Summary: Racial-Ethnic Identity In New Zealand

An issue in New Zealand related to society is racial-ethnic identity (REI), which is “the significance and meaning of race and ethnicity to one’s self concept” and is an important part of development in adolescents, specifically minority and indigenous adolescents and at schools (Webber, McKinley, & Hattie, 2013, pp. 17). Webber et al. (2013) wrote how society makes race be a powerful indicator of social status. This idea has created stereotypes in New Zealand, in which the stereotypes are contradictory. REI can be developed in schools because adolescents are seeing what society thinks about their identity. Data as shown how exposure to this negative “social mirror” affects academic engagement (Webber et al., 2013). The students who are

Research that has led me to believe this is an issue is because in 2008, 33.2% of Māori students were at a National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA) Level 2, but since then they have increased to 69.4%. For Pasifika students, 48% were at a NCEA Level 2 but now it has increased to 75.2% (Parata, 2016). These statistics show how not even half of Māori and Pasifika students were where they could be. In The impact of policy and legislation on Māori children with special needs in Aotearoa/New Zealand by Kiri Fortune (2013), she pointed out how Māori are less likely to receive early childhood education. According to Conner (2013), teachers were using a standardized system of teaching so their lessons were the same for everybody. Since the lessons were standardized, this could have made it hard for students to be engaged or make

Teachers were also going to test with using narratives as an instructional approach. Māori and Pasifka cultures have used this approach before and research supported that these style can help students remember content. Teachers also wanted to incorporate student collaboration (Conner, 2013). These solutions will benefit all students because the teachers will be incorporating all cultures into their lesson plans. Student collaboration will also benefit all students because they can bounce ideas off with one another. However, this may be harder for students who are shy or do not know how to put their thoughts into words. These students could still participate though because they could express their thoughts in other ways, such as drawings. The Ministry of Education have also tried to implement solutions but have faced resistance from schools. They have sponsored projects in areas such as literacy, numeracy, Māori education, the Best Evidence Synthesis program, and teacher professional learning (Levin, 2011). Best Evidence Synthesis connects research to policy and practice. Levin (2011), explained how some of the projects that the Ministry supports show very substantial benefits for students. However, schools are resisting anything that seems like an obligation from the Ministry. Therefore, this resistance could make this solution not beneficial since