Give credits where credit is due

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Polyfest dancers

The magic of the Regional Polyfest festivals

It's that time of the year where the buzz of excitement begins to kick in as the Secondary Schools cultural groups are currently preparing for Regional Polyfest festivals across Aotearoa. The ambience of nervousness, suspense, passion, and anxiety waits for our Pasifika students when they showcase locally who they are and where they come from. It’s such a magical event that embraces the true meaning of biculturalism and multiculturalism from different walks of life.

ASB Polyfest logo

There are many forms of primary and secondary school cultural festivals, but none bigger than Auckland Secondary Schools’ ASB Polyfest, who will be celebrating their 40th anniversary in a few weeks time. Congratulations on your success and longevity of service to the wider community! An amazing accomplishment thus far, and may you continue to drive the vision of scaffolding the future for our Pasifika learners, parents, families, and communities. In my opinion, this event stands alone for providing the best atmosphere for bringing a diverse group of communities together to celebrate culture, language, and identity as one neighbourhood.

It's surprising how many schools don't assess their students for Polyfest using NCEA credits

I was fortunate to attend the festival last year as part of the CORE Education Pasifika professional development fono, and I was stunned to hear from some Pasifika parents about the number of secondary schools that don’t assess their children for Polyfest using NCEA Dance credits. I felt for them because I know, as a parent, I have been advocating for Polyfest credits in the past 3 years for my daughter’s Pasifika group. Christchurch is no different.

For many Pasifika groups, the time and effort the students put into their preparation, is nothing short of aspirational. Some groups have started preparation since the beginning of the term, some groups have been preparing for months. We’re talking about rehearsals during lunchtimes, after school, weekends, and during the holidays. If you’re looking for what Pasifika collaboration, connectedness, and agency may look like, I encourage you to attend one of their performance practices. It defines the meaning of reciprocity of teaching and learning between the seniors and juniors — an ideal environment where our young upcoming Pasifika students understand that pathway to leadership is through service.

Christchurch Polyfest preparing for a first

Christchurch SpacPac Polyfest is gearing up for the first time as an outdoor event to be held on 21st March at Westminster Park. Christchurch SpacPac has been around for over 15 years. Participating secondary schools hail from the top of the South Island (such as Nelson Boys College), right to the bottom of the South Island (such as Southland Girls’ High School). They have participated in the festival over the years, and it’s overwhelming to see such a diverse group of learners across the South Island participate with enthusiasm, energy, and passion. As a proud Pacific Islander, it’s more powerful and inspiring to witness non-Pasifika students such as Palagi students dance and sing songs that are foreign to them. Check out this video clip where a Korean student leads the Epsom Girls Grammar in a performance and won the best Fuataimi (conductor) prize at the Samoan stage last year. She also gained Excellence credits for her performance.

Although Auckland has been setting the standards for high quality performances for 40 years, Christchurch should be proud of setting their own performance standards. Some secondary schools offer Polyfest credits, and I commend them for being responsive and proactive. Other schools don’t know what they don’t know and must look at ways of implementing these cultural credits as part of their school-wide assessments.

My plea for Polyfest credits

In reference to my advocacy for Polyfest credits for my daughter’s school, the Principal and the Music teacher are willing to offer singing credits for the Pasifika group. As a parent, it’s a small step in the right direction, but the girls and the parents are screaming for dance credits.

I believe some secondary schools need to rethink their wider-assessment criteria and take a serious look at how other schools reward Pasifika groups for the mammoth time and effort put in to represent their school with pride. The impact of offering NCEA Dance and Music credits for Polyfest can only enhance Pasifika student achievement. It can also have a positive impact on the Pasifika community. On a personal note, it’s the right thing to do. It’s 2015, never too late to encounter change.

Finally, I would like to share a video where Manu Faaea-Semeatu talks about NCEA Polyfest credits on Tagata Pasifika 2014. Best wishes to all participants of all the regional secondary schools Polyfests. Stand tall, brown, and proud!

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Mind over matter

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Pasifika class

In my last blog post, I shared a multiple world view of what Modern Learning Environments (MLE) and Modern Learning Practice (MLP) may look like through a Pasifika lens using a Samoan fale as an analogy. In this post, I would like to unpack it further by sharing my thoughts of The Foundation Phase. For background reading, here is the link to my last post: “A Modern Pedagogy + Modern Pasifika Learners = 21st Century Pasifika learners raising a village”.

The foundation phase:

The culture of a child cannot enter the classroom until it has first entered the consciousness of the teacher. Earlier researchers such as Podmore, Sauvao, and Mapas (2003), and also Ruta McKenzie and Helen Singleton (2009), found that students of Pasifika cultures, languages, and identities enter the school gates with these values, and, "key factors were the teachers knowing the children, knowing their culture and providing opportunities for the children’s Samoan language to be used at school" (Literature Review – Education Counts Publications).

The child’s lens quickly adapts to fit in with a different setting, such a classroom—a skill Pasifika children have assimilated naturally throughout their lives. Schools that have inclusive values such as respect, belonging, and service, to name a few, connect immediately with their Pasifika learners and communities, On the other hand, some Pasifika learners will disengage because their cultural values haven’t been recognised or respected appropriately by teachers. For example, pronouncing names incorrectly; understanding why they wait to be asked to share their thoughts; more willing to take risks in small groups rather than whole class discussions.

 Alton-Lee (2003) stated “that effective teaching requires teachers to take responsibility for every student’s achievement, to value diversity, have high expectations, and build on students’ experiences. For Pasifika students this requires teachers to understand their day-to-day experiences, their cultural background and the dimensions that make this up including language and cultural values”. ( Education Counts: Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling).

While most schools acknowledge cultural responsiveness in their school charters and strategic plans, this doesn’t always translate well into practice. We need to be better at this. We need to take a closer look at how we are meeting our learners’ needs by developing further inquires into best cultural, inclusive practice. Here’s a few starters:

  1. What could we do better as a school or community to make our Pasifika students feel more valued in a safe environment?
  2. How can I use Pasifika students' past experiences, knowledge, and culture to enhance their achievement and learning?

One amazing resource by Michelle Johansson, University of Auckland, I use with teachers is, ‘The Level of Pasifika Capability’ (originally had no title, something I added). It challenges teachers to think about their practice in a cultural sense. Teachers are asked to post their answers to each level in regards to their current practice. By levels four and five, teachers struggle to share any real evidence of best practice because they don’t know what they don’t know. It read for some boring and typical answers you would expect from teachers. For example, one teacher wrote, cultural group for level four. To be fair ,this resource is like a deliberate act of reverse learning by tapping into teachers prior knowledge. It led to great in-depth discussions that allowed them to cast much deeper and wider into their inquiry of understanding Pasifika learners and Pasifika cultures, why we learn the way we learn, why we act the way we act. The more questions are asked, the more they genuinely start to look past the surface level and suddenly a light bulb moment.

Level of Pasifika capability

One way of meeting levels four and five is using a thematic and cross-curricular approach that will enable Pasifika learners to engage more by drawing on their prior knowledge. A hard one to grapple for many teachers, but some embrace it by changing their lens to tailor make the curriculum and key competencies to meet the students' cultural values. Here’s a great example of Student advice for Teachers video to illustrate a collaborative effort between two teachers to meet their students needs using a thematic approach.

As a bicultural and multicultural nation, we have come a long way to being culturally responsive since the 1960s. However, we still have a long way to go to understand the concept of how culture must enter the consciousness of a teacher to really make a significant shift from accepting culture to being culturally responsive. It should start with the most influential key players in schools to model these changes. Ask the difficult questions such as:

  1. Are all Pasifika learners at your school achieving educational success while maintaining and enhancing their language, culture and identity as Pasifika?
  2. How do you know they’re achieving this?
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Modern Learning Pedagogy + Modern Pasifika Learners = 21st Century Pasifika learners raising a village

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fale society values

An old Samoan proverb still relates to current education changes from the past to the modern and the future of our Pasifika learners:

“ E tumau le fa’avae, ae fesuia’i le faiga”
(the foundations remain the same, but the ways of doing it change).

A Samoan fale is a home, a community, church, and a safe environment that provides a sense of belonging, leadership, and spirituality. From this structure, then, the Samoan fale serves, for example, respect, reciprocity, and inclusive values. Without a strong foundation, the community will not function morally and inclusively.

If a modern learning environment/modern learning pedagogy  (MLE/MLP) acknowledges some of these values as part of the school culture and pedagogy, then the foundation for engagement and learning for our Pasifika learners, parents, families, and community will lead to a successful environment.

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Putting the ‘e’ in Pasifika

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Photo of Pasifika children with iPad

Pasifika cultures are strongly acknowledged in the New Zealand Education system, and I applaud the movement of the times to keep up with the growing population of Pacific nations in New Zealand. We have made gradual steps to be culturally inclusive. However, we are still behind the eight ball on sustaining our Pasifika identities, cultures, and languages in schools.

What's a future focussed education for Pasifika?

Let's ask the question, What does a Modern Learning Environment (MLE) look like through a Pasifika lens?

Having my Pasifika hat, primary teacher hat, and e-learning practitioner hat on simultaneously, makes me curious about where Pasifika learners will fit in the education model in the 21st century. By no means am I an expert in this field. However, knowledge and understanding needs to be developed from a Pasifika stance to inform pedagogy behind this idea of MLE.

Past experience

For the past 40 years, I have lived in two separate worlds. I understand the rules, the laws, the education system—basically everything to do with being a New Zealand citizen — I get that. I know how to behave in an environment where I need to abide by New Zealand laws and systems. But then, when my world is seen through a non-Pasifika lens, it changes, as does my behaviour.

For forty years I have lived in this world where environment is just physical space; but I am most comfortable when surrounded by my parents, families, and my community. Someone once said to me, “schools are about people, not just buildings”. This concept captures the idea of open spaces, personalised learning, and working independently in the new 21st Century environment. It,is a positive shift in the right direction to engage our Pasifika learners that will encompass all the goals, targets, and actions from the Pasifika Education Plan. Why? Because I believe the modern learning environment can be unstructured, more mobile, and have less constraints. There could be less pressure to perform at our own pace, and an environment created that can easily be adapted to personalised learning. 

But, what about a future framework for Pasifika?

The emerging question for me is, how do schools use the space—virtual and physical—more effectively to engage our Pasifika students in a modern learning environment? To do this, we can follow the wise words of an old Samoan proverb, “Fofola le fala, ia tatou talanoa”—Spread the mat and let’s engage in a conversation.

How does e-learning raise Pasifika achievement, engagement, and participation aligned with the Pasifika Education Plan?  I have been pondering about this for a while. I grew up the old-school way—teacher directed, with ability groups, desks set in rows, etc. Although I just made it through the schooling system with some success, I can only thank my peers for their support and visa versa. My way of getting through was being part of a community, not being independent. My peers and I attended the same classes, we had the same teachers at high school, and we passed and moved onto university. Things changed when some of the boys found other interests, and I was left to see through university on my own. By that time I was 20, and the word, “independent”, took on a whole new meaning for me.

Fast forward to the 21st Century, and the idea of support is there, but in the digital form of e-learning. Pasifika students can currently ubiquitously seek support from their peers through Facebook, Instagram, text messages, mobiles, Skype etc. The accessibility of instant support is how we roll in the Pasifika world.

I use my 15-year-old daughter as an example. She is a Facebook, Instagram, texting compulsive-obsessive-nutter, (but in a controlled manner, because, as parents, we still believe in rules). After many parent interviews with her school-teachers, it always leads to one common academic theme: “Has potential, but lacks confidence”. It’s very common in the Pasifika world. Without that support around you, you stay in your shell and become disengaged.

My daughter is a gifted sportsperson, (as in the stereotype that most Pasifika people are!), but I have seen her work hard on her homework and catch up on any missed work due to sports commitments. She puts in the effort by going online with her peers, where she can comfortably ask questions, and engage in discussions about her assignment tasks—things she may feel uncomfortable with in a classroom if put on a spot.

The Pasifika old world can be part of the new

Networking, in the sense of my world—being part of a community, should be exploited by any means of connecting with others in a digital world. I believe, the shift from the traditional workbooks to e-learning can raise Pasifika engagement, participation, and achievement, all under the Pasifika Education Plan. The inevitable question is how? I believe the turning point for our Pasifika learners is now, more than ever before. We need to develop a sense of cultural best practice in schools, and beyond the four walls. Many of our Pasifika elders are currently e-capable, not to the point of empowering, but at least at the emerging phase. Engaging with our Pasifika parents, families, and community is more accessible than ever before. Due to no, or little, evidence on raising Pasifika achievement through e-learning, I am being urged to commence some background research (watch this space!).

Using the modern to strengthen the good from the old

Will a Modern Learning Environment and e-learning strengthen the identities and languages of Pasifika cultures better than before? Some things in a digital world should never change, in my opinion. As a New Zealand-born Samoan, I struggled to keep my identity during my early schooling years because we didn’t have anything remotely Samoan, let alone a cultural group, until my final year at high school—form seven (Year 13). The only times I connected with my Samoan culture, were at home, in my community, and at church. I don’t want my children to have the same struggle.

One of the positive shifts for the past 20 years is the inclusion of Pasifika preschool language nests. My children were able to continue to learn their identity, culture, and language through their preschool years. However, when they moved onto primary school, and they not only started on the wrong foot, but, eventually, lost their first language. The only time they can revisit their language is in the senior levels in some high schools that offer Samoan language as part of NCEA. In between those years are cultural festivals of dances, singing and stage performance.

My daughter has been involved in the Specifically Pacific Cultural Festival in Christchurch for the past 2 years at her high school. It has strengthened her identity again as a proud Samoan. During that two-week period, and the build up towards the festival, she walks tall, proud, and Brown. When the festival ends, it’s back to the normal school routine, and the New Zealand way of learning.

So, with what lens should we be looking at MLE for Pasifika?

E-learning tools such as Skype conferencing for learning Samoan language or any other Pasifika nation languages should be used more effectively to build that network of community online. The way of the future of sharing and collaborating resources is something our Pasifika communities have been doing for years, just as in the old proverb "it takes a village to raise a child". Maybe we do it better than most? 

It's all very well imposing one's own cultural view of a modern learning environment, but maybe the New Zealand education system should focus on a future-focused education that can incorporate how Pasifika communities view Modern Learning Environments and e-learning through their eyes.

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