Teacher Educators, Problematic Discourses, and Equity in Education: The Example of Pasifika Peoples, New Zealand

• In Event: Teacher Educators for Just and Equitable Education: International Comparisons and Mutual Dilemmas

Abstract

Purpose
This study examines an area that is of arguably of critical importance in the context of New Zealand, and teacher educators’ commitment to equity in education. How do teacher educators know and understand key concepts
related to socio-cultural diversity in schooling such as culture, ethnicity, diversity, and race? Simplistic and uncritical understandings of key concepts result in misconceptions which negatively impact on perspectives and subsequent decision making (Author, 2011). Is this why teachers and teacher educators engage in such uncritical ways with taken-for-granted discourses in New Zealand education policy? According to Bishop “….by drawing on particular discourses to explain and make sense of our experiences, we are positioning ourselves within these discourses”. As he points out, “…some discourses hold solutions to problems, others don’t ” (2010, p. 67). The study aims to challenge complacency, deepen insights, provide alternative perspectives, and strengthen understandings amongst those actively engaged as (teacher) educators and researchers in educating for equity in general, and Pacific-heritage or Pasifika peoples in particular.

Theoretical Perspectives
The study takes a post-structuralist approach to discourse and discourse analysis. It incorporates Bacchi’s conceptualisation of policy as discourse (2000, 2005) and Foucault’s approach to the historical analysis of ideas (1972).

Methods, Data Sources and Conclusions
The analysis located discursive formations in national education policies, tracing origins and trying to understand usage (Author, 2013). It examined underlying values, beliefs, even political ideologies that appeared to be communicated and how these constructed and organised Pasifika as ‘priority learners’ within the New Zealand education system. The analysis enabled the study to arrive at theorisations organised around these themes: the politics of Pasifika identities; the myths and realities around pedagogical ‘relationships’; and the implications for culturally responsive pedagogy.

This study identified and examined three progressive phases of research and development funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) from the late 1990s through to the present in relation to Pasifika learners. What has developed is a deeply embedded rhetoric about responsiveness to Pasifika cultures, languages and identities (MOE, 2012). This study also incorporated a focus on New Zealand’s bicultural relationship with the indigenous Maori population. It questions power relations as these relate to Pasifika peoples.

Educational Significance
This study is significant in that it challenges teacher educators’ to examine the simplified and reduced ways Pasifika learners and their communities are constructed – in essence, how they are known and understood. The second challenge is development of sharper conceptual tools which must also incorporate the critique of ‘race’. In the context of New Zealand education, ‘race’ is a hugely problematic term, and is oft-times avoided. A third and final challenge for teacher educators is how they know and understand the Treaty of Waitangi, and biculturalism in relation to other forms of difference, such as Pasifika.

Author

• Tanya L.M. Samu, University of Auckland