Georgina Tuari Stewart, Professor of Māori Philosophy of Education in Te Ara Poutama at the Auckland University of Technology, has brought a breath of fresh air to discussion about the lack of Māori in science.
She points to socio-economic inequality as an underlying factor and as someone who has spent several decades in and out of science education I agree wholeheartedly. It’s worth reading her opinion piece in full.
OPINION: That there are so few Māori scientists has been blamed on racism but there is also another reason: socio-economic inequality.
The tiny percentage of working scientists who identify as Māori has been concerning various stakeholders for many years. Recent media and academic reports have highlighted the ongoing under-representation of Māori in the science workforce.
Given that little has changed, despite decades of equity and diversity policies, the debate has become increasingly hostile, with recent commentary laying the blame squarely on racist attitudes held by scientists.
But in a recent academic paper I link socio-economic inequities, whereby Māori families have always been concentrated in the lowest income bands, and the permanent lack of Māori scientists across universities and research institutes. Science education is the key connector between these two social phenomena.
School science education is fundamental to the development of future scientists. Primary school science and secondary school science though are quite different and distinct.
Primary science is often neglected in the classroom in favour of literacy and numeracy.
Secondary science is further divided into junior and senior. The needs of the small minority of students who intend to study science post-school dictate the nature of senior secondary science, at the expense of the majority of students, who drop science as soon as they can, citing boring content and too much writing as the dominant reasons. Almost all Māori students part ways with science education at this point.
School success has been reliably shown to be directly proportional to family income, and Māori families are concentrated in the lowest income brackets. Māori educational inequity, therefore, is largely explained by ethnic wealth disparities.
Science is the worst-case scenario within the overall Māori educational disparity. Science has stricter academic demands than any other subject: it requires high levels of literacy and numeracy, and willingness to rote-learn new vocabulary and study large amounts of written material, on topics selected by the teacher.
Students who succeed in senior secondary science subjects must be resilient to cope with these demands. They need good study habits, and the support of a well-organised home that provides for their needs, including a quiet space to study undisturbed.
These everyday details translate to the social fact that success at school, and in school science education in particular, is directly proportional to family income.
Over the years, many initiatives designed to overcome the lack of Māori in science have been undertaken. Attempts to increase Māori representation in science have invariably been sincere and well-intentioned but have been limited by being very small and localised, depending on a particular teacher or expecting short-term measurable results.
Many have had a “missionary” flavour, propounding ideas such as Māori students “need to realise how important” science is. Others have focused on a “fun and excitement” approach to science, or on the need to build peer support networks.
“Ethnic wealth inequity explains the lack of Māori in science,” writes Georgina Tuari Stewart.
Cultural dimensions have been included to overcome the monoculturalism of traditional science education, such as holding science camps at marae. But such ideas ignore the real, grinding, lifelong problems that cause the attrition of Māori students from school, and, even for those who remain in school, from studying science at school.
Ethnic wealth inequity explains the lack of Māori in science because to enrol in a science degree, a person needs university entrance qualifications in science subjects. But there are very few Māori students in senior science classes, anywhere in the country.
The lack of Māori studying science at university, therefore, is explained by the ethnic inequity, whereby Māori children and their families are concentrated in the lowest wealth and income brackets.
And the result is the scarcity of Māori scientists.
These days it’s become commonplace to blame racism for the negative statistics for Māori across all aspects of life and while it most definitely is a factor, the critical factor being over-looked is that Māori are disproportionately in low-income, struggling communities.
There are very few scientists, or “professionals” of any kind, from working class communities. And just as they are under-represented in our universities, the working class are over-represented in poor housing, poor health, high crime, bad mental health statistics etc
Our media generally use “Māori and Pasifika” as shorthand for poverty and negative statistics when we should be talking about working class communities of all ethnicities.
The question “Why are Māori under-represented in science?” can only be answered alongside the question “Why are Māori over-represented in struggling working-class communities?”
This second question is where the impact on Māori of colonisation resonates in the present time – as it does for first nations people across the world.
Does it matter that of working scientists identify as Māori? As long as they identify as New Zealanders! Does everything, absolutely everything, now have to have a racial spin FFS!
Maybe it’s Māori students growing up surrounded by the Te Ao worldview might find it harder to accept science’s core propositions, like needing evidence and the rigorous testing of assumptions and theories.
so is your post informed by scientific fact, or is it uninformed opinion?
I agree with Georgina.
But you are also right in that once you view everything through coloured lenses everything that you see is coloured. Those of us who accept this worldview will respond to the challenges of life in accordance with this world view and influence those around us.
Unbiased observation demonstrates that individual effort defines us. Sowell shows that outcomes of individual effort does not support the philosophies developed based on Critical Theory.
South Africa is a generous case study. Tertiary educated engineering careers were the domain of the english speaking population until well after the break away from the “Queen’s oppression” in 1960 and became dominated by Afrikaans speaking population from the mid 1970’s.
The Afrikaners became progressively emancipated from socio-economic “oppression” once the Afrikaner dominated political party took government in 1949.
The same observation can be made of South Africans since the “socio-economic” transformation in SA following the release of Nelson Mandela from incarceration in 1990.
Is that like Pakeha students surrounded by Christianity or Asian by Muslim worldviews? What about the majority of us being surrounded by Trumpian “fake news” and “alternative facts” – why would one need scientific evidence when one has the voice of an authoritarian bully like Trump or religious dogma to rely on for guiding how we respond
I did consider adding a parallel with a deeply religious Christian who believes in Creationism having difficulty with biology and geology.
My or your truth….?
Ada. As Popper put it,” True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it “, but Minto may be saying that the dearth of Maori scientists both is and is not an issue of ethnicity.
The article is about a difference in relative performance – proportionally fewer Māori succeed in science.
My point is that difference may not be entirely due to socio-economic differences between the groups, and that cultural worldviews also may play a part in the difference.
How dare you skewer progressive “logic” like that, Ada!
John – Nope…Science is pretty boring to many Maori students…also a career in Science means living contract to contract, or working within Universities – both not great options for many Maori
Yes I saw that article by Stewart, and nearly fell off my chair – a Maaori activist with something sensible to say!
Tara McAllister’s recent beat-up of university STEM departments and CRI’s for hiring few Maaori has been obsequiously and uncritically reported in many national media outlets. Nobody ventured to ask how many suitability qualified Maaori applicants there were – that might have spoiled her “racism” story.
It would be interesting to see how many NZ scientists grew up in white working-class households. No guess is, not many.
Exactly! A major takedown of McAllister’s work showed that her work “fails to meet acceptable benchmarks of research quality ” as the ‘racist’ disparity was only because there aren’t enough PhD level Maori entering science, a fact she conveniently omits in her work:
https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2023/03/dr-david-lillis-allegations-of-racism.html
Shock horror, I hear that McAllister has now joined some other academic grifters in a new collective to promote Maori interests and position and Te Ao Maori in academia. More likely promoting themselves, using this as a vehicle to take over.
Thanks nukefacts, I didn’t know about that blog.
When the ‘pass mark’ is lowered enough for Maori/Pacific Islanders then there will be more around….medical/legal pass marks are lower already for that particular demographic, I’m sure the sciences will follow!
Science is a hard road to follow and you need to start following early. There are a lot of prerequisites and if you don’t do well in science at school, you’ll struggle at university, if you are even allowed to take specific courses. Then simply getting a BSc is generally not enough to get a job in science (except possibly as a science teacher), so you’ll need to do postgraduate studies, which means more effort & cost.
To get most scientist roles these days, you’ll almost certainly need a PhD. More costs & effort, as it generally takes around 7 years at university to achieve all of this.
Of course, when you look for a job, you’ll find there are very few science based jobs available in New Zealand, especially if you don’t have experience. You’ll also discover that many of the roles don’t pay particularly well, especially at entry & junior levels.
So science can be a hard road to follow and it isn’t surprising to find that people who already have so much stacked against them aren’t following it. To change this, you’d need to start early, with inspirational science role models in primary school, because if people aren’t thinking along the science track then, by high school it’s probably too late.
Out of interest does anyone know what science education is like in primary school these days? What is taught? Specialist teacher qualifications / skills / knowledge? Lesson focuses?
I was lucky in primary school to have Mr Lunn as a science teacher, he made the subject exciting and interesting, and created a life long interest in science and how things work.
No, sorry, I don’t. But seems like they’re too busy trying to teach literacy and basic math. At a guess, I suppose a bit of botany, understanding how plants grow. But at the very least, should extend beyond plants to all the living kingdoms.
There is little or no science taught in our primary schools.
In the last 6 years the basics numeracy and literacy have not been taught.
The collapse accelerated during Chippy’s stint as Minister of Education.
He wants to be King!!
Might be why many of those in science roles are from overseas.
Great insight No Comment. It’s not a road that many folk venture down and it most likely takes a bit of grit and persistence, along with the capability. Inspirational science role models in primary school cannot be understated. In fact role models are the key. In another life I knew a little about apprenticeship retention for Pasifika trainees. The government funded lot of research to get to the bottom of why young adults with Pacific island backgrounds were under-represented in apprenticeship schemes and why their drop out rate was higher. Racism? Capabilities? No, neither of those. What the research pointed to was the scarcity of family role models. No-one in their immediate or extended family were traddies. Arguably, in trade apprenticeships (and especially onsite) you need to think and behave as a traddie, and the best way to incorporate that into your world view, evidently, is to have a few traddies in your family, or among friends of family, who can give you the thumbs up. Far better if you dad, aunty or uncle was a traddie. It may well have changed a bit now, with more Pasifika better represented in the trades.
Far fetched? No. In understanding workplace learning there’s a theory called “apprenticeship theory”: it says that learning is best done through ‘observation and doing’, with the mentorship of experts. Probably don’t need a “theory’ to understand the importance of this. Just as the guilds of old, a good deal of becoming a traddie, or an engineer, a doctor, a salesman, a politician, a policewoman, or a scientist working in a lab, involves that kind of apprenticeship. Starting in primary schools with access to visible, inspirational role models can only help.
But I do sympathize with the cultural argument. All too often kids are told, even by their parents, that this or that is not who you are. Or they observe the dynamics around them and decide the road is too long and winding, and paved with obstacles.
Role models you can relate to are important for anything. If you can’t see someone like you doing something, you have to be a much stronger, more determined person to be a trailblazer. You’ll feel knock backs more personally and there is less support from people who can understand you & can let you know what’s normal & what’s not.
It’s cultural. Go talk to successful Māori – they’ll tell you how they were scorned by their own people for ‘acting white’ when they did well at school.
The proof of this are Asians and Indians coming to these fair shores with little more than the shirts on their backs. They graft at relatively menial jobs, but they make their children work at school and get good marks. One generation later and they’re all doctors, engineers & lawyers.
I agree entirely with this article. But there is another factor that is often overlooked. Our children went through our local school, a small NI East Coast school, decile 3, 80% Maori. I was BOT chair for a few years. Both MOE and ERO came through and directed us to focus on Tikanga, Kapa Haka and Te Reo, a direction happily followed by a succession of virtue-signalling middle class white principals who fully realised that pushing Tikanga and Te Reo on the kids was very good for their careers. My push for the curriculum focus on numeracy and literacy was an uphill battle. Ultimately it became too hard and we switched our kids to a decile 10 school with far higher focus on basic numeracy and literacy.
This was well over 10 year ago, and I happily tell everyone that there is no greater way to design and perpetuate racial inequality than what the ERO and MOE did at our school; push Maori tamariki into culturally based education and leave the global education to non-Maori. It is a total disaster waiting to happen. The only good thing about our experience is that many of the Maori kids previously in the small school ended up at the decile 10 school too, as most NZers (of any racial background) know that education needs to go beyond cultural issues and certainly focus on maths and reading excellence.
The politicians and the press have managed to cover up a simple fact: all the political parties abandoned the policy of housing desegregation and slum clearance.
As a result, ghettos started to form again. Even in a scenario where every school is a G.P.S. level grammar school, any campus in a ghetto or other slum will be far worse.
This was compounded by the abolition of the Full Employment Policy and import substitution: these people lost their high-wage jobs for good, trapping people inside the ghetto.
Maybe because ‘school/univeristy’ learning is not valued in their households? Maybe poverty? Maybe homelessness? Maybe because they did not receive a good science education in school already? But then these things also affect other ethnicities. Some whom are refugees to this country. Some whom are recent migrants or first generation kiwis. Some who had to learn english as a second language? Some who had to go work during the times of their studies.
But I know Maori who are scientists, and some are even female humans. Maybe the complaining person just did not see them – some Maori are quite Caucasian looking with Caucasian sounding names.
Maybe it is because Maori are only about 17% of the population and based on that the numbers of Maori in science makes actually sense?
We can of course also just blame systematic racism, and then we have to do nothing at all, other then providing special regulations Maori/Pacific Islander to diversify Universities.
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/creative/study-with-us/maori-and-pacific-students.html – Auckland University
When applying for Medicine a candidate may apply once only using this category. – Otaggo Univeristy
HSFY category checklist
Completed online application form
Completed Māori sub-category requirements (if applicable)
Completed NZRIPO sub-category requirements (if applicable)
Completed Socioeconomic Equity sub-category requirements (if applicable)
Completed Refugee sub-category requirements (if applicable)
Completed New Zealand Rural Origins sub-category requirements (if applicable)
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/victorious/issues/victorious-2021/diversifying-stem Wellington University
Maybe the reality is that many Maori, just like many Caucasians, Asians and other brown people don’t want to go to Uni, don’t want a student loan for live, don’t see a future in many of the offerings from University, and truly believe that they can make more money and have better lifelong careers being in the Trades or in the Army/Navy/Air Force, Police Force, or employed via Iwi or Maori Charity?
My daughter of Maori and blue collar decent is a scientist. Other than teaching there are 2 maybe 3 opportunities for employment in her field of expertise. As her knowledge has increased, employment opportunities decrease. Sadly this means she now works offshore.
Why is this a problem?
Maori are now over represented in representative rugby teams is that also a problem?
The simple fact is to suceed in science dedication and a focused logical mind are the fundamental requirements. Some races through their culture have that, others do not.
So you do not agree with the Professor.
I find your thesis less convincing.
Your “simple fact” about race and culture has no substance in science or human experience.
Be careful Clifford j. Cultural determinism will dig a deep ditch from which it’ll be hard to climb out.
Well there is that thing where the colour of your skin determines whether you get streamlined. Brown kids get to directed toward the manual labour type education pathways and the others get steered towards higher education. It still happens!
People should not allow their kinds to be treated in that way.
It’s because young Maori are being pushed into trades
Nothing wrong with that Millsy….
What is your evidence that young Maaori are being “pushed into trades”?
Millsy feels that sound about right.
Going to school regularly would be a good start….
maybe like white students(white girls are over represented) they find the social sciences easier than actual science
I taught high school sciences for 33 years. Regardless of ethnicity, pupils from families that valued education ALWAYS did better. Pupils taking on senior Bio, Physics,Chemistry along with 1 or 2 Maths, have the heaviest work load. That requires parental support. No question that it is a big ask for kids. I’ve seen Maori Physios, Teachers, Nurses, Radiologists, Doctors and a PHD in Physics. None came without family support and encouragement.
The only people in this country that care about race is Maori. By Maori for Maori and all that crap. How far would we get if it was by asian for Asian or by white for white? I’d need a new doctor, barber and mechanic for starters!
We need more scientists. We also don’t teach science well in school. Open Polytechnic offered a primary science teaching qualification for a few years but abandoned it due to low enrolment numbers. Fix that and more kiwi kids of all backgrounds will grow up with an interest in science.
One of my sons is a Scientist with a Masters degree, the first of his working class family to attend university. It cost his parents $80,000 of support and he has a student loan of a similar amount.
For a wealthy family this would not be debt. Some of his friends lived in houses the parents bought so there were no accommodation costs and the flatmates paid the costs.
My niece, the second from a WC family to attend (after her brother) is completing a science PhD this year. She has been lucky with scholarships and accommodation provided by her partner’s family but still has a student loan.
Let me say I think it is virtually impossible for kids from the working class to succeed in tertiary science if they have no family financial support. I’m talking true working class, parents with low income and low skills. Roadworkers, orchard workers, factory workers, office workers, cleaners and even farmers; the people who keep NZ moving.
What Ben Waimata said.* Also, take Watson and Crick, players in the old boy’s science & perversion club, who stole Rosalind Franklin’s work photographing the double helix and claimed the Nobel prize for discovering the dna molecule, and coming from the peerage, do not like to share. Suddenly, everyone’s sick of endless propaganda. Road signs in Maori are not going to reduce the road toll.
* I notice many cabinet ministers past and present have had teaching careers.
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