Running the Gauntlet: A Gifted Māori Learner's Journey Through Secondary School
Organisational procedures, practices, and structures that disadvantage gifted Māori students
Within secondary schools there is a number of organisational procedures, practices, and structures that disadvantage gifted Māori students. Class scheduling and composition, placement procedures and allocation of Sixth Form Certificate grades are just a few examples I have come across. The irony is that some of these practices have been established to benefit Māori students but in reality they are having the opposite effect. I will give you some examples.
With the advent of kura kaupapa Māori, bilingual and total immersion units, many Māori students are arriving in third form thoroughly fluent in te reo Māori. They sit School Certificate in third form and the bright pupils receive top marks – wonderful! However the problems start the following year. After doing so well in third form, a number of these students "bomb out" doing Sixth Form Certificate in Māori in fourth form.
What goes wrong? There is a number of contributing factors. The system for allocating Sixth Form Certificate marks is one of them. Top School Certificate Māori students contribute their "ones" to the sixth form mark pool. However when these "ones" are allocated for Sixth Form Certificate, they often go to Pākehā chemistry and physics students while the Māori students themselves receive lower marks, in some cases I know of, considerably lower! Parents often perceive this situation as arising from racial prejudice. Hopefully they are wrong. I believe it is a combination of three principal causes. Firstly, the silly system that creates a shortage of available "ones" when fifth form science multiplies into physics, biology and chemistry at the sixth form level. Secondly, the unfortunate practice of teachers having to argue and lobby for the allocation of sixth form marks (described by one teacher as "the Sixth Form Certificate bunfight", a bunfight in which the typically young, inexperienced te reo teacher is pitted against the older, experienced head of science or maths who, very often, is also the sixth form Dean!)
The third cause lies in the nature of the work required in sixth form. Rightfully it is geared towards students becoming responsible, independent learners. They are required to use their independent research and study skills to produce work, the marks of which contribute to their Sixth Form Certificate grade. In this system, the 16-year-old physics student has an advantage over the 14-year-old te reo Māori student whose level of maturity and independent research and study skills are not nearly as well developed.
But whatever the reason for gifted Māori students missing out on the "ones" at sixth form level, the damage caused is far-reaching. The high expectations created by the student's success in third form may result in them feeling they have "lost face" in the Māori community and cause them to abandon the study of te reo altogether. Thus a subject where the student has the ability to succeed at an advanced level has become the source of lowered motivation and self-esteem, a fact that could possibly affect their attitude to school and future achievement in all subjects.
For those students who do persevere with Māori into the seventh form, history often repeats itself. One mother tells the story of her son's marks in Bursary Māori being scaled down from 94 to 67. This mother is a well-educated, assertive Māori woman who challenged the system on her son's behalf – all to no avail. She was told that the Government simply could not afford the cost of the large number of A Bursaries earned in the Māori Bursary exam. The drastic level of scaling her son's mark was subject to was required for financial reasons. The same degree of scaling was not applied to other languages such as Russian and French as the smaller number of A Bursaries earned in these subjects was economically manageable. Background information required for this mother's challenge was not freely given. She had to apply for it under the Official Information Act and to pay for the privilege. One of her biggest concerns was that "these Māori students who were A students were being told, no you are not, you are a B!"
The second issue I want to address is the disadvantages caused by some class option and placement practices. There is considerable overseas research to show that gifted minority group students are missing out on placement in accelerate classes and top ability groups (eg Espito, 1973; Hobson vs Hansen, 1967; Oakes, 1985; Racial and Social Isolation in the Schools, 1969; Brookover, Leu & Kariger; 1965; & Rist, 1970: all cited by Persell, 1997, p. 96). Anecdotal evidence suggests the same thing is happening for gifted Māori students in New Zealand. I will give two examples that illustrate this.
The first concerns Donald Mann who was granted the Dennis Ferrier Memorial Scholarship in 1999 for academic excellence at Massey University, Albany. He recalls "being transferred from Hato Tipene to Keiston Boys High School in Form 4, and 'being automatically stuck in a class graded for average learners. The strength of my parents taught me to rise above such negative stereotypes"' (Kokiri Paetae, 1999, p. 15). I have heard many similar stories of inappropriate placement of gifted Māori students both in relation to streamed classes and to ability grouping within non-streamed classes.
The second example relates to a college where on entering third form three different class options are available – accelerate class, bilingual unit, or mixed ability class. A parent who was questioned about this choice told an interviewer:
For a Māori student to be in the bilingual unit and to be in the top-stream class was an either-or choice. When her son went to Waikaraka (fictious name) he had to decide to be in either the bilingual unit or the top-stream class. The underlying message was that one is either Māori or intelligent, and cannot be both she said. She had to decide from the conflicting positions both as a mother wanting the best for her child and as an advocate of bilingual education ... She also mentioned that if a bilingual student is intelligent and moves from the bilingual unit to the top-stream class, what kind of message is it sending to the students left in the bilingual unit? (Doerr, 2000, p. 375).
If the bilingual unit in this school was perceived as a class where gifted Māori students were placed and extended then "being Māori or being bright" would not be an issue. However Doerr supplies considerable evidence from teachers, students, and parents to show that this was not the case. She concludes:
It is ironic that the bilingual unit, one of whose purposes was to raise the self-esteem of Māori students, turned out to work for the opposite result because of the way it was related to the streaming system and because that aspect was not recognized widely (ibid, p. 405).
To what extent gifted Māori students are disadvantaged by not being placed in accelerate classes is a debatable point that depends on your support or otherwise of these classes. However returning to research, there is a large body of findings that show streaming advantages students placed in the top stream and disadvantages those who are not. Studies have shown that top-streamed classes in secondary schools
consistently receive better teachers, class materials, laboratory facilities, field trips and visitors than their lower-track counterparts (Findley & Bryan, 1975; Goodiad, 1984; Oakes, 1985; Rosenbaurn, 1976; Schafer, Olexa & Polk, 1973). Oakes observed that teachers of high-track students set aside more time for student learning and devoted more class time to learning activities. (Persell, 1997, p. 95).
Research has also shown students in the top stream were exposed to more highly valued knowledge and skills and "received more empathy, praise and use of their ideas, as well as less direction and criticism, than did lower-track students." (ibid, p. 96). Students in lower streamed classes were more often off-task and teachers spent more class time disciplining them. The extent to which these findings are applicable in the New Zealand situation is unknown but it certainly provides some food for thought.
A scheduling issue that is disadvantaging Māori students relates to the time-tabling of kapa haka, te reo and taha Māori classes in some schools. A number of examples can be given. At the previously-mentioned Waikaraka College
the bilingual students missed two hours every week for the kapa haka or cultural performance practices, one of which fell on the social studies class time for year 9 students. While most of the extra-curricular activities were done outside the class periods, kapa haka practice was done during the class periods. Even though kapa haka was performed mostly for the College – formal ceremonies at school, representing the College outside etc – the bilingual students' commitment to it was not credited or rewarded in any way. That is, two class periods per week were taken away by the kapa haka practice, but the students' commitment to kapa haka activities were not acknowledged in the educational structure (Doerr, 2000, p. 397).
Not only were the student's efforts not acknowledged, but they were being disadvantaged by receiving one less social studies lesson than the rest of the school's year 9 students. While this particular example is not specific to gifted Māori students, it alerts us to circumstances where students who are gifted in cultural areas are especially vulnerable. The talented kaea may be frequently called upon to karanga visitors and the gifted waiata composer may miss his/her own lessons in order to tutor kapa haka groups throughout the school. I have heard stories of these students failing tests of material covered in classes they did not attend, receiving detention for not doing homework they never received and putting their Higher School Certificate at risk because of "absences" at cultural classes and events. Rua Tipoka's experience demonstrates a similar point. For those of you who have never heard of him, Rua plays for the North Harbour rugby team, he has played for the New Zealand 7s, is a black belt and New Zealand title holder in martial arts and is part way through a law degree. He tells how he was "kicked out of the 1st XV because I went to a Māori speech competition instead of coming up to play Sacred Heart College." (Kokiri Paetae, 1999, p. 22). Fortunately this did not hold him back in his rugby career!
At this stage I think I need to clarify a point. Some of you may be thinking, "one minute she is telling us to incorporate cultural content and the next minute she is criticising its inclusion!" This is not what is intended. What I am criticising is any scheduling, administrative procedure, teacher action or the like that results in a Māori student being disadvantaged because of their participation in cultural activities. I also have a real concern about schools who believe the provision of te reo classes and a kapa haka group is all that is required to meet the cultural needs of Māori students. For these needs to be met, Māori students should see their culture reflected and valued in all subjects and activities.