Encouraging effective use of the school library by Pasifika students SLANZA Conference 2011 Rob Finlay & Gail Cochrane Talofa lava Malo e lelei Kia orana Fakaalofa lahi atu Ni sa bula Malo ni Namaste Kia ora Welcome
Encouraging effective use of the school library
by Pasifika students
SLANZA Conference 2011Rob Finlay & Gail Cochrane
Talofa lava
Malo e lelei
Kia orana
Fakaalofa lahi atu
Ni sa
bula
Malo niNamaste
Kia ora
Welcom
e
In groups…What do these look like?
• A. A library effectively-
used by Pasifika students
• B. A library not effectively-
used by Pasifika students
Think of:
•Activities- what is not happening?
•- what is happening?
•Attitudes to:
•Being in the library/ library staff
•Resources
•Reading and learning
Reflection on our discussion
• What makes a difference, in your experience or
observation?
• In what ways do Pasifika students respond like or
unlike others?
• Why?
• Do Pasifika students require a different approach
from other students?
• If so what needs to be different?
A library effectively used by Pasifika students is one that is…
Pasifika advice, inspiration and support
• Schools services website
• Online community on Schools website
Please join
• Adviser Pasifika: [email protected] :
(09) 365 8814
• Local networking where there are several
schools with high Pasifika rolls- common interest
• Your local Pasifika staff, parents, churches,
community and public library (Pasifika librarians)
Outline
• Knowing your students
• Knowing the education goals and issues for Pasifika
students
• Print and digital resources
• Strategies that will engage Pasifika students and their
families with the library, and with literacy and learning
• The Library environment
1. Knowing your students
• Know your students as individuals
• Meet members of their families and communities
• Involve Pasifika staff
• Learn about the cultures, language and histories:– Tagata Pasifika
– Cultural events
– Literature
– Magazines
Heritage strands
“Oceania”
A sea of islands
Samoa Tokelau Cook Is Tonga Niue Fiji Tuvalu Other
Colonial experience
Colonising powers- variable/ Missionaries/ Traders/ Languages/ Settlers/ Travel/
Migration
Island born -- NZ born
2/3/4 generations/ intermarriage
New Zealand social, economic, educational experience
Melanesia
Micronesia
Polynesia Britain
France
Germany
USA
European
Chinese
Indian
afakasi
Traders Beachcombers Labourers
Missionaries Settlers Sailors
Administrators Soldiers Slavers
Lapita High islands
Atolls vaka/va’a
Kanaks
Islanders
PI
Influenza “Black Saturday” Dawn raids
Pacific War Polynesian Panthers
Treaty of Friendship Remittences
Sione’s Wedding Fresh off the boat
Churches, gangs and role models
palagi
Tagata
Maori
vanua
moana
Moby Dick
Tusitala- RLS
Noble savage
Sons for the return home
Tupaea
Vikings of the sunrise
Girl in the moon circle
Niu Sila
Australia
Varying strengths of cultural identity
Fluent language and “island” culture
(Island born, strong church/ family identity)
Pasifika culture
Identity and identification as Pasifika
Assimilation
(New Zealand born, Mixed-parentage, Isolation)
2. Knowing the education goals and issues for Pasifika students
“Pasifika children often underachieve in literacy and exhibit disengagement and alienation at school. National and international reports on literacy performance continue to reveal low levels of achievement in reading among Pasifika students, to the extent that raising the levels of achievement in this area has become a focus for targeted funding in MOE initiatives.”
(Motivating Pasifika students in literacy learning)
• What approaches can we take to this issue?
• What is ‘Deficit thinking’?
Compass for Pasifika success and the Pasifika Education Plan
Compulsory sector goals
• Ensure improved progress in literacy and numeracy
• Increasing responsiveness to Pasifika learners and
families
• Increase effective engagement between Pasifika parents,
families and teachers and schools focussed on learning
• Where do school libraries contribute to these goals?
• How do school libraries contribute?
How much attention is given to Pasifika students at your school?
Consider
• Number/ proportion of Pasifika students
• Number/ proportion of Pasifika staff
• Access from Pasifika families and other adults
• Policy
• Special occasions
• Library
3. Print and digital resources
For students
• In Pacific languages
• About Pacific heritage in the Islands
• About the Pasifika experience in New Zealand
• Other resources that Pasifika students will identify with
• For Pasifika- resources that appeal
• Engaging with the world
Two further questions
• How can we bring Pacific Islands/ Pasifika worlds and
works into the classroom?
– for Pasifika students
– for non-Pasifika students
• How can we bring mainstream worlds and works to our
Pasifika learners in a relevant and meaningful way?
PNP
About Pacific heritage:a question of approach
Siteine and Samu: three perspectives used in Social Science units
• Oceanic - holistic, “draws attention to ancient Pacific people’s ways of seeing their world and to their actions in the present”
• Small island - looks at individual “island states in terms of the geographic and economic features of the island state”
• Tourist - has the effect of putting students with Pacific backgrounds “on show”, and “can serve to perpetuate the stereotypes, misrepresent cultural realities, and undermine a sense of belonging and identity.”
How people are represented is important
Patricia Grace (Pihama p 239):
• “If books do not… reinforce values, actions, customs, culture and identity, then they are dangerous… If there are not books that tell us about ourselves but only tell us about others, then they are saying ‘you do not exist’ and that is dangerous… However, if there are books that are about you and they are untrue, that is very dangerous… If there are books about you but they are negative and insensitive so that they are saying ‘you are not good’, that is dangerous.”
Print resources
Discuss:
• The challenge: What are the issues?
• The providers: Where do you go for resources?
• The resources: What do you look for in resources for
Pasifika students?
• The alternatives: Where do you go when there aren’t print
resources?
Pasifika languages
• Which languages? and why?
• Samoan Tongan Cook Is Maori Niuean Tokelauan
Hindi Fijian Tuvaluan Kiribati Tok Pisin
• Bilingual
• Resources available
• Collect and preserve Tupu and Folauga material (MOE)
• Sources: – Ethnic Word: www.ethnicword.co.nz
– The Book Hut: http://www.thebookhut.co.nz/
– Wheelers: http://www.wheelers.co.nz/spb/category/
– Native Council: http://www.nativecouncil.co.nz/
Easy language materials
for junior students- single language
Bilingual resources
• Support literacy in both languages
• Bilingual approach helps students with basic literacy
• Bilingual resources, eg Bibles in Samoan/English, etc
• Bilingual pages
• Parallel translations in separate books, eg Tupu
SamoanNiuean
Easy language materials
for junior students- bilingual
Series in English
and either Tongan,
Samoan or Maori /
Kahukura, Ahurewa
New, from
Native Council
for PEC
Also Tongan,
more to
come
Reference
For children, by Betty
Dunford, Bess Press,
$204.30 Wheelers price
These are available, but
many Pacific language
dictionaries are out of print or in
limited supply
Digitisation may be a solution, eg Maori: http://www.lexilogos.com/english/maori_dictionary.htm
Myths and legends – bilingual/ English
Tongan-English
myths seriesSamoan-English
TKI: Pasifika - Digital Legends
English
Tagata tangata series:
Oceanic perspectives
Pearson/
Longman/
Secondary
Note: these are textbooks, but we need the
useful information. Useful case studies
Pasifika: Study of Island
Communities in the Southwest Pacific
Small island perspectives
Not currently
available
Souvenirs of
the South
Pacific- out of
stock and out
of print
Tourist perspectives:
Travel brochures
Travel guides
History
South Pacific History in Suite 101
Exploring the Pacific
Pacific Voyaging Society
http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/
Vaka moana exhibitions
http://
www.aucklandmuseum.com/
vakamoana/default.asp
Pacific vaka voyage: request a
Google Alert for this current
voyage. See also:
http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/
2011/04/20112012-pacific-vaka-
voyage/
Tue 26/04/2011
out of print
Science
Tuvalu, rising sea levels
About Pasifika experience in New Zealand
The sad story of
an island-born
boy, Fa’amoana
John Luafutu- from
Macmillan Brown
Short stories and collections
Not currently available
Picture books
TonganSamoan
Bilingual
Also by Catherine
Hannken:
Selafina , Fiapule
Sole! books
by Fata and
Paula
Letoa- OP
Picture booksInternational Children's
Digital Library
New Zealand Picture
Book Collection;
Living Heritage
Pacific writing - general
Pasifika poetry
• Selina Tusitala Marsh and Pasifika poetry
http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/pasifika/index.asp
• Voices of the Pacific: a poetry resource, Diana O’Meara-
includes Pasifika poets and writing about Pacific themes
• -South Auckland Poets Collective
Pasifika drama
• Sensitive use required
• http://www.blackfriarscompany.blogspot.com/
Pasifika fiction – primary and intermediate
Very little
Joy Cowley
Eve Sutton
Pasifika fiction – secondary/ adult level
Usually written for adults, may appeal to serious seniors
Pasifika fiction – by non-Pasifika writers
Art and Music
Cooking and food
Me’a Kai won New Zealand Best Book of the Year in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, Dec 2010, and Gourmand World Cookbook Awards June 2011
Using other resources that reflect analogous experience
Discussion:
From your observation, what resources appeal to Pasifika students?
What are the features in these resources that appeal?
What strategies have you used successfully to draw Pasifika students to ‘mainstream worlds and works’?
Elements that are likely to appeal
Humour
Sport
Health
Injustice, oppression, succeeding
against the odds
Biographies: famous men and
women
Heroes
Poetry
Horror
War books
Adventure books
Graphic novels but response- varies between schools
Shakespeare
Bible stories
Maori myths and legends
Magazines
Romances
Usually no difference from anyone else
Needs to be cool
‘High interest, not just because it has Pasifika language or setting’
Digital resources- a survey
NZETC- N Z Electronic Text Centrehttp://www.nzetc.org/
• Contemporary Maori and Pacific Islands
• Historic Maori and Pacific Islands
Visual resources
• Matapihi: http://www.matapihi.org.nz/
• Timeframes:
http://find.natlib.govt.nz/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=TF&fromLogin=true
• PictureAustralia: http://www.pictureaustralia.org/
• Material culture: Virtual Museum of the Pacific: http://
epoc.cs.uow.edu.au/vmp/#
General search
• Digital New Zealand: http://www.digitalnz.org/ .
Pacific Island cultures
• Siapo.com: http://www.siapo.com
• Living Heritage: http://www.livingheritage.org.nz/
• National Library Website high interest topics: http://
schools.natlib.govt.nz/high-interest-topics
History
• NZ History online: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz
• PapersPast:
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast
• Suite101.com online magazine– http://www.suite101.com/oceanic-history- historic and recent
– http://www.suite101.com/polynesian-indigenous-people
• Topics from Oceania: units for junior secondary history
http://www.aaaps.edu.au/?q+node/135
Resources for parents
• To attract them to the Library
– Pasifika newspapers, magazines and news websites
– Taro Pages website (Auckland)
• To (also) help them with parenting
– SKIP (Strategies for Kids/ Information for Parents), Ministry of Social Development (Samoan, Tongan and Hindi)
– Feed the mind resources in five Pacific languages and English
– Borrowing rights for pre-school siblings
4. Strategies that will engage Pasifika students and their families with the Library, with literacy and learning
Principles for Pasifika student learning
• Common cultural and identity characteristics
• Each individual/ family/ community is different
• Schools are different– Multicultural schools
– Mainly Pasifika schools
– Smaller Pasifika numbers
• Providing for diversity
• Providing for Pasifika “as Pasifika”
• Providing for excellence
Providing for diversity
• Most Pasifika students are in multicultural schools
• Preferred learning style varies– communal and cooperative
– individual
• Know your students
Providing “for Pasifika as Pasifika”
• Colouring in the white spaces, Ann Milne, APPA, 2009– “white spaces” = schools sharing in the “background set of rules”, the
risk of hegemony
• Ka Hikitia
• Research indicates that Pasifika students do better when taught under Te Kotahitanga principles
• "Pasifika students at (Te Kotahitanga) schools had a 15.4 increase (in NCEA) over the same period compared to a 6.1 general increase for Pasifika"
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., Fung, I., & Auckland, U. o. (2007 ) p.261
• Kotahitanga- an overview
Providing for excellence- Teachers (and librarians) can improve outcomes
for Pasifika learners when they:• Know the learner
• Use home language(s), knowledge and experiences of
Pasifika students… in the classroom
• Ensure that students’ prior knowledge and experiences
are activated and used to build a bridge between what
they already know and new knowledge
• Provide a range of culturally relevant texts, topics,
contexts and perspectives
Draft Pasifika principles-
Team Solutions Talanoa Akoako, 2008
Teachers and librarians can improve outcomes for Pasifika learners when they: (2)
• Provide deliberate and explicit, transparent instruction
about language as well as learning content
• Provide high challenge with appropriate level of support
• Provide multiple learning opportunities with a focus on
learners using academic language
• Make productive links with family and community
Draft Pasifika principles-
Team Solutions Talanoa Akoako, 2008
Strategies for Literacy
• Home-school partnerships
• Reading to
• Reading choice – Free and Voluntary Reading- and responses
• Seeing adults and seniors read
• Encouraging reading at school
• Peer reading
• Books at home
• Letting students borrow books- scaffolding borrowing process
• Reading together- Jeanne Biddulph
• Summer reading
4. The Library environment
• Social
• Opportunity for involvement
• Culture and language
• Involvement with the wider community
• Aesthetic and accoustic
• Limits
Social
• Library as fono- meeting place
• A place becomes home when you can relax there
• Homework centre
• Special occasions for Pasifika hosted in the Library
• Parent involvement
• How do you create an atmosphere that draws Pasifika
students?
Opportunity for involvement
• As Student Librarians
• Responsibility for Pasifika collection, displays
• Pasifika teacher involvement with the Library team,
student librarians
• Targeted activities
Culture and language
• Knowing the students and their cultures
• Resources in Pasifika languages, about Pasifika themes
• Appropriate use of language in labelling
• Sensitivity, eg pronunciation
• Visibility
Involvement with the wider community
• Pasifika teachers
• Pasifika public librarians
• Links with Pasifika community leaders
• Pasifika parents
• Pasifika events advertised (see Pasifika Online
Community)
Aesthetic and acoustic• Appearance- what does a Pasifika home look like?
• Architectural features
• Layout and design
• Art and displays
• Labelling
• Sound- voices and musicRobertson Rd
Mangere
Koru
Mangere
Viscount, Mangere
Limits
• Being at home includes a sense of appropriateness-
boundaries
• Being responsible as well as comfortable
In your small groups
• What steps could you take to encourage Pasifika students
to respond positively to the school library? (attitudes)
• What other people/groups within/outside the school could
you draw on to help make a difference?
• What learning activities would you facilitate both in and
beyond the school library that will enhance Pasifika
student literacy and learning?
• Draw up one priority action for each of Term 3 and 4, and
another 2 for 2012
Tofa soifua
Nofo aAere ra
Ni sa moce
Olo la ni ‘Bye
Koe kia
Haere Ra
National Administration Guidelines (NAGs)
NAG1(c) on the basis of good quality assessment information, identify students and groups of students:
• who are not achieving;
• who are at risk of not achieving;
• who have special needs (including gifted and talented students); and
• aspects of the curriculum which require particular attention;
NAG2A (c) report in the board’s annual report on:
• the numbers and proportions of students at, above, below or well below the standards, including by Māori, Pasifika and by gender (where this does not breach an individual’s privacy); and
• how students are progressing against the standards as well as how they are achieving.
The National Education Goals (NEGs)
NEG 1
• The highest standards of achievement, through programmes which enable all students to realise their full potential as individuals, and to develop the values needed to become full members of New Zealand's society.
NEG 2
• Equality of educational opportunity for all New Zealanders, by identifying and removing barriers to achievement.
NEG 10
• Respect for the diverse ethnic and cultural heritage of New Zealand people, with acknowledgment of the unique place of Māori, and New Zealand's role in the Pacific and as a member of the international community of nations.
3. Strategies to encourage engagement with resources
• Literacy
• Information literacy
• Discussion
21st century literacies and learning
• Inquiry approach- questions
• The advantages of an inquiry approach
• Topics and themes
4. Interactive session:
• An example- Sorry Samoa (Level 1 NCEA/ Level 5)
• Working for your school
• Locate resources for a unit you/ your school have planned
Sorry SamoaThe background to Helen Clark’s apology,
June 2002
Using Digital Resources to put Pacific Islands Culture and Heritage into the curriculum
Interactive session
• Take a unit of work envisaged for your school:Suggestions:
– Picture books/ Poetry/
– Myths and legends
– A Social Studies theme in the Pacific Islands or immigration
– A historical event, eg Nuclear testing, War in the Pacific
• Locate resources- print and digital- to support the unit
• Explore- think about access issues on school computers
and how they could be used to develop interest.
Information for educators
• Team Solutions Pasifika advisers:
http://www.education.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/home/about/pasifika-at-the-faculty/pasifika-staff
Providing for excellenceQuality teaching and school structures are vital: a good
teacher (or librarian) is a good teacher (or librarian) for Pasifika students as long as there is:
• Empathy, understanding, good relationships and involvement
• Understanding of the cultures
• High expectations and firm boundaries
• Positive reinforcement and support
• Appropriate learning environments conducive to learning
• Encouragement and support for students to understand learning processes and use effective learning tools in order to become independent learners
NZETC- N Z Electronic Text Centrehttp://www.nzetc.org/
• Arts and Crafts of the Cook Islands
• Collected songs and legends from the southern Cook Islands
• Old Samoa by John B. Stair
• The Material Culture of the Cook Islands (Aitutaki) by Te Rangi Hiroa
• The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of Custom by Basil Thomson
• Polynesian Researches by Ellis, William
• An Introduction to Polynesian Anthropology by Te Rangi Hiroa
• Vikings of the Sunrise by Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Henry Buck)
• An Account of Samoan History up to 1918 by Te'o Tuvale
Engagement with Publisher and Supplier
• Mary Hooker, South Pacific Books, now part of Wheelers
Books
• Evotia Tamua, Little Island Press, at Wheelers Books
• Rachael Crowhen, The Book Hut
• Our questions
• Answers
• Discussion
• Follow up
Pasifika Students’ Resource Needs, Interests and Attitudes
• Focus- on Pasifika students’ learning
• Are their learning needs different from those of others? If
so, what are they?
• Do they have interests and attitudes that are unique and
distinct? If so, what are they?
• What principles do we need to take into account when we
provide for their learning– and other- needs?