title: In what ways do the perceptions of connectedness of Māori students in Alternative Education secondary schools affect their self-efficacy within the learning environment?

authors: Lemon, Katrina Suezanne

subjects: Alternative Education

abstract: This study has sought to identify connectedness for Māori students within the alternative-education, learning environment and the effect this has had on their self-efficacy. Alternative education in New Zealand is described as a place where second chance learners have access to education (Alternative Education National Body New Zealand, 2016). Generally, students are referred to alternative education due to becoming habitual truants, while other students are deemed as behaviourally-challenging, and are consequently excluded from school (Education Review Office, 2010; Ministry of Education, 2016a). A Critical Theory approach was employed guided by Kaupapa Māori methodology. Data was collected using the qualitative methods of focus-group interviews and one-to-one semi-structured interviews. An open-coded approach was adopted to analyse the data from the interview transcripts where themes were selected, and a summary reflection was written. 

Three distant themes were identified during the data analysis phase: Tāhuhu Kōrero – Kura; Alternative Education – Kura; and Alternative Education Teaching and Learning Approaches.  Within these themes sub-themes were explored: perceptions and experiences of primary and secondary school; Māori in mainstream education; the referring schools involvement; misconceptions; connection to the alternative-education, learning environment; centre and teacher practices; connection with Māori; and pathways, mana, and self-efficacy. An important aspect of this study was to seek to understand these students’ prior educational experiences before gathering their narratives on the alternative-education, learning environment. This was a strength of the study as the student narratives on their entire educational journey provided a depth of understanding for the researcher, and went towards explaining their disconnection, how it happened, and gave context to their referral to alternative education. 

The student narratives expressed a strong sense of connection to their primary-school, learning environment, however, a complete disconnection to their secondary-school, learning environment. Students expressed feeling discriminated against for being Māori, that there was no empathy or understanding given to their lived realities despite wanting to succeed at school. They felt that their teachers did not make an effort to connect with them describing a power imbalance between the teachers and themselves. The students felt that expectations were low, and that teachers could not be bothered to help them with their work. The student participants attributed this disconnection to the reason for their truancy and behavioural issues. The student narratives on the alternative-education, learning environment described an environment that was: whānau; where teachers worked at a connection and understood their learners; challenging them academically; where the teachers were highly committed to their students; where trust and respect was built; and where one size did not fit all - flexibility was exercised. Students felt that the alternative-education, learning environment provided them with career ambition, and academic confidence resulting in self-efficacy. 

This study provides student voice from a group that was overlooked within the Te Kotahitanga research project (Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai, & Richardson, 2003). To hear the voice of alternative education students is important in seeking to improve educational success and enjoyment for Māori priority learners. If we get to know and understand what works for these priority learners, we can then work towards making a difference for them within mainstream education. This study aims to identify the importance of connectedness for Māori students and how connectedness will positively affect Māori learners and their self-efficacy. 


Kia mau ki tō Māoritanga.
Hold fast to your Māori culture.

text: In what ways do the perceptions of connectedness of Māori students in Alternative Education secondary schools affect their self-efficacy within the learning environment? This study has sought to identify connectedness for Māori students within the alternative-education, learning environment and the effect this has had on their self-efficacy. Alternative education in New Zealand is described as a place where second chance learners have access to education (Alternative Education National Body New Zealand, 2016). Generally, students are referred to alternative education due to becoming habitual truants, while other students are deemed as behaviourally-challenging, and are consequently excluded from school (Education Review Office, 2010; Ministry of Education, 2016a). A Critical Theory approach was employed guided by Kaupapa Māori methodology. Data was collected using the qualitative methods of focus-group interviews and one-to-one semi-structured interviews. An open-coded approach was adopted to analyse the data from the interview transcripts where themes were selected, and a summary reflection was written. 

Three distant themes were identified during the data analysis phase: Tāhuhu Kōrero – Kura; Alternative Education – Kura; and Alternative Education Teaching and Learning Approaches.  Within these themes sub-themes were explored: perceptions and experiences of primary and secondary school; Māori in mainstream education; the referring schools involvement; misconceptions; connection to the alternative-education, learning environment; centre and teacher practices; connection with Māori; and pathways, mana, and self-efficacy. An important aspect of this study was to seek to understand these students’ prior educational experiences before gathering their narratives on the alternative-education, learning environment. This was a strength of the study as the student narratives on their entire educational journey provided a depth of understanding for the researcher, and went towards explaining their disconnection, how it happened, and gave context to their referral to alternative education. 

The student narratives expressed a strong sense of connection to their primary-school, learning environment, however, a complete disconnection to their secondary-school, learning environment. Students expressed feeling discriminated against for being Māori, that there was no empathy or understanding given to their lived realities despite wanting to succeed at school. They felt that their teachers did not make an effort to connect with them describing a power imbalance between the teachers and themselves. The students felt that expectations were low, and that teachers could not be bothered to help them with their work. The student participants attributed this disconnection to the reason for their truancy and behavioural issues. The student narratives on the alternative-education, learning environment described an environment that was: whānau; where teachers worked at a connection and understood their learners; challenging them academically; where the teachers were highly committed to their students; where trust and respect was built; and where one size did not fit all - flexibility was exercised. Students felt that the alternative-education, learning environment provided them with career ambition, and academic confidence resulting in self-efficacy. 

This study provides student voice from a group that was overlooked within the Te Kotahitanga research project (Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai, & Richardson, 2003). To hear the voice of alternative education students is important in seeking to improve educational success and enjoyment for Māori priority learners. If we get to know and understand what works for these priority learners, we can then work towards making a difference for them within mainstream education. This study aims to identify the importance of connectedness for Māori students and how connectedness will positively affect Māori learners and their self-efficacy. 


Kia mau ki tō Māoritanga.
Hold fast to your Māori culture.

year: 2017

title: Sweet as – the [ADJ + as] intensifier construction in Māori English/ Aotearoa English.

authors: Calude, Andreea S.

abstract: We introduce the Waikato Māori English Conversation (MEC) corpus, which consists of 43 dyadic conversations between 49 young adults who self-recorded informal conversations with close friends, in their own homes, with no topic of conversation specified (83 hours of dialogue; nearly 800,000 words). The resulting materials are colloquial and unstructured, capturing a wider range of pragmatic and stylistic modes than is possible in a standard sociolinguistic interview. Here, we report on one such feature, the [ADJ + as] construction, for example: ‘sorry some of the questions are like awkward as’ and ‘that caused a big as drama eh’. This intensifier construction has been identified as a distinctive New Zealand English (NZE) innovation, yet little has been written about this it. However, the Waikato MEC corpus presents the opportunity to analyse the construction in a more systematic manner and to fill existing gaps in analyses of Māori English grammar.

text: Sweet as – the [ADJ + as] intensifier construction in Māori English/ Aotearoa English. We introduce the Waikato Māori English Conversation (MEC) corpus, which consists of 43 dyadic conversations between 49 young adults who self-recorded informal conversations with close friends, in their own homes, with no topic of conversation specified (83 hours of dialogue; nearly 800,000 words). The resulting materials are colloquial and unstructured, capturing a wider range of pragmatic and stylistic modes than is possible in a standard sociolinguistic interview. Here, we report on one such feature, the [ADJ + as] construction, for example: ‘sorry some of the questions are like awkward as’ and ‘that caused a big as drama eh’. This intensifier construction has been identified as a distinctive New Zealand English (NZE) innovation, yet little has been written about this it. However, the Waikato MEC corpus presents the opportunity to analyse the construction in a more systematic manner and to fill existing gaps in analyses of Māori English grammar.

year: 2025

title: Texts written in English and Chinese by expert and novice writers: A genre-based study and its implications for the teaching of writing

authors: Huang Wu, Hsiao-Li (Ellen)

subjects: genre

abstract: This thesis aims to contribute to the design and implementation of genre-based academic writing courses intended for learners of English in Taiwan by (a) examining the ways in which Taiwanese speakers of Chinese as a first language (both experienced and novice writers) typically structure texts, in both Chinese and English, in response to prompts intended to elicit one of four discourse modes (recount, argument, explanation and classification) and (b) comparing the structuring of their texts with (i) prototypes relating to each of the four discourse modes that are based on a sample of published academic articles, and (ii) texts written in English by experienced and novice writers who are speakers of English as a first language. In response to one of four prompts, each intended to elicit a different discourse mode, experienced and novice writers - Taiwanese citizens whose first language is Chinese - were asked to write texts of between 200 and 250 words. They produced 240 texts, of which 120 were written in Chinese and 120 in English. Analysis of these texts indicated that, in terms of both overall rhetorical structure (often referred to as ‘schematic structure’) and internal discourse structure (the occurrence and co-occurrence of particular discourse relations), the texts written in both Chinese and English by the experienced writers were (a) very similar to one another, and (b) also very similar to texts written in English by experienced writers for whom English is a first language. Although the structuring of the texts written by the novice writers was less consistent overall, the texts written in Chinese by these writers were structurally closer than were the texts written in English to (a) the texts written in both English and Chinese by the experienced writers, and (b) texts written in English by experienced writers of English for whom English is a first language. Furthermore, analysis of 60 texts (20 written in Chinese and 20 written in English by expert/ experienced Taiwanese writers and 20 written in English by New Zealand teachers for whom English was a first language) revealed a marked tendency, in all cases, towards simple linear or complex linear textual development, with cyclic development being evident in only one of the 60 texts. There is a widespread belief that experienced writers whose first language is Chinese and experienced writers whose first language is English tend to structure texts in very different ways. So far as the writers involved in this study are concerned, this would appear not to be the case. It may therefore be that the difficulty that learners of English in Taiwan often experience in relation to the structuring of texts in English has less to do with their cultural and linguistic heritage than it has to do with the complexities that are inevitably associated with attempts to structure texts in a language in which one has limited proficiency. If this is the case, it has implications for the ways in which genre-centered writing programs intended for learners of English in Taiwan are organized and implemented.

text: Texts written in English and Chinese by expert and novice writers: A genre-based study and its implications for the teaching of writing This thesis aims to contribute to the design and implementation of genre-based academic writing courses intended for learners of English in Taiwan by (a) examining the ways in which Taiwanese speakers of Chinese as a first language (both experienced and novice writers) typically structure texts, in both Chinese and English, in response to prompts intended to elicit one of four discourse modes (recount, argument, explanation and classification) and (b) comparing the structuring of their texts with (i) prototypes relating to each of the four discourse modes that are based on a sample of published academic articles, and (ii) texts written in English by experienced and novice writers who are speakers of English as a first language. In response to one of four prompts, each intended to elicit a different discourse mode, experienced and novice writers - Taiwanese citizens whose first language is Chinese - were asked to write texts of between 200 and 250 words. They produced 240 texts, of which 120 were written in Chinese and 120 in English. Analysis of these texts indicated that, in terms of both overall rhetorical structure (often referred to as ‘schematic structure’) and internal discourse structure (the occurrence and co-occurrence of particular discourse relations), the texts written in both Chinese and English by the experienced writers were (a) very similar to one another, and (b) also very similar to texts written in English by experienced writers for whom English is a first language. Although the structuring of the texts written by the novice writers was less consistent overall, the texts written in Chinese by these writers were structurally closer than were the texts written in English to (a) the texts written in both English and Chinese by the experienced writers, and (b) texts written in English by experienced writers of English for whom English is a first language. Furthermore, analysis of 60 texts (20 written in Chinese and 20 written in English by expert/ experienced Taiwanese writers and 20 written in English by New Zealand teachers for whom English was a first language) revealed a marked tendency, in all cases, towards simple linear or complex linear textual development, with cyclic development being evident in only one of the 60 texts. There is a widespread belief that experienced writers whose first language is Chinese and experienced writers whose first language is English tend to structure texts in very different ways. So far as the writers involved in this study are concerned, this would appear not to be the case. It may therefore be that the difficulty that learners of English in Taiwan often experience in relation to the structuring of texts in English has less to do with their cultural and linguistic heritage than it has to do with the complexities that are inevitably associated with attempts to structure texts in a language in which one has limited proficiency. If this is the case, it has implications for the ways in which genre-centered writing programs intended for learners of English in Taiwan are organized and implemented.

year: 2011