likely to receive it. I am not suggesting that these expectations be unrealistic nor that any background factors that disadvantage gifted Māori students be ignored, au contraire. However, I am suggesting that teachers seriously examine the attitudes they hold in respect to their Māori students and if any of these are stereotypical, prejudicial, unwarranted, unfair or inappropriate, they should be replaced by optimistic, valuing, supportive, and informed attitudes.
A second step would be for teachers to look critically at their own teaching. As learnt from Dame Marie Clay's study, teachers can be completely unaware of the unequal treatment of Māori students. Perhaps a colleague could be asked to observe and evaluate one of your teaching sessions. Better still, perhaps you could arrange to have your teaching videoed so that it can be analysed afterwards. This analysis could include a comparison of the rate and type of interaction with Māori and Pākehā students. In bilingual and total immersion situations where the class composition is principally if not totally Māori, the observations and videos would not be for Pākehā-Māori comparison but to analyse the quality of teaching involved – what are the rates of positive and negative comments? Are questions being asked that extend students? Are they being given sufficient time to cognitively process their answers? etc, etc. To guard against bias in marking, having colleagues remark coded scripts is a good idea.
A third step is for teachers to critically examine their lessons, resources, teaching activities and techniques for cultural appropriateness and content. Will gifted Māori students find their life experiences, aspirations, values, and frames of reference reflected in any of the content or methods used? For example, what stories by and about Māori are included in the English curriculum? Do they represent the diverse realities of Māori life? Is a Māori perspective of events included in relevant social studies and history lessons? Do maths classes contain Māori-relevant problems? etc. I acknowledge that the inclusion of Māori content in some secondary school subjects – for example, chemistry and physics is a challenge. However teachers who are creative, flexible, and committed will meet this challenge. No doubt they will also use culturally appropriate teaching approaches such as co-operative learning, mentoring, and peer tutoring in their efforts to cater for Māori students.
Fourthly, teachers should examine their school's organisational practices, procedures, and structures to ensure that they are not disadvantaging Māori students in any way. In respect to the particular examples I discussed under this heading, teachers should examine their past performance in the allocation of "ones" for Sixth Form Certificate. In the past 5 years, how many te reo students who contributed a "one" to the pool from their School Certificate results, received a "one" in Sixth Form Certificate? If the tally is low, teachers need to examine the reasons why and put measures in place to address them. Hopefully this will cease to be an issue with the abolition of School Certificate but teachers will need to be vigilant to ensure that any new qualifications and systems do not similarly disadvantage students gifted in te reo Māori.
If your school has streamed classes and ability grouping, you will need to consider whether the procedures used to determine placement in the various groups and classess are fair to Māori students? Is placement based on tests that are culturally biased or teacher nominations that are suspect? Giftedness is present in all cultures. If the accelerate class in your school is disproportionately White and the bottom stream is disproportionately Brown, you will need to ask, Why? Are there any school-related factors contributing ti this and if so, what can be done about them?
You should also examine critically the quality of teaching and resources in streamed classes to ensure that the disparity identified in overseas research is not present in your school. Students in New Zealand schools should be receiving an equitable education regardless of their ethnicity, ability level, gender, socioeconomic class, religion, sexual orientation or any other diversity factor. If this is not being achieved in streamed classes, then is this system defensible? Another issue that all teachers need to consider in respect to their schools is whether Māori students are being disadvantaged because of their participation in cultural activities or enrolment in bilingual and total immersion units? What rescheduling or reorganising needs to be done to ensure that this does not happen? A school-wide system could be established to ensure that if students miss out on important work because of participation in cultural events (or for any other valid reason) they are provided with an opportunity to catch up. This should be organised so that students are not over-burdened with extra work but rather accommodations made – compacting of other requirements or exemption from certain activities are possible solutions.
The last assault in my gauntlet analogy involved negative feedback from society and peers. Teachers have a responsibility to challenge this negative feedback whenever they encounter it. What would you have said if you were the teacher in the class where the gifted mathematician was accused of cheating or where the comment about Māori in the Navy was made? Hopefully you would not have remained silent as the teachers in these situations did. Students need to know that racist jokes and put-downs are not acceptable and that Māori are not dumb or second-class citizens. Reference to and use of Māori role models in all fields is one strategy that can help to get this latter message across. Kokiri Paetae, the bimonthly publication from Te Puni Kokiri, is a wonderful source of information about Māori role models and it is free so there is no reason for it not to be in every secondary school library in New Zealand! Teachers are also powerful role models to their students. If your words and actions show that you celebrate diversity and value Māori people, culture, and te reo, this may just be the most valuable lesson you teach your students!