Educator's Views 2

Background

Tempe High School has been designated by the Education Department as a language school. The school has a large proportion of students from non English speaking backgrounds with South Pacific Islander children making up over 8% of the total student population.

Observations

The Deputy Principal admitted that teachers have very little knowledge of the culture of the South Pacific Islander children, or the type of educational system they may have come from. The School Counsellor went so far as to say that this is why so many of these children face problems teachers are just not aware of the cultural differences.

In order to help address this cultural ignorance among teachers at a staff development day this year a member of the South Pacific Islander community (along with members of other ethnic communities) was invited to address teachers on the issue of cultural differences, their ways of thinking and values to the difficulties faced by South Pacific Islander children. An example of this was sited by the School Counsellor. Teachers had talked to a 14 year old pregnant girl about adoption, ignoring the support offered by the traditional extended family structure.

These cultural differences however, are influencing the academic performance of South Pacific Islander children. They have normal IQs but tend to underperform. The Principal does not feel that this is due to factors inside the school but rather due to factors outside the school. These children tend to mix with what the Deputy calls wrong elements outside of school. Many become involved in petty crime or link up with other groups especially Maories and roam the streets in gangs.

The basis for this behaviour is seen to be in the family structure. In the Islands, these children were in a village structure where a tight check was kept on their behaviour, their free time was continually supervised. Here in Australia they are often living with a member of their extended family eg aunts or uncles and their free time is not continually supervised. Interestingly, the Deputy stressed that the children sent back home to the Islands were usually those living with a member of their extended family.

An observation made by the School Counsellor was that these children tend to be restless and full of energy. She also said that problems arose due to the coupling of this energy with a lack of consistency and continuity at home as well as discipline problems. She felt that our system of discipline did not suit the SPI children. Our system is far less strict. SPI parents hit their kids if they misbehave so the children are used to that type of punishment and find it difficult to cope with our ways of discipline.

The parents are worried about their children, encourage them at school but prefer to discipline their children in their own way and within their extended family structure.

Conclusion and recommendations

From the experiences of Luke and Paul, there are three broad areas of difference between Anglo-Australian culture and South Pacific Islander (Tongan) culture. They are: how the individual relates to the group, the attitude to emotion, and learning style.

There is a stronger group orientation in Islander culture. The students which Paul had and Lukes student both looked for people to be alone as D would have been if the Vietnamese boy was not there. This group orientation also has implications for Islanders learning style. The connection between having a significant, positive relationship with the teacher and the effectiveness of the teaching appears to be very important. Learning also takes place more effectively in an unstructured, less concentrated environment where visual and kinaesthetic learning can also take place. It is also important to have short, meaningful activities and goals.

Islanders also have different cultural expectations about the appropriacy of emotion. Tough students do not have difficulty with crying and close bonds are expected to occur within the group and teachers who become part of the group.

In view of these things we recommend students who are going to teach South Pacific Islanders do the following:

avoid bringing with them preconceptions about South Pacific Islanders and have high expectations of their students performances;

make a determined effort to get to know students and their families personally;

research and ask questions about South Pacific Islander culture;

be flexible with teaching methods, explore what activities seem to work best, and negotiate with students about what activities they found beneficial;

use short-term learning activities which are relevant to the students lives;

look for ways to raise the prestige of Islander language and culture in the school environment, ie songs, dances, first language texts.