Student Voice

• In Event: Joining the Pieces of the Tivaevae to Enact Strength-Based Mathematics Learning for Pasifika Students in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

There are many compelling reasons why we need to listen to the voices of Pāsifika students if we are to counter the colour-blind racial ideologies and practices (Martin, 2009) which have shaped their mathematical experiences to date. Battey and Leyva (2016) outline how racial ideologies “shape the expectations, interactions and kinds of mathematics that students’ experience” (p. 49). The voices of Pāsifika students provide us with a window into understanding how a strength-based approach can serve as a mechanism to support the co-construction of student’ positive cultural identity and mathematical disposition.
Our sociocultural framework draws on Vygotsky’s (1986) ideas about learning and development through the creation, use, and sharing of cultural tools, artefacts and knowledge within rich cultural contexts. Within this lens, notions of cultural identity can be described as one that is “negotiated between the individual and the multiple contexts in which she or he participates” (Battey & Leyva, 2016, p. 61). We use this perspective to understand shifts in student identity and disposition as the teachers engaged with mathematics as a tool for social justice.
Situated in the Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities [DMIC] project, we draw on three years of interview data collected from students of Pāsifika ethnicity. The students all attended urban schools where the teachers were implementing ambitious mathematics programmes (Kazemi et al., 2009) founded within culturally relevant practices. A grounded approach (Strauss & Corbin, 2008) was used to analyse interview data and provide theoretical insight into student statements. To deepen our analytical lens, we drew on MaUa-Hodges’ (2000) Cook Island tivaevae theoretical model to provide explanations about how the five key Pāsifika values support co-construction of student identity and disposition.
Initial interview data showed that many students viewed school mathematics as unrelated to their identity and had deficit perspectives of their culture in relation to mathematics. As the study progressed, students began to link the integration of cultural values to positive social outcomes and higher achievement in the mathematics.
This paper contributes to the body of literature focused on culturally diverse students and student perspectives. Pāsifika students have experienced a long history of marginalisation through institutionalised schooling practices (Hunter & Hunter, in press). Through listening to the voices of these students we are able to exemplify how mathematics classrooms focused on culturally relevant practices can support positive shifts in student identity and disposition.

Author

• Jodie Hunter, Massey University