Researchers must value Pacific culture identity, and connection with families and communities

A long-running Pacific culture education initiative that has given hundreds of Kiwi teachers the chance to experience life in a Samoan village is now the subject of new research. 

In 2003, Leali’ie’e Dr Tufulasi Taleni, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Teacher Education at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC), led a group of educators from Aotearoa New Zealand to Samoa on the first malaga (trip), as part of the Pacific Education Initiative. 

In the past two decades more than 300 educators such as teachers, principals, school advisers, Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) and student teachers have taken part in this initiative. Taleni came up with the idea of facilitating visits to his village in Samoa to help New Zealand educators become more culturally aware and responsive.  

The visitors spend a week in Vaiafai Iva, where Taleni grew up, and take part in village events such as attending church, cultural ceremonies and celebrations, giving them a unique understanding of Pacific students’ cultural backgrounds.  

Taleni and colleagues from the University’s Faculty of Education are now evaluating how the initiative has benefited educators involved, their students in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the host village in Samoa, in a new research project called Tautai Pasifika. 

He says there are entrenched inequities in educational outcomes for Pacific students in Aotearoa. “We need to understand the culture and viewpoint of Pacific learners to improve their outcomes. For Pacific students, research demonstrates that schools need to prioritise their educational success.” 

Acknowledging and valuing Pacific cultural identities, and connection with families and communities, is crucial, he says. “An anticipated marked increase in the population of Pacific children and young people over coming years makes it imperative our education system helps these young people achieve the qualifications they need to contribute positively to their own families and communities and New Zealand’s society and economy.” 

Taleni hopes the Samoa malaga initiative has played a small part in this and says information from the new UC Faculty of Education-funded research project will articulate key features that have made an impact. He’d like the findings to inform future initiatives to improve educational achievement for Pacific students through teachers’ deeper cultural understanding. 

During the research project this year and in 2025, Taleni and his UC colleagues Dr Nicola Surtees, Dr Kay-Lee Jones and Associate Professor Billy O’Steen will visit schools involved in the project, hold a final malaga to Vaiafai Iva, and create a documentary featuring participants talking about the impact of the initiative. 

“It is my hope the findings from our research will inspire many other teacher education institutions to do the same,” Dr Taleni says.  

The final UC malaga to Samoa will happen next September and past participants of the initiative – including teachers, principals and teaching students – will be invited to come along. 

Taleni says he is approaching retirement age, but he would be very happy for someone else to take on the project. “The initiative has been very important to the village, and the educators who have taken part say that it’s changed their hearts. We’ll be surveying all past participants as part of our evaluation.”  

He says the schools in Samoa have also benefited from the initiative. “It has opened teachers’ eyes, they’ve learned about preparing their own people for the transition to New Zealand, and the ways we do things here.”  He says the project is reciprocal, providing equipment, including desks and tables, to the three schools involved. Three teachers representing the three village schools have also been able to come to New Zealand to take part in professional development, funded by UC, as part of the Pacific Education Initiative.  

Edited extract from University of Canterbury News.

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