Reporoa College

May 2014

The Narratives of Experience

The Narratives of Experience

Interviews-as-chat (2001) in five secondary schools with:

• Non-engaged Māori students

• Engaged Māori students

• Their whānau

• Some of their teachers

• Their principals

Three discourse positions

(Outside the

school)

Māori students

& communities

(Within the

classroom)

Relationships

(Within the

school; outside

the classroom)

Structures

Analysis of unit ideas in the narratives identified that these teachers held three major discourse positions to explain Māori students’ educational achievement.

Where the discourses were positioned

Discourses explaining Māori achievement: Students,

Whānau, Principals and Teachers

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Child Structure Relationship

9%

80%

11%

18%

63%

19%

22%

49%

29%

61%

20%19%

Pe

rce

nta

ge

Student Whänau

Principal Teachers

Some new language

• Discourse

• Discursive positioning

• Deficit theorising

• Agentic positioning / agency

A definition of discourse

… a set of meanings, metaphors, representations, images, stories, statementsthat in some way together produce a particular version of events, a particular picture that is painted of an event, or a person or a group of people

(Adapted from Burr, V. 1995. An introduction to social constructionism).

Discourses

First white people to arrive in Australia

Settlers

Pommys

Traders

Colonisers

Convicts

White ghosts

What was our discourse around

smoking in the 1960s?

… in the 1970s?

… in the 1980s?

… and the 1990s?

An example of discursive

repositioning

60s and 70s

• Sophisticated

• Socially acceptable

80s and 90s• Developing an awareness of health risks

Currently

• Socially unacceptable. Explicit evidence of negative effects of life expectancy

THINK, PAIR, SHARE

There may be a variety of different discourses surrounding a

particular event, person or group of people. Our thoughts, actions and our behaviour, including how we relate to, define, and interact with others are determined by our discursive positioning (the discourse within which we are metaphorically positioned).

Consider the rate of attendance of Maori families at Parents Evenings.

What discourses can you identify around this event?

Deficit theorising

• Explanations that locate the problem in terms of deficits

• Pathologising practices – ‘other’

• Allocate blame

• Abrogate responsibility to act

Agentic positioning and agency

In considering Academic Counselling

• Agency – agent of change

• Agentic positioning – metaphorically positioned within a discourse of agency

• Accepting responsibility - ‘knowing and understanding how to bring about change and being professionally committed to doing so’ (The Effective Teaching Profile – We will look at this during

Term 2).

“...we are all able to reposition ourselves from one discourse to

another because while we are partly the product of discourse, we have agency that allows us to change the way we see and make sense of the world by drawing from other discourses. We are free agents and we have agency; what is crucial to understand is that some of the discourses we draw from limit our power to activate our agency.”

Burr as cited in Bishop, R. (2008, p. 56) ”GPILSEO : A Model for Sustainable Educational Reform,” New Zealand Journal of Education Studies, Vol.43, No. 2

Discursive repositioning

(Outside the

school)

Māori students

& communities

(Within the

school; outside

the classroom)

Relationships

(Within the

classroom)

Structures

Discourses to explain Māori

students’ educational achievement

Non agentic

Deficit theorising

AgenticNon agentic

Deficit theorising

Māori

students &

communitiesStructures Relationships

Reject deficit thinking/theorising & recognise their own agency to effect change

“I am able to effect change. I could …”

Many teachers were discursively positioned here …

Many look for the solutions here

… and here is where real change can take place

See Māori students and their communities in deficit terms

“I can’t because the problem is …”

See school structures and systems in deficit terms

“I can’t because the problem is …”

Discourses to explain Māori students’

educational achievement

Reflecting on deficit theorising and

agentic positioning

What do you now understand about:

–discursive positioning?

–deficit theorising?

–agency and agentic positioning?

Reflecting on deficit theorising and agentic positioning

Thinking about Māori students and engaging with Māori whanau what might be the implications for you:

– as an individual?

– as a member of staff at Reporoa College?

– in your role as a Support Staff Member or Dean or Form Teacher?

Just for a minute reflect on some Māori student narratives

When you play up you get withdrawn from class. Yeah, you get sent out.

Sometimes it’s not your fault, but you don’t get a chance to tell your side until

you get to the deputy principal. So you tell your story and you are allowed

back, but you’re shamed out. It’s stink.

Some teachers pick on us Māori. Some teachers and kids are racist.

Being Māori. They say bad things about us. We’re thick. We smell. Our

uniforms are paru. They shame us in class. Put us down.

Don’t even try to say our names properly. Say things about our whānau.

They blame us for stealing when things go missing. Just ’cause we’re Māori.

Discourses to do with being Māori

Discourses to do with engaging Māori students

Don’t yell at kids. Don’t start thinking about what you are going to

teach us when we walk in the room. Get prepared.

Have a smile on your face. Look pleased to see us. Treat us

respectfully. Look like you want to be here. Say hi to us as we

come in. Have a joke with us. Don’t bawl us out. If you don’t like

something we’re doing, tell us quietly.

Just ‘cause we’re a C class don’t expect us to be dumb. We might

be there because we were naughty at Intermediate.

Don’t have us writing all the time and being quiet. Let us talk

quietly to each other about what we’re doing. We know we have

to be quiet sometimes – like tests.

I think they need to try and understand us and the way that welearn.

Treat them equally. Treat them the same as the other students.

They never even actually make an effort to understand ourculture. They don’t try to understand where we are coming from.

Make it easier for us to learn. Slow down sometimes ‘cause youdon’t learn much when you go too fast.

Cut down copying. We’d rather collaborate about the notes. Youknow, do them together so we can all understand.

This afternoon

What makes a difference for Māori students’ participation and educational achievement?

We have begun to look at this.

Our focus in our Professional Learning Morning and afterschool workshops will continue this work through Terms 2 & 3