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Promoting Māori and Pasifika into health, science and technologyA report on the 4 March 2005 Symposium convened by Science and Technology Education Committee of the Royal Society New Zealand and the Maori Health and Disability Workforce Sub-Committee of the Health Workforce Advisory Committee. This report, and any recommendations included, has been prepared by the Royal Society of New Zealand for RSNZ Council consideration only. It does not represent in any way the views or opinion of the Ministry of Health, the Health Workforce Advisory committee or the Maori subcommittee of HWAC. Table of Contents
1. Executive SummaryThis symposium brought together a range of participants to discuss mechanisms to encourage and support Māori and Pasifika people into careers in health, science and technology. Workshop sessions were held to share ideas and discuss the further implementation of effective strategies. The Māori Health and Disability Workforce Sub-committee of the Health Workforce Advisory Committee held the symposium together with the RSNZ Science and Technology Education Committee.The programmes discussed at the symposium are aimed at addressing the educational disparities that exist within Māori and Pacific communities when compared to the rest of the New Zealand population. In particular it is considered vital to encourage and support Māori and Pacific secondary school students into health, science, and technology, as these students will help to shape the future of their communities. The focus of these programmes is to develop a sound background in science, as clearly this is required for a career in health, science, or technology. Therefore, these programmes have been designed to target Māori and Pacific students and their wider communities in order to improve overall levels of education, health, and income. The results of the programmes portrayed have been positive. The programmes that seek to overcome systemic barriers to higher education and target student's attitudes to education have been the most successful. In particular, mentoring and transitioning programmes have improved student performance, increased retention rates, and enlarged the tertiary Māori and Pacific student population. The long-term results of these programmes will encourage more Māori and Pacific professionals working in their communities and should help to alleviate overall community health and well-being disparities that exist within Māori and Pacific communities. Key themes that emerged from the symposium were:
Solutions and recommendations developed during the workshop sessions were:
2. IntroductionHeld on Friday 4th of March 2005, this one-day symposium focused on mechanisms to encourage Māori and Pacific island students into pursuing careers in health, science and technology. The symposium brought together key speakers whose presentations focused on strategies that address the educational disparities among Māori and Pacific Island communities. Presenters highlighted a variety of programmes that have proven successful in helping to develop Māori and Pacific students to pursue a career in health, science and technology. In particular, they highlighted the effectiveness of the mentoring and transitional programmes and consensus was in favour of continued development of these programmes. After the presentations participants discussed and debated alternative approaches within workshop groups. Key themes that emerged from the workshop groups were the need to:
The symposium highlighted the opportunity that exists now within Māori and Pacific communities. The distributions of the populations show that these communities are younger and growing more rapidly than the national average. Motivating this young dynamic population into a range of professional careers is not only important for closing the health and income gaps but also for the aging population of New Zealand society as a whole. Developing upon the success of these programmes today is important because these young people need to be the professionals of tomorrow. The aim of these programmes is to tap into this unique opportunity and help to alleviate the disparities that exist within New Zealand society. Further programme development will create a “critical mass” of Māori and Pacific students, enabling a continuous and sustainable resource of educated and dedicated professionals. Evidence provided in this report shows that these programmes work and are effective in achieving their desired outcomes. 3. BackgroundSecondary school education is critical for developing the potential employment opportunities for all students. Statistics show that Māori are more likely to attend lower decile schools, more likely to leave before completing a qualification, and much less likely to go on to study at the tertiary level (Fact Sheet: Ministry of Education, 2003).
Source: Ministry of Education, 2000
Source: Ministry of Education, 2000 These factors compromise the social and economic development potential of Māori communities. Increasing tertiary educated Māori will improve Māori health by directly catering for Māori health needs, and by increasing community awareness and the knowledge of health related issues. Today more Māori are attending a higher level of tertiary training than ever before. From 1999 to 2003 the number of Māori enrolments in formal tertiary education dramatically increased from 32,825 to 62,574 (Mantell 2005: slide 10). Most of this increase can be attributed to the wānanga sub-sector.
However, less than a quarter of these students were studying at degree or postgraduate level. A large proportion of Māori students opted to study extramurally and may account for the low retention rate relative to the rest of the population (Fact Sheet: Ministry of Education, 2003). In 2003 6% of Māori graduated with a tertiary qualification, whereas 14.6% of Europeans graduated with a tertiary education (www.stats.govt.nz). The aim of these programmes is to address these disparities and develop the potential for a self-sustaining knowledge base within the Māori and Pacific communities. Pacific communities health and well-being levels are similarly among the poorest. Educational disparities are very high; 18% of Pacific five-year-old children are failing the school entry hearing test, compared to 14% of Māori children, and 5% of European children (National Audiology Centre: 2001/02). Around 54% of Pacific secondary school students will leave school with a 6th Form certificate or higher. This is in contrast to 84.7% of Asian students leaving school with 6th Form or higher, 68.5% European, and 40.6% of Maori students (MSD 2003). The low rate of student retention contributes to the low rate of qualified professionals within these communities. Key statistics show that the Māori and Pacific health workforce is under-represented by professionals of their own communities. Around 1% of medical practitioners, 3% nurses and midwives, 0.6% dentists, 0.2% pharmacists are from Pacific communities (Ryan 2005: slide 11). Poor results, such as these, have been a motivating factor for the establishment of these programmes. 4. Discussion of ProgrammesThere are a variety of local programmes that are currently operating to address the educational and health disparities within Māori and Pacific communities. They seek to encourage students into a career in health, science and technology. They use particular strategies to focus on the processes involved in recruiting, transitioning, and/or retaining Māori and Pacific students. Some programs are aimed at raising awareness of the sciences within schools; others seek to build an effective bridge from school to university - helping students make the transition to the tertiary level – while others focus on retaining students, encouraging a higher standard of achievement and commitment to their chosen academic field. The programmes target students through school promotions, work experience, or visits by professionals. In addition, they facilitate the promotion of science through camps, scholarships, open days, and mentoring programmes.A consensus emerged from the symposium that more collaboration was required nationally, to connect to, and develop on, the evidently successful programmes, and to create a comprehensive multi-pronged strategy. The strategy necessitates a multi-pronged approach because there is no “one” solution; students respond positively to different programmes in different ways. The programmes that have proven most effective - the transitional and mentoring programmes - require more time, resources and student involvement. These programmes aim to address the issue systemically by reaching back from the tertiary level to secondary schools to draw students up to the tertiary level, they also seek to foster a positive attitude towards learning, to build confidence and expectations, and help to realign the involvement the family and wider community plays in forming a positive context of the student’s future. The transitional and mentoring programmes seek to bridge the gap between school and university. They provide a new “world view” by offering a tertiary level student who are in some cases professionals, in other programmes they are volunteers, to mentor and encourage students to develop their own aspirations. Mentors provide an important new outlook on life for students. They offer a “significant other” who illustrates a new range of future possibilities and career options. In many cases students lack knowledge of university and the range of alternative career options that are available to them. This is particularly the case for Māori and Pacific students, of whom 40% said they were the first in their family to attend university, while 75% said they were the first to study science in 1999 (Awhina biennial survey). This lack of tertiary level knowledge and experience inhibits the possibility of pursuing a tertiary level career. Low educational expectations and aspirations arising from negative compulsory education experiences can develop in pupils, family and the wider community and create a mind-set that is difficult to overcome. The mentoring and transitional programmes seek to address these key factors and help students to accomplish high academic performance. Critical factors that mentoring programmes help to develop are: higher family expectations, wider community experiences and peer group involvement, and raising the student’s own life experiences and awareness. 5. Individual Programmes5.1 Te Rōpu Āwhina Pūtaiao and Te Rōpu Āwhina Waihanga HoahoaTe Rōpu Āwhina Pūtaiao and Te Rōpu Āwhina Waihanga Hoahoa (known collectively as Āwhina) are the whānau support systems for Māori and Pacific Nations (MPN) students enrolled in science, technology, architecture and design at Victoria University of Wellington. Āwhina is a key component of the Equity focus group of the Faculties of Science and Architecture and Design and a strategic initiative directly connected to their core activities of research, teaching, learning and community service. Āwhina has on-campus and outreach components that together involve whānau and provide a mechanism to enable MPN students to make a smooth and successful transition to university and postgraduate study.Āwhina seeks to intervene actively in the experiences of these groups while at university to improve their academic achievements and retention rates. Therefore, another critical component is monitoring and evaluating the effects of Āwhina activities. Āwhina is now in its sixth year and in that time on campus has established 4 fully resourced whānau rooms and had 317 senior MPN student mentors and 340 staff and community mentors supporting 1998 MPN students. Off campus 60 Āwhina mentors, have assisted over 400 MPN pupils in five local low decile schools to improve their achievements in science and received strong community support. Āwhina successes include:
5.2 Whakapiki AkeThe Whakapiki Ake mentoring programme run by Auckland University is involved with twenty schools. It raises awareness by providing school visits, offers students the chance to gain work experience through work exposure programmes, and creates a bridge leading into MAPAS (Māori and Pacific Island Admissions Scheme), which offers a mechanism of support to students by providing a mentoring programme.MAPAS (Māori and Pacific island Admissions Scheme) has been running since 1972. It is an affirmative action programme designed to increase the number of Māori and Pacific entrants to the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences by providing financial assistance, mentoring support, and cultural development programmes. Students are required to demonstrate a high level of academic potential and an active involvement within Māori and Pacific communities. Initially three places were allocated each year; this was increased to nine by 1979, to 12 in 1990, and to 25 by the year 2003. One-to-one mentoring is provided by GPs of the ProCare Pacific Advisory Committee (ProPA). The mentors help with the demands and challenges students face when studying for a qualification in health and encourage newly qualified doctors to join ProCare in programmes addressing the needs of Pacific communities. ProCare GP’s cater to the health needs of over 70,000 Pacific peoples in Auckland. Currently, there is only one Pacific Island GP within the ProCare group (www.procare.co.nz). The collaboration of MAPAS and the ProCare group aims to address the under-representation of Maori and Pacific Island GPs with the intention of providing more professional health support existing within these communities. 5.3 He Ara TikaHe Ara Tika is a secondary school mentoring programme designed for Māori and Pacific secondary students. The programme aims to encourage further achievement in education in partnership with the school, Whanau, Hapu & Iwi. The government has allocated $5.6 million for this initiative, which will involve more than 1,000 Māori school students. Mentors are volunteers who are provided free training through an accredited UNITEC course. The aim is to improve the confidence and educational expectations of young Māori, through one-on-one relationships with trained mentors from the Māori community. Students are chosen by school referrals, self-referrals within schools, and Whanau referrals. The He Ara Tika mentor does not seek to encourage academic development solely towards science, but seeks to foster a willingness to learn. In this respect the focus of the programme is based upon developing a students potential in areas the student wishes to pursue and encourages students to take their ambitions to the tertiary level. 5.4 Te Ara Putaiao (TAP)Te Ara Putaiao (TAP) serves to encourage science achievement in number of levels from programmes and mentoring at schools, to university scholarships, summer-ships, career promotions and support programmes. The Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) have a range of individual initiatives that serve to foster students into science, while TAP provides an overall co-ordination and information exchange hub for each CRI initiative. TAP is also beginning to create more and wider opportunities for collaboration and joint programmes across CRIs, TEIs, and Government Agencies. The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences runs a joint education programme with high school students focused on teaching science outside the classroom and on real applications/situations. Students not only get to conduct science out in the field, they also work with real scientists and work on issues entirely relevant to their own local communities. Such an approach serves three purposes: (1) promotes science as a relevant and important means to contribute to the well-being of community, (2) contextualises science as being more than just something undertaken through textbooks and indoors in laboratories, and (3) builds and affinity with real scientists and thus promotes science as a real career option. Other CRIs such as AgResearch and NIWA operate programmes with similar aims 5.5 Hands-on science campThe University of Otago runs a one-week science camp each year for Year 11-13 students to encourage them to consider a career in science. Last year eleven scholarships were given to North Island schools and three AgResearch-sponsored scholarships were given to students from Otago. A total of 18 Māori students attended last year’s camp. Of the Year 13 students who attended in 2003, 48% enrolled as first year students in 2004 (Broughton 2005: slide 18). This camp offers students the chance to experience university life. It broadens their horizons and helps to develop an understanding of the relevance of science and the purpose and benefits of academic study. For some students this camp is their first experience of learning within a like-minded peer-group. Although the camp does not attract all students back the following year it does provide students with an important insight into alternative future careers and provide motivation for students to continue on to the tertiary level whether they choose a career in science or not. 5.6 Tuakana (elder sibling) programmeThe School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland has developed the Tuakana programme that targets the needs of Māori and Pacific islands students by offering a well-established mentoring and peer-tutoring programme. Previously the pass rates for Māori and Pacific students were significantly lower than (about half) the overall pass rates, and student retention was a considerable problem. Tuakana has helped students to become established in their university studies and built their confidence. This intervention has rapidly increased Māori and Pacific pass rates and their participation in the School of Biological Sciences. Tuakana began in 1991 by offering lunchtime tutorial and mentoring sessions to first year biology students. The programme had the immediate effect of substantially increasing the retention and pass rates of Māori and Pacific students studying first year science papers. Over the last fourteen years, the programme has expanded to include secondary schools and graduate students, in an effort to generate a continuous flow of successful Māori and Pacific students up to the post-graduate level in the sciences. In addition, overall representation of Māori students undergraduate papers doubled two years after completion of the first year of the programme.
Source: Walker, Auckland University (SBS) 2005 .
Source: Walker, Auckland University (SBS) 2005
The Tuakana approach also improves retention of Māori and Pasifika students to graduation and post-graduate study in biology The Tuakana programme expanded on its evident success and mentoring programmes have been established at two Auckland secondary schools and one primary school. Professional mentors are selected to work with and encourage secondary school students who are able to offer an important new outlook on life, attitudes to education, and can help to bridge the gap between school and university. Thus the number of students participating in the field of biology has increased, despite limited growth of students enrolling to study at university in all subjects. In addition, of the two secondary schools involved with Tuakana, there has been a significant increase in the number of students enrolling to study at university in all subjects.
Source: Walker, Auckland University (SBS) 2005
Source: Walker, Auckland University (SBS) 2005 5.7 Whitireia Community PolytechnicWhitireia Community Polytechnic has created the Bachelor of Nursing (Pacific) designed to meet the health needs of the Pacific community. The course began in 2004 with 26 students, at present 24 have graduated. The curriculum is designed to link the mainstream health institutions with the Pacific community to provide skilled health workers with Pacific community cultural capabilities. Graduates are able to work as registered nurses in general hospitals as well as a variety of community organisations. The programme involves three years of full-time study and includes a large clinical component. The purpose of the school is to supply culturally suitable health educative curricula that support capacity and capability initiatives that within the health sector. 5.8 FutureintechFutureintech promotes the development of employees with a high skills base. It provides long-term support that engages students, industry, teachers and caregivers. The project began in October 2003 and will end in June 2007. A mentoring pilot programme is currently in the process of being established. Mentors will be young technologists, engineers or scientists. Futureintech has also developed an initiative that provides young engineers, technologists and scientists as ambassadors to schools. These ambassadors are passionate about their careers and volunteer their time, helping to encourage secondary school students into a science-based career. They help to provide an important link between secondary school and tertiary education. ConclusionsThis symposium has provided initial discussion on the range of approaches that are being used to encourage Māori and Pacific students into health, science and technology. More collaboration is evidently required to develop an effective multi-pronged national strategy. Transitional and mentoring programmes have proven to be very effective in retaining and fostering students up to the tertiary level. It is recommended these programmes be expanded to address the health and educational disparities that exist within Māori and Pacific communities when compared to the rest of the New Zealand population. In particular, the aim is to foster and develop more Māori and Pacific health and science professionals who will shape the future of their communities. The focus of these programmes is to help develop a sound background in the sciences at the secondary school level. Improving student retention and increasing the number of graduates is an important step forward in helping to improve levels of health and education in these communities. Therefore, expanding and building mentoring programmes is essential for the continued development of health and science professionals within these communities. Developing more transitional programmes such as the Otago summer camp, offering scholarships with an obligatory mentoring requirement in order to provide a link back to secondary schools, and to have more involvement at schools are the main priorities that need to be addressed. The evidence is clear that these programmes work. They provide important motivation and encouragement for Māori and Pacific students wishing to pursue a career in health, science, and technology. These communities are younger and growing more rapidly than the national average. Therefore, it is important to capitalise upon this opportunity and use the success that these programmes have generated in order to create an ongoing continuous pool of Māori and Pacific professionals. Not only will this help to alleviate the educational, health and well-being disparities within these communities, the expansion of these programmes will help to generate more professionals able to help the aging New Zealand population. RecommendationsThese programmes have been effective in encouraging more Māori and Pacific students into tertiary level careers in health, science and technology. The importance of these programmes upon the lives of the students involved and the potential they have for improving overall community health is difficult to clearly quantify, but the evidence is clear that they work.The most effective programmes have been the mentoring and transitioning programmes. These programmes seek to overcome systemic barriers to higher education and target student’s attitudes towards education and perceived opportunities. These programmes have improved retention rates, academic results have risen and the Māori and Pacific student population at the tertiary level has increased. Looking long-term, the results of these programmes will encourage more Māori and Pacific professionals to work in their communities and should help to alleviate overall community health and well-being. The key recommendations of this report are:
There is also the need for greater collaboration across the education sector to continually improve upon the successes generated by these programmes. BibliographyBroughton, John. March 4th 2005 Symposium Presentation: Ma mahi ka ora: Maori and Health Science at the University of Otago. Slide 18Mantell, Colin. March 4th 2005 Symposium Presentation: Science and the Māori Health and Disability Workforce. Slide 10 (www.stats.govt.nz) Ministry of Education (2003) Retention, Completion and Progression in Tertiary Education 2003, Tertiary Sector Performance Analysis and Reporting, Ministry of Education, Wellington Richardson, Liz. March 4th 2005 Symposium Presentation: Support for Maori & Pacific students at Victoria University of Wellington. Notes page: 3 (Awhina biennial survey) Ryan, Debbie. March 4th 2005 Symposium Presentation: Royal Society & HWAC Workforce Symposium. Slide 6 (National Audiology Centre: 2001/02) Ryan, Debbie. March 4th 2005 Symposium Presentation: Royal Society & HWAC Workforce Symposium. Slide 8 (Ministry of Social Development 2003) Ryan, Debbie. March 4th 2005 Symposium Presentation: Royal Society & HWAC Workforce Symposium. Slide 11 (MCNZ 2002, NCNZ 2003, APC 2003, Reg 00 & Survey 1995) Walker, Michael. March 4th 2005 Symposium Presentation: Te Kākano Rangatira: Māori and Pasifika participation in the science-based society. School of Biological Sciences, Auckland University (Slides 6, 8,10,11) |
