title: Equity, inclusivity and shared humanity:  Addressing intergenerational failure of schooling for Māori

authors: Egan, Margaret

subjects: Equity of Māori learners

abstract: Despite decades of education reform aimed at Māori students succeeding in schooling, the New Zealand education system’s failure to engage effectively with Māori is persistent with Māori underachievement remaining chronic and seemingly intractable.
This thesis examines the interface between leadership and professional learning in a single sex secondary school during their engagement with Te Kotahitanga (Unity of Purpose). The school’s leaders were focused on closing the achievement gap between Māori and non-Māori students and asserted that if students remained engaged at school into the senior year levels, they were more likely to “achieve success”. Te Kotahitanga’s initial focus on teaching and learning in the junior years 9 and 10 presented a potential solution. As this school began to engage with Te Kotahitanga, Ka Hikitia (to step up), a strategy aimed at Māori students achieving educational success as Māori, was launched. Thus, a mandate for school reform focused on Māori potential supported the professional learning provided by Te Kotahitanga.
The findings, presented as quantitative and qualitative evidence, show that school leaders focused on their teachers implementing a more culturally responsive and relational pedagogy at Years 9 and 10 in order to close the achievement gap between Māori and their non-Māori peers. They believed that this would prepare Māori students for the more formal and traditional learning experience required in the senior school, aimed at getting through important national qualifications. While teachers and leaders who were fully engaged in Te Kotahitanga transformed the classroom experiences for their junior and senior learners, not all teachers and leaders engaged, therefore not all learners experienced the change in pedagogy throughout their time at this school. The findings also uncover layers of bias within the school and its community which prevented Māori families from contributing to their children’s education on their own terms. The two key foci, closing the achievement gap between Māori and non-Māori and retaining Māori students into the senior school obfuscated a focus on shared humanity, equity, belonging and better engagement for all.
While this research took place in New Zealand with Māori students these findings can contribute to those involved with school reform especially those in other colonised countries where indigenous students and their families face similar issues.

text: Equity, inclusivity and shared humanity:  Addressing intergenerational failure of schooling for Māori Despite decades of education reform aimed at Māori students succeeding in schooling, the New Zealand education system’s failure to engage effectively with Māori is persistent with Māori underachievement remaining chronic and seemingly intractable.
This thesis examines the interface between leadership and professional learning in a single sex secondary school during their engagement with Te Kotahitanga (Unity of Purpose). The school’s leaders were focused on closing the achievement gap between Māori and non-Māori students and asserted that if students remained engaged at school into the senior year levels, they were more likely to “achieve success”. Te Kotahitanga’s initial focus on teaching and learning in the junior years 9 and 10 presented a potential solution. As this school began to engage with Te Kotahitanga, Ka Hikitia (to step up), a strategy aimed at Māori students achieving educational success as Māori, was launched. Thus, a mandate for school reform focused on Māori potential supported the professional learning provided by Te Kotahitanga.
The findings, presented as quantitative and qualitative evidence, show that school leaders focused on their teachers implementing a more culturally responsive and relational pedagogy at Years 9 and 10 in order to close the achievement gap between Māori and their non-Māori peers. They believed that this would prepare Māori students for the more formal and traditional learning experience required in the senior school, aimed at getting through important national qualifications. While teachers and leaders who were fully engaged in Te Kotahitanga transformed the classroom experiences for their junior and senior learners, not all teachers and leaders engaged, therefore not all learners experienced the change in pedagogy throughout their time at this school. The findings also uncover layers of bias within the school and its community which prevented Māori families from contributing to their children’s education on their own terms. The two key foci, closing the achievement gap between Māori and non-Māori and retaining Māori students into the senior school obfuscated a focus on shared humanity, equity, belonging and better engagement for all.
While this research took place in New Zealand with Māori students these findings can contribute to those involved with school reform especially those in other colonised countries where indigenous students and their families face similar issues.

year: 2022

title: The challenges of culture to psychology and post-modern thinking

authors: Waldegrave, Charles

subjects: Maori

abstract: Someone at a workshop in the Waikato once said to us, “You know a Maori, if they want to, can always learn to be a psychologist, but a psychologist can’t learn to be a Maori”. Cultural knowledge may or may not be accompanied by social science knowledge. Cultural knowledge can stand on its own. Those who possess it, and choose to work in the institutions we are associated with, have gifts this country desperately needs. All our organisations require such people, and they need to be properly resourced, have employment security and control over their work. Their own work away from our organisations also requires adequate resourcing. They can heal their own in ways that we will never be able to. They will almost certainly offer the field rich alternative metaphors and meanings that can free us from the tired old medical, biological and social science ones. This also has implications for those in other branches of psychology, including research, experimental and industrial psychology. There is perhaps a unique opportunity for psychologists in this country of Aotearoa/New Zealand to recognise other ways of describing events, which will lead to creative practices and enable the health and welfare resources to get to those who most need them, on their own terms. It would also enable other people, other workers from other cultures to develop new paradigms, and new shifts in our field. This will not lead to the abandonment of social science, but it will enable that body of knowledge, to sit appropriately along side other realms of knowledge such as gender knowledge, and cultural knowledge, without dominating. A new experience for the social scientists, but I suspect a liberating one!

text: The challenges of culture to psychology and post-modern thinking Someone at a workshop in the Waikato once said to us, “You know a Maori, if they want to, can always learn to be a psychologist, but a psychologist can’t learn to be a Maori”. Cultural knowledge may or may not be accompanied by social science knowledge. Cultural knowledge can stand on its own. Those who possess it, and choose to work in the institutions we are associated with, have gifts this country desperately needs. All our organisations require such people, and they need to be properly resourced, have employment security and control over their work. Their own work away from our organisations also requires adequate resourcing. They can heal their own in ways that we will never be able to. They will almost certainly offer the field rich alternative metaphors and meanings that can free us from the tired old medical, biological and social science ones. This also has implications for those in other branches of psychology, including research, experimental and industrial psychology. There is perhaps a unique opportunity for psychologists in this country of Aotearoa/New Zealand to recognise other ways of describing events, which will lead to creative practices and enable the health and welfare resources to get to those who most need them, on their own terms. It would also enable other people, other workers from other cultures to develop new paradigms, and new shifts in our field. This will not lead to the abandonment of social science, but it will enable that body of knowledge, to sit appropriately along side other realms of knowledge such as gender knowledge, and cultural knowledge, without dominating. A new experience for the social scientists, but I suspect a liberating one!

year: 1993

title: Does Video Priming and Video Modelling help to reduce anxiety and increase social behaviours for adults who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or Intellectual Disability when starting paid employment?

authors: Humphrey-Rush, Amanda Margaret

subjects: autism

abstract: Employment rates for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability (ID) are much lower than the general population. Social skill difficulties and experiences with anxiety are thought to be contributing factors to this low employment rate. This study incorporated two Video-based Interventions (VBI’s), Video Priming (VP) and Video Modelling (VM), to address anxiety and social skill difficulties for 2 adults with disabilities who were starting work in a supported employment service. Both participants
were adult males, one of whom had an ASD diagnosis, and the other who had an ID diagnosis. VP was used to provide a preview of the expected events at the beginning of the first day at work, in an attempt to reduce anxiety associated with starting a new job. Anxiety levels of the participant who did receive VP were compared to those of the participant who did not receive VP. Results showed a decrease in anxiety for the participant who received the VP intervention and suggested that VP may improve experiences of anxiety for people with ID and ASD who are starting a new job. VM was implemented in this study to teach target social behaviours to participants, with an aim of increasing these behaviours. Results for each participant showed increases in many, but not all, of the target social behaviours, but these increases were not maintained over time and returned to baseline levels. Overall, this research provides support for VBI’s as an intervention to reduce challenges such as anxiety and social skill deficits for adults with ASD and ID starting work. Recommendations have been made in regard to conducting further research to continue exploring the use of VP to reduce anxiety relating to starting as this is a developing area of information, and where adjustments can be made to the VM intervention to further evaluate the effectiveness of this.

text: Does Video Priming and Video Modelling help to reduce anxiety and increase social behaviours for adults who have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or Intellectual Disability when starting paid employment? Employment rates for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability (ID) are much lower than the general population. Social skill difficulties and experiences with anxiety are thought to be contributing factors to this low employment rate. This study incorporated two Video-based Interventions (VBI’s), Video Priming (VP) and Video Modelling (VM), to address anxiety and social skill difficulties for 2 adults with disabilities who were starting work in a supported employment service. Both participants
were adult males, one of whom had an ASD diagnosis, and the other who had an ID diagnosis. VP was used to provide a preview of the expected events at the beginning of the first day at work, in an attempt to reduce anxiety associated with starting a new job. Anxiety levels of the participant who did receive VP were compared to those of the participant who did not receive VP. Results showed a decrease in anxiety for the participant who received the VP intervention and suggested that VP may improve experiences of anxiety for people with ID and ASD who are starting a new job. VM was implemented in this study to teach target social behaviours to participants, with an aim of increasing these behaviours. Results for each participant showed increases in many, but not all, of the target social behaviours, but these increases were not maintained over time and returned to baseline levels. Overall, this research provides support for VBI’s as an intervention to reduce challenges such as anxiety and social skill deficits for adults with ASD and ID starting work. Recommendations have been made in regard to conducting further research to continue exploring the use of VP to reduce anxiety relating to starting as this is a developing area of information, and where adjustments can be made to the VM intervention to further evaluate the effectiveness of this.

year: 2020