Researcher and advocate Anton Blank (Ngāti Porou-Ngāti Kahungunu) this week launches new resources for teachers, to address racism in the classroom.The Oranui (www.oranui.co.nz) resources for teachers include a 20 minute video module, and a short book REWIRE: understanding racism and how to undo it.
“The resources help teachers explore their own implicit biases towards Māori and Pasifika students,” Anton Blank says.
Implicit biases influence human behaviour. They are aversions and preferences that sit below the level of our conscious awareness. Implicit biases are informed by stereotypes and can run counter to our explicit beliefs and values.
“Everyone is influenced by stereotypes that circulate in the social world. We can manage the influence of these stereotypes on our thinking and behaviour by being mindful. This is the focus of the new resources, which explain the dynamics of racism and how to undo it.”
Anton Blank argues that all stereotypes are harmful, because they promulgate generalisations about social groups that aren’t necessarily true.
“Around the world, people of colour are more likely to be negatively stereotyped when it comes to issues like intelligence, work ethic and violence.”
Recent data shows that more than 70 percent of Māori and Pasifika are failing NCEA numeracy standards, which equates to every third student in secondary schools overall.[1]
“I find these numbers absolutely terrifying. Forty-one percent of New Zealand’s under 18-year-olds are now Māori and Pasifika. These populations are youthful — bottom-heavy compared to the ageing Pākehā cohort — so they will continue to grow and fill our schools.
“The most important influence within this data is, I believe, the quality of teacher engagement. Decades of research shows that of all groups of students, teachers have lowest expectations of Māori and Pasifika.”
The Pygmalion Effect describes how teachers’ expectations determine, to a large part, students’ educational outcomes.[2] If Māori children are to achieve, teachers must lift their expectations of students and treat all students as having the same potential for achievement.
Research from the US also shows that the quality of teacher engagement is very important in underprivileged areas, and upgrading teachers’ skills has the most effect on achievement in those schools. In Aotearoa, 40% of Māori students live in the two most deprived deciles in the country.[3]
The Oranui resources for teachers include a 20 minute video module, and a short book REWIRE: understanding racism and how to undo it.
“The resources encourage teachers to explore their own attitudes towards Māori and Pasifika students. Teachers tend to expect these students to disengage from the learning. As a result, teachers make less effort with them.
“These students internalise these beliefs and by secondary school, they group themselves together at the back of the classroom, where they attract less attention from teachers than Pākehā and Asian students.
“Māori students do succeed in Māori educational settings, however, where they feel seen in the classroom, and their potential is nurtured by their teachers.
“For almost ten years, I have worked with teachers across the motu. All of them say they want to see Māori students succeed.
“It is not correct to say that they are deliberately excluding Māori and Pasifika students from learning in the classroom. Rather, teachers are working under pressure, which is when their behaviour is triggered by the automatic and implicit biases described here.”