Opening the Dialogue Between Teachers and Teacher Educators Toward Culturally Appropriate Interactions With Pāsifika Learners

• In Event: Foregrounding Cultural Ways of Being in Mathematics Teacher Education: Cases From Latinx and Pāsifika Communities

Abstract

Purpose: This paper draws from a larger design research study (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012) which aimed to support teachers to use culturally responsive pedagogy (Te Ava & Rubie-Davies, 2011) and ambitious teaching (Kazemi, Franke, & Lampert, 2009). The study included the use of a Communication and Participation Framework (Author 2007) designed to be used by teacher educators and teachers to scaffold diverse students to participate in productive discourse and mathematical practices. The focus of this paper is on the learning of teacher educators and teachers as the Framework was used to develop culturally appropriate interaction patterns with Pāsifika learners. We wanted to examine the effect of dialogue between teacher educators and teachers as the classroom interaction patterns were varied to better match the cultural values of Pāsifika peoples.

Theoretical Framework: In this paper we foreground culture and equity (Gutiérrez & Rogoff, 2003). We contest need for Pāsifika students to be successful through ‘white spaces’ rather than using their culture as a strength to be drawn on and used to empower them. We build on previous studies (e.g. Author, 2017, Mauheni, 2016, Ukpokodu, 2011) to illustrate that Pāsifika students’ cultures (and as indigenous peoples their cultural values which shape their ways of knowing and being) are foundational for equitable outcomes.

Methods and Data Sources: In this paper we draw on interview data from eight teachers in an urban school where most students were of Pāsifika peoples’ ethnicity. The teachers participated in professional development days, co-construction of mathematics lessons in classrooms with a teacher educator and in dialogue related to their use of the lived experience and cultural ways of being of their Pāsifika students. An iterative process was used to analyse interview transcripts using a grounded approach (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) to provide theoretical insight into teacher statements. To enhance our analytical lens we drew on a metaphoric Cook Island tivaevae (quilt) theoretical model which Maua-Hodges (1999) argues underpins culturally responsive pedagogy for Pāsifika learners. We used this model to analyse whether the five key values of aokotai (collaboration), tu akangateitei (respect), uriuri kite (reciprocity), tu inangaro (relationships), and akari kite (shared vision) had emerged.

Results: Findings demonstrate the rich exchanges opening the dialogue between teacher educators and teachers had on how they attended to the culture of Pāsifika and other diverse students. All participants acknowledged dissonance as they grappled with transforming classroom culture based within the dominant European culture of New Zealand to one within Pāsifika oriented values and beliefs. Of importance were observations of increased mathematical interactions and how Pāsifika cultural values supported pro-social skills.

Significance: Successful mathematics achievement for students of Pāsifika ethnicity in New Zealand has been difficult to achieve and recent TIMSS results showed that almost a third of Pāsifika students were below the low international benchmark for demonstrated ability to complete many of the simplest mathematics tasks. As educators, it is not only our responsibility to empower our Pāsifika students, but also to affirm their cultural ways of knowing and being.

Authors

• Roberta Hunter, Massey University

• Jodie Hunter, Massey University