Peer pressure hindering success of Maori boys

11.45am

Peer pressure is hindering the success of many Maori boys, says education researcher Wharehuia Hemara.

Maori boys who are high achievers are often given a hard time by their peers who, increasingly, pressured them to perform below their capabilities.

However, this was also the case among Pakeha boys, Mr Hemara said.

He said changes needed to be made to ensure more boys were "engaged" in education.

Mr Hemara was one of the guest speakers at the annual national Maori Secondary School Teachers' conference attended by more than 150 in Rotorua this week.

The 52-year-old from Wellington is currently studying for a PhD in Maori education, has worked as a research librarian for the Turnbull Library and, more recently, as a researcher for the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER).

While at NZCER he carried out research on the factors influencing young Maori high achievers. A lot of emphasis had been put on the causes of failure among Maori students, but Mr Hemara said he wanted to look at what factors led to success.

His research project centred on 14 high achieving Maori boys aged eight and nine selected through "national normed tests" from some schools in the lower socio-economic areas of Auckland.

Mr Hemara visited each of the students' homes and interviewed them and their parents.

He looked at how the families conducted themselves to ensure the success of their children.

He found there were strongly held rules and conventions in each of the students' homes and their parents were ordered and disciplined.

"Order seemed to be the common theme," Mr Hemara said.

Parents closely monitored who their children associated with. Each child was given jobs to do around the home.

In 11 of the 14 homes there were two parents and in the other three the single parent, a mother in each case, had a lot of input from members of the extended family.

These boys appeared to be "different" from their peers. They were either popular or felt isolated. They were often the victim of bullying. Most had a high level of tenacity and resilience. They liked reading and mathematics.

Mr Hemara said in the future he wanted to track the progress of these students and having a PhD would assist him to do that, as well as look at other research projects.

As part of his PhD Mr Hemara is studying the development of Maori education from the "pre-Pakeha" days through to contemporary Maori education.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)

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