http://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz ResearchSpace@Auckland Copyright Statement The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: • Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person. • Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author's right to be identified as the author of this thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate. • You will obtain the author's permission before publishing any material from their thesis. To request permissions please use the Feedback form on our webpage. http://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/feedback General copyright and disclaimer In addition to the above conditions, authors give their consent for the digital copy of their work to be used subject to the conditions specified on the Library Thesis Consent Form and Deposit Licence. Cultural leadership: The reciprocities of right relationship at Kia Aroha College Adam Paul Driver A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Education, the University of Auckland, 2015. Abstract The central aim of my research is to explore Māori and Pasifika students’ cultural leadership in the context of Kia Aroha College, a designated character state-school in New Zealand that pursues a culturally-centred and critical pedagogy. The inquiry focuses on the students’ understandings of their school-based, cultural leadership and how this is enacted. My qualitative, emergent research design has an instrumental case study methodology, with Kia Aroha College selected as an exemplar of a culturally responsive school. The culturally responsive inquiry framework I employ helps to explain my choice of methodology, methods and strategies. The kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) focus group interviews, and the guided walks, are of especial significance as culturally appropriate and safe research spaces. I view the case of Kia Aroha College as an integrated system, but one that is linked to wider social structures. Accordingly, I employ Archer’s (1995) morphogenetic/morphostatic methodology. The students’ cultural leadership is named whānau leadership. The seven structural properties of whānau (family) leadership I identify broadly conform to the informal, flexible, relatively non-hierarchical, and shared leadership in the relevant literature. The case study students problematize their authority. I emphasize the cultural specificity of whānau leadership for the Māori and Tongan students respectively. Reciprocal causation between the social structures of the school and beyond, on the one hand, and the students as agents on the other, helps account for how and why student leadership is enacted as whānau leadership. The students’ positive experience of a figurative whānau bond fosters whānau leadership. Student leaders reproduce the structure of whānau leadership via their social practices because whānau leadership is experienced as empowerment. My research findings support those researchers who argue that youth prefer informal, non- hierarchical, spontaneous, and collaborative leadership. Māori and Pasifika youth perspectives on student leadership are aired and examined; a rare moment in the literature. The influence of school context on students is investigated, opening up the student leadership research field. The study explores the problematical nature of student authority, power, and hierarchy for the students—an under-elaborated issue in much of the scant literature on secondary-school student leadership. ii Dedication To my wife Christine for all her support; for my children, and other people’s children. iii Acknowledgements I acknowledge the opportunity and assistance given me by the adults and students of Kia Aroha College to conduct research at their school. In particular, I thank Principal Ann Milne and the other members of the whānau of interest. I also thank the students from Te Whānau o Tupuranga, Cee, Hazel, Tamati, and Wade, and the students from Fonuamalu, C.M. and J.E. Your collective story sits alongside my research, amicable companions I think, and I hope you find it a story well told. I acknowledge too my patient and wise supervisors, Associate Professor Carol Mutch and Dr Graham McPhail, who guided this voice in the wilderness to a place where I might be heard. I also thank Paul Green for proof-reading a draft copy and Jennifer Fraser for proof-reading my references. I also thank the Ministry of Education for my paid leave via a Teacher Study Award, my union the PPTA for their role in making this opportunity open to teachers, and my Board of Trustees for allowing me the time off to complete this work,. iv Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 The research project ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Contextualizing and justifying the project ................................................................................... 2 1.3 The structure of the thesis .............................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 2: Literature review ............................................................................................. 6 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 6 2.1 Student leadership .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Culturally responsive pedagogy ................................................................................................... 12 2.2.1 Defining culturally responsive pedagogy..................................................................................... 12 2.2.2 Contested accounts of educational disparities and solutions ....................................................... 12 Chapter 3: Methodology ..................................................................................................... 16 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 16 3.1 Ontology, broad methodology, theory, and case study .............................................................. 16 3.1.1 From social realism to a morphogenetic/static methodology....................................................... 17 3.1.2 Theory .......................................................................................................................................... 18 3.1.3 Qualitative research design and case study methodology ............................................................ 19 3.2 The ethics of researching in a Māori and Pasifika cultural context ......................................... 21 3.3 Conducting the research ............................................................................................................... 25 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 255 3.3.1 Interviews ..................................................................................................................................... 25 3.3.2 Observations ................................................................................................................................ 27 3.3.3 Public documents ......................................................................................................................... 27 3.3.4 Data analysis ................................................................................................................................ 27 3.4 Trustworthiness and credibility ................................................................................................... 28 3.4.1 Trustworthiness ............................................................................................................................ 28 3.4.2 Credibility .................................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 4: The findings ....................................................................................................... 32 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 32 4.1 Background ................................................................................................................................... 33 4.1.1 Ōtara and a special character school ........................................................................................... 33 A vignette: “Whānau, that’s what it is.” ........................................................................................... 35 4.2 Theme One: Whānau grows leadership ...................................................................................... 39 4.2.1 Whānau, culture and student leaders ............................................................................................ 39 4.2.2 Theme 1—Property One—Diffused leadership: