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A Pasifika teacher outlines the process of how he uses the cultural identifiers for giftedness and applies these identifiers to students that he teaches. The Pasifika teacher also shared his presentation of the process and an explanation of gifted and talented Pasifika students.
Duration: 03:40
A Pasifika student who is able to articulate how his cultural identifiers for giftedness contribute to his world as a learner and how his gifts can be used to help others who rely on him as a role model.
Duration: 02:56
The Gifted and Talented Coordinator shares her story about how her involvement with the Pasifika Achievement Coordinator in the Digi Advisor project. The Digi Advisor project helped affirm what Pasifika initiatives the school already had in place to support their Pasifika learners.
Duration: 02:18
An Auckland Girls Grammar School Samoan language teacher and a non-Pasifika music teacher collaborated on a consensus approach to see which cultural identifiers applied to Pasifika students they taught mutually. The Samoan language teacher acknowledges the value of having a process to identify gifted and talented Pasifika students, providing another avenue or lens to view how Pasifika learners can translate their particular strengths into classroom learning and achievement.
Duration: 02:33
An Epsom Girls Grammar School student discusses two specific cultural identifiers: lineage and birthright that pertain to her upbringing from her family. Notions of cultural identifiers for giftedness are found in the home, and this Tongan student articulates how family and cultural values are used as a foundation to accelerate her learning and achievement at school.
Duration: 03:29
An Auckland Girls Grammar School Samoan language teacher explains how she combines e-Learning tools in her assessments to allow her students to achieve to their potential through the use of YouTube channels to film oral language assessments. This means that students are able to film their assessments without the time pressure or time constraints of timetabled classes as an example of ubiquitous learning.
Duration: 04:22
A Pasifika teacher shares his story about the benefits of being involved in the Digi Advisor project and being involved in online communities of practice on the Virtual Learning Network.
Duration: 03:03
A Pasifika teacher shares his opinion and interpretation of the PEP, how teachers can use the policy document as a way to provide a strategic focus on Pasifika learners, parents, families and communities.
Duration: 01:30
Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, Assistant Vice Chancellor (Pasifika) Victoria University, discusses why it is important to New Zealand as a nation that Pasifika students are successful in education.
Duration: 03:27
Research shows that the teacher's interest, respect and care for the student is an important factor in student achievement in school.
Duration: 01:44
Bilingual people are able to use their different languages in different places, with different people and for different purposes.
Duration: 01:34
Parents are pleased with new approaches to bilingual learning. They see the advantages that children get from using both their languages.
Duration: 02:43
Academic language, and particularly academic vocabulary, is a high priority for bilingual students, across all curriculum areas.
Duration: 04:03
Research shows that there are clear educational advantages in bilingual learning, but using a Pasifika language has sometimes been considered a liability.
Duration: 01:27
By integrating culture, caring, challenge and support into their pedagogies, teachers strengthen relationships and build communities of learners who succeed socially and academically.
Duration: 6:21
School leaders have a role in establishing practices that support the continuity of their Pasifika students’ learning as they move from and into different learning environments.
Duration: 2:48
Inclusive pedagogies, where teachers deliberately and positively draw on their Pasifika students’ resources, value the diversity of student experience and help to lift Pasifika student achievement.
Duration: 2:06
High expectations, together with the vision of Pasifika students as successful learners, improve relationships, pedagogy and academic outcomes.
Duration: 6:17
Safe and supportive environments, with coherent, clear and consistently enforced codes of behaviour and restorative discipline practices, contribute to learning gains for Pasifika students.
Duration: 4:30
Collecting relevant and sufficient data on Pasifika students’ achievement helps schools to track the progress of their Pasifika learners, make informed changes to their pedagogy, programmes and practices and be affirmed when their data reveals learning gains.
Duration: 05:50
Pasifika students find it motivating when teachers keep them informed about their levels of achievement, share the learning intentions with them and adjust their teaching to scaffold their learning pathways so that they know exactly what to do next.
Duration: 04:38
Teachers use many different strategies to engage their Pasifika learners and help them to achieve. Their strategies work best when they are grounded in responsive and caring relationships with their Pasifika students and the focus on their learning is clear.
Duration: 05:03
When teachers and Pasifika students negotiate the learning intentions, and share clear expectations and knowledge of the outcomes to be achieved, Pasifika students engage more confidently and more purposefully in their learning.
Duration: 04:16
Pasifika students benefit from working in collaborative ways with their peers in the classroom.
Duration: 02:31
Knowing a Pasifika language is not a barrier to being successful in English-medium schooling. Teachers who value and share the languages that Pasifika students bring with them into the classroom and deliberately build their English language skills help their Pasifika students to succeed.
Duration: 02:43
Collaboration, inquiry learning and knowledge-sharing underpin the professional development and learning focus of the teachers at Māngere Bridge school. The learning and actions that result impact positively on their Pasifika students’ achievement and well-being.
Duration: 04:14
McAuley High School has an unrelenting focus on raising the achievement of their Pasifika students. School-based teacher professional learning and development enables teachers to collectively inquire into and identify what works well for their Pasifika students.
Duration: 03:39
School leaders who initiate and sustain an intensive focus on the teaching-learning relationship and promote collective responsibility and accountability for Pasifika students’ achievement and well-being can make a difference to the outcomes their Pasifika students achieve.
Duration: 01:01
Negative stereotyping and a culture of mocking can be positively transformed by providing opportunities for Pasifika students to learn and grow their leadership potential, take ownership of their own development and be celebrated as achievers.
Duration: 03:02
Pasifika students discuss the importance and relevance that the ASB Polyfest has played in their classroom learning, which in effect improved their academic achievement. Key points in this story also include the senior students mentoring younger students - tuakana/teina model, the opportunity to celebrate their culture by engaging with their traditional performing arts and being able to connect their cultural identifiers to Pasifika giftedness.
Duration: 05:33
Senior Pasifika students provide advice for teachers of Pasifika students, highlighting the need for teachers to focus on the level of language that they use in classrooms to communicate with Pasifika learners.
Duration: 02:24
Glen Tuala - Pasifika Advisory Officer, Correspondence School. explains the flexibility that the Correspondence School can offer in developing a more personalised learning programme for Pasifika students.
Duration: 05:17
Jim Halafihi, ICT teacher Papatoetoe High School, explains how establishing a positive rapport with your Pasifika students can provide a good starting point to knowing your students. When a teacher knows their students they are in a better position to respond more appropriately to their needs.
Duration: 06:01
Maggie Flavell, explains the the perspective of a non Pasifika person working with Pasifika students. She talks about the importance of learning about the Pasifika culture to enable her to better engage with Pasifika students and their families. She also talks about the value of having a good support network to support her own professional development.
Duration: 06:31
Imeleta Faumuina, HoD English Tangaroa College, discusses the importance of providing authentic learning contexts to support meaningful student engagement.
Duration: 10:27
Melaine Sagala - TIC Samoan Language, Avondale College, discusses the benefits of strong student connections for their learning. She also discusses a model for connection that has worked for her in the past.
Duration: 06:39
David Faavae explains that with in the changing Tongan culture that Tongan boys can be very different, each requiring a different approach when working with them as teachers.
Duration: 04:05
Pennie Otto, Lecturer at MIT Tertiary Secondary School, discusses how she has developed a programme based on the Niue language and culture that has lifted Pasifika student achievement at her school.
Duration: 04:23
Teokotai Tarai, HOD Languages, Teacher of Cook Island Maori Language, explains how Pasifika students come to the classroom with a wealth of knowledge and experiences. This can provide a platform for better student engagement and success.
Duration: 06:14
It’s about creating environments with students at the centre, where Pasifika students have the focus and learning support they need to lift their academic achievement patterns.
Duration: 4:21
Mutually respectful, caring and open relationships, which motivate and engage Pasifika students, form the heart of effective teaching.
Duration: 5:11
This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, considers the diversity within our groups of Pasifika students and their communities in terms of their identities, languages, experiences, and aspirations.
The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from orders@thechair.minedu.govt.nz or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.

Duration: 9:44
This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, highlights a variety of viewpoints on the range of different contexts and worlds that Pasifika students inhabit.These different contexts can provide challenges for some students. At the same time, they also can provide a basis for learning.
The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from orders@thechair.minedu.govt.nz or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.
Duration: 5:43
This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, considers the potentially differing expectations of teachers and parents towards Pasifika students and their learning. The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from orders@thechair.minedu.govt.nz or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.

Duration: 4:14
This clip, from the Connections and Conversations DVD, explores a variety of viewpoints from students, teachers and parents on the involvement and engagement of Pasifika parents and communities in the processes of schooling.
The DVD and accompanying booklet can be ordered via email from orders@thechair.minedu.govt.nz or phone 0800 226 440. Quote Item number 11061.
Duration: 11:26
Many schools already involve Pasifika parents in supporting cultural events and activities. However, it should not stop there. Home-school partnerships that have a clear focus on Pasifika students’ learning with everyone able to make a positive and active contribution directly benefit Pasifika learners.
Duration: 04:16
Partnerships that share and align school and home practices and enable parents to actively support their children's in-school learning have shown some of the strongest impacts on student outcomes.
Duration: 03:29
Coming to school for special events is rewarding for Pasifika parents if the school makes them feel welcome and the focus is on their children’s achievement and strategies to extend their learning.
Duration: 01:46
Sustained higher achievement is possible when teachers use pedagogical approaches and share strategies that enable Pasifika students to take charge of their own learning.
Duration: 05:56
Sylvia Park school has set up a centre to be ‘the parents’ place’ within the school. The centre’s leader has a proactive focus on involving Pasifika parents through mutual learning conversations based on their child’s assessment data and their next-steps learning needs.
Duration: 03:56
Professor Emeritus Tagaloatele Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop comments on the current state of education. She shares her thoughts about reducing and bridging the gap, understanding and engaging in systems, negotiating time, and the benefits of learning the basics.
Duration: 13:18
Reverend Tevita Finau calls for an education system that recognises a range of student gifts and provides opportunities for learners to discover, explore, and build off their strengths. He touches on the importance of family, identity, culture, and keeping the language alive.
Duration: 11:00
Rachel Karalus has a number of concerns for Pacific learners, including racism within the education system, the system's lack of cultural responsiveness, and the need to focus on enabling Pacific parents' engagement. She sees success as Pacific learners as "being who they are 100% of the time" and calls for Pacific learners to have the same educational opportunities as those with "sounder financial backgrounds".
Duration: 9:38
Reverend Professor Dr Uili Fele Nokise explores spirituality – a value that binds together all other values – and its significance to Samoans. He explains the importance of relationships, with both people and the environment. He calls for efforts to bring a common understanding of things, such as how the home and school environments can complement each other and how we express care for each other.
Duration: 10:25
Way before the creation of an electric drill, Tokelauans invented the vilivili – a hand-operated pump drilling device. Pacific ancestors have always been construction innovators.
Duration: 00:46
Pacific ancestors who were scientific innovators knew about the benefits of coconut oil long before it was trendy and profitable.
Duration: 00:55
Pacific ancestors have been navigational innovators since long ago. They created, studied, and memorised navigation charts made of sticks.
Duration: 00:47
Traditional tatau (tattooing) has been handed down from generation to generation. Pacific ancestors have been cultural artistic innovators from way back.
Duration: 00:59
Pacific ancestors have long been financial innovators. They used tafuliae, shell money made up of different coloured shells that represented different monetary worth.
Duration: 00:50

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It’s about creating environments with students at the centre, where Pasifika students have the focus and learning support they need to lift their academic achievement patterns.

Key content

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Key content

It’s all about the students. It’s about how schools, families and communities find ways to work together to support and encourage their Pasifika students to enjoy school, engage with learning, aim high, and achieve academically and socially. It’s about how they help them to be the best they can possibly be.
 
When students are at the centre, and everyone works together with the same focus and purpose to provide the teaching and learning support where it is needed, then Pasifika students flourish. In a supportive teaching and learning environment, they gain confidence in themselves and their potential to learn, individually and collectively. As a result, they lift their achievement.
Among other things, school leadership is crucial to lifting student performance.
 
“Our primary conclusion is that pedagogically focussed leadership has a substantial impact on student outcomes. The more leaders focus their influence, their learning, and their relationships with teachers on the core business of teaching and learning, the greater their influence on student outcomes."
School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration, page 40.

Acknowledgment:

Thanks to the principals, staff and students of Aorere College, McAuley High School, Mangere Bridge School, Sylvia Park School, Mary MacKillop School and Wymondley Road Primary School for their contribution.

Things to think about

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Things to think about

  • Do you know what your Pasifika students want to get from their schooling? How did you find out?

Alignment across whole school policies and communities has been found to be critical also for developing safe environments where students respect each other, and bullying and violence is reduced”.
Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis, page 31.

  • Do your Pasifika students enjoy coming to school, and being at school? How do you know?
  • How do you want your Pasifika students to feel about coming to school? What do you do to achieve this?
  • How does your school reward good behaviour and achievement? Are Pasifika students among those that are rewarded in this way? If not, why not? What improvements could you make?
  • Do you have a strong focus on teaching and learning in your school? Are there changes you could make that would benefit your Pasifika students?

Transcript

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Transcript

Victoria - student
I know my teachers like teaching us because if they come to school that means that they care about us and they want us to have a better future.

Joseph - student
When I leave school I want to be a doctor, and a teacher so when I grow up I teach them what I was learning when I'm this age.

Judy Hanna
I want them to feel they belong. I want them to feel that this is their place, that they have something to contribute. That this is not a place that tells them what to do or gives them instructions. That this is the place that assists them to be the best they can possibly be, and teaches them to stretch themselves. I think our children need to be challenged.

Camilla - student
When I first started it was real different because I didn't think I was good enough to go to university. But the teachers, they believed in me and made me believe in myself. So yeah, I'm going to uni next year. I don't know what uni, but I know I am going to study sports and rec conjoint with business commerce.

Anne Miles
A school is about its students. We're here because of the students, not for ourselves. A school is about the girls in the school and they need to know that they are the centre of the school. It's not the teachers – we're the workers. It's the girls who are the centre of the school, it’s the girls who are being given an opportunity that's going to determine the whole future of their life.

Mele - student
We have big support from our teachers. They help us with after school stuff – they always offer. It's never you come to me, they always give it to us.

Anne Miles
I tell them their education is like a cloak that they put over themselves. And if that cloak is faulty, or ragged, or has holes in it, their whole life is going to be affected by that lack of education. And if their cloak is warm, that education is going to look after them for the rest of their life.

Kuini - student
It's a way that we can gain knowledge for our future, and for what we want to do in the future, so that we can make our lives better. Not only for ourselves but also our families.

Tom Brown
If I was in the role of advising principals, the one thing I would say is make sure that you've got a two way dialogue going on. Students – teachers, teachers – parents, teachers – students, and teachers – principals. Talk to each other. You’ll find that you solve the problems a lot quicker.

Jan Bills
The new curriculum, along with the key competencies, along with the understanding and the contract of how the Pasifika children may learn, has meant that teachers are more in a partnership with their children, and that we have all got the same focus and purpose. And that is also about the learning, but it's also about the individual learning. It's also about seeing the children as individuals and making sure that the whole child is worked with.

Marcel - student
What makes a good teacher for me is if they can get along with me, because I hate it when teachers can't get along with me, because I feel really sad and stuff like that. Because they don't know me.

Glen Ryan
My personal vision for my Pasifika students is to be successful. I want them to be proud of who they are with their culture, proud of who they are as a learner, and proud of who they are with their faith, being a faith school. And that they can do anything and achieve anything. They have just as much ability, backing with parents and family, to be able to do anything they want. So we want them to leave our school as leaders. When they hit year 9, we want to hear about them getting the awards for maths, for science, for sport, for music. We want them to keep coming back to our school and telling us how well they are going.

Lisa - student
I would say to all teachers to encourage their students to never give up, to always take a risk in learning stages, and to push students to the limit where they’re meant to be so they can reach their age-stage level.


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