Middle leaders are important conduits for school policy and are often required to lead, champion ... more Middle leaders are important conduits for school policy and are often required to lead, champion and monitor change initiatives in their departments. This paper examines secondary school middle leaders' self-reported theories, promotion and leadership of culturally responsive teaching approaches for student equity. The study participants (n = 170) are curriculum leaders in state secondary schools throughout New Zealand, serving a range of diverse populations, including Indigenous Māori students. The quantitative and qualitative data for this project were thematically analysed to inquire into middle leaders' articulation of their culturally responsive theories, practices, and pedagogical and curriculum leadership to assist members of their departments in supporting Māori student educational success. The study found that although middle leaders could clearly articulate culturally responsive, sustaining and revitalising pedagogies and leadership in alignment with government policies and expectations, they were less clear about the measures they used to evidence these practices. In addition, less than 30% of the middle leader participants mentioned academic achievement as an element of Māori student success, and few mentioned the importance of systematic monitoring of achievement data, or using them to support better learning outcomes for Māori students (184).
This article explores how schools and educators can create learning environments that foster the ... more This article explores how schools and educators can create learning environments that foster the innate mana of students. Mana is a concept that comes from a Māori worldview and refers to a person's sense of authority, influence, self-efficacy, purpose, pride, and belonging. The Mana Model contends that student thinking, behaviour, and wellbeing are motivated by the desire to achieve a sense of mana. The Mana Model explains how student connectedness, belonging to place, cultural identity, academic efficacy, and willingness to develop diverse academic, cross-cultural, social, and psychological competences are crucial foundations for learning and should be central to learning environments, teaching pedagogy, and practice.
Research methodology texts often start with an anecdote about the 'bumpy road' to research insigh... more Research methodology texts often start with an anecdote about the 'bumpy road' to research insight. Linda Smith (2005) posits that indigenous researchers engage in "research in [[...]] a time of uncertainty, and in an era when knowledge as power is reinscribed through its value as a commodity in the global market place, this presents tricky ground for researchers" (p.102). Smith further refers to this tricky ground as a space of marginalisation that can also become a space of resistance and hope. For Māori engaging in an academic career in a mainstream university there are numerous compromises necessary in order to succeed. This paper is a personal reflection on the discontinuities, contradictions and disruptions of identity that occur as an emerging Māori researcher in a mainstream university setting. This paper also explores how internal 'insider' barriers can elide with structural barriers to shape and constrain the organisation and activities of Māori researchers. By openly reflecting on the complexities impacting my research, and through sharing my inter-subjectivities and personal observations, I hope this paper goes some way towards validating the naturalness of transitional and intellectual spaces of uncertainty, encouraging other researchers to engage in interrogating these uncomfortable positions, creating new spaces and imagining future possibilities.
The role of cultural connectedness and ethnic group belonging to the social-emotional wellbeing of diverse students
Scandinavian University Press eBooks, Oct 18, 2022
A Te Arawa E! An iwi perspective of Māori student success
Navigating the 'Space Between': Authenticity and Identity in Maori Social Science
Optimizing Māori Student Success with the Other three ‘R’S
Mana Tangata: The Five Optimal Cultural Conditions for Māori Student Success
Journal of American Indian education, Mar 1, 2020
Abstract:A growing number of Māori students are attaining educational success, even thriving in t... more Abstract:A growing number of Māori students are attaining educational success, even thriving in the schooling context. Indigenous education has much to learn from these students, and it behooves researchers to empirically analyze the drivers of student success. While research demonstrates that self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy affect the academic engagement of Māori students, few studies have examined the social-psychological drivers of success for Māori students. This study focuses on how self-perceptions about the value of their ethnic identity and family support affect the motivation and academic engagement of successful Māori students in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Little will be done to improve Māori students' academic engagement and social-emotional well-being until educators focus on the development of students' connectedness to their ethnic identity and their sense of mana tangata (cultural status and pride). This study offers solutions for change using a Mana Model developed as part of the 2014 Ka Awatea study. The Ka Awatea project was codesigned with the Te Arawa community in 2014 and examined the connection between Māori identity and characteristics of educational success among a selection of successful Māori high school students from Rotorua, New Zealand. Five key components concerning the optimal personal, familial, school, and community conditions for Māori student success compose the resultant Mana Model: Mana Whānau (familial pride), Mana Motuhake (personal pride and a sense of embedded achievement), Mana Tū (tenacity and self-esteem), Mana Ūkaipo (belonging and connectedness), and Mana Tangatarua (broad knowledge and skills). The Mana Model is an unapologetically Māori-centric model of student thriving; a strengths-based model utilizing the principles of social psychology and Māori worldview to explain how Māori students can thrive when afforded a broad range of academic, cultural, and social opportunities. This model broadens the research theorizing of those researchers, educators, and other stakeholders who desire to see Māori students attain their full potential.
Walking the space between: Identity and Maori/Pakeha
Racial-ethnic identity is a fundamental aspect of an early adolescent's identity because it inclu... more Racial-ethnic identity is a fundamental aspect of an early adolescent's identity because it includes the attitudes and feelings associated with ethnic and racial group membership. Literature shows racial-ethnic identity to be an important aspect of adolescents' developmental and psychological well-being. This is important in light of the increasingly diverse racial-ethnic demographic for New Zealand, particularly in our large cities. The present study is based around the broad research question 'What influences early adolescent racial-ethnic identity development?' This includes a fundamental question of 'How do early adolescents enact racial-ethnic identity in high school contexts?' and then, 'How does racial-ethnic identity impact on the way early adolescents engage at high school?' This study examines the importance of racial-ethnic identity among young adolescents who attend large, multi-ethnic, urban high schools in New Zealand. The project is comprised of one study with three parts. The analysis in this study focuses on a comparison of Year nine students (13-14 years old) in New Zealand from four racialethnic groupings: New Zealand European/Pākehā, Māori, Samoan and Chinese. Study 1a and 1b (n = 695) examined the self-identifications, feelings of connectedness, meanings
Transforming Research and Indigenous Education Struggle
Springer eBooks, 2019
The multiple selves and realities of a Maori researcher
Abstract Research methodology texts often start with an anecdote about the 'bumpy road&a... more Abstract Research methodology texts often start with an anecdote about the 'bumpy road'to research insight. Linda Smith (2005) posits that indigenous researchers engage in research in [...] a time of uncertainty, and in an era when knowledge as power is re-inscribed ...
Ka Pū Te Ruha, Ka Hao Te Rangatahi: Maori identities in the twenty-first century
These social divides and problems are at the heart of this text
Optimizing Māori student success with the other three 'R's: Racial-ethnic identity, resilience and responsiveness
Routledge eBooks, Feb 2, 2015
Adolescent racial-ethnic identity: Behaviours, perceptions and challenges in urban multiethnic school contexts
Otago University Press eBooks, 2013
The Role of Racial-Ethnic Identity to the Educational Engagement of Culturally Diverse Gifted New Zealand Adolescents
Springer eBooks, 2017
As part of a wider doctoral project examining the role of racial-ethnic identity in academic enga... more As part of a wider doctoral project examining the role of racial-ethnic identity in academic engagement, this qualitative study considered this issue among 31 gifted Year 9 early adolescents (aged 13–14 years) who attended large, multi-ethnic urban schools in Auckland, New Zealand. The study sought to understand the role that racial-ethnic identity played in the academic, social and interpersonal lives of culturally diverse gifted adolescents. The researcher interviewed gifted Pākehā, Māori, Samoan and Chinese students and examined, from their diverse perspectives, what their racial-ethnic identities meant for them in the school context and what they did to persist, thrive and achieve at school. The study question was ‘How do gifted adolescents from diverse racial-ethnic groups organise their developing psychological capacities in conjunction with the evolving social, cultural, racial-ethnic and historical circumstances of their lives?’ Identifying the coping strategies they employed was important because it offered an insight into the ways other culturally diverse gifted students might stay engaged and perform well in school, develop positive peer relationships, be resilient and feel positive about themselves, their racial-ethnic identity and their gifted futures.
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Papers by Melinda Webber