Pacific Voices: Perspectives of Barriers, Effective Support and Approaches to Raising Pacific Student Achievement within Secondary Schools across New Zealand

Abstract

The impetus of this study was to provide a platform to voice the perspectives of eleven Pacific individuals who had experienced the process of secondary schooling through National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). It considered their perceptions of barriers, effective support and approaches they perceived to assist toward raising the achievement of Pacific secondary school students in New Zealand.

This qualitative study was underpinned by Grounded Theory as the theoretical framework and a Pacific data collection method - Talanoa was utilised to help inform this study. One-on-one talanoa discussions were implemented as a technique that explored participant perspectives in culturally appropriate manner. Furthermore, a Thematic Analysis was employed to analyse the data.

The eleven Pacific participants were selected on the basis of a Snowball Sampling technique. The main findings of this study have reflected that the majority of identified barriers that hindered Pacific individuals’ throughout NCEA were socio cultural in nature. And their perceptions of potential effective support and approaches were also identified as socio cultural. The overall findings have reinforced the historical and recent barriers that Pacific secondary school students have faced and still face as recognised throughout the literature. Additionally, this thesis provides a deeper insight as to how Pacific secondary school students could be better supported through the process of NCEA.