Abstract
The current thesis investigated the efficacy of a brief social-psychological intervention as a potentially novel tool to help improve outcomes for Māori tertiary students. This thesis utilized an integrated approach that drew knowledge from contemporary Western social science regarding the social identity perspective and belonging, and Kaupapa Māori regarding the importance of whanaungatanga (family-like relationships). This dual knowledge approach formed the basis for testing a brief social-psychological intervention aimed to enhance feelings of belonging (and, by association, whanaungatanga-like values) for first-year Māori students. The guiding research question asked, “Can a brief, ‘wise’ intervention that focuses on belonging and whanaungatanga provide psychological benefits to Māori tertiary students?” It was predicted that Māori tertiary students would be more likely to benefit from the belonging-focused intervention as a response to the well-documented inequities faced by Māori learners in Aotearoa New Zealand and the significant cultural importance of whanaungatanga (broadly defined as family-like relationships) for Māori.
Study 1 tested a cross-section of Māori (N = 75) and non-Māori-non-Pasifika (nMnP; N = 63) students across six belonging based variables. The results found no significant difference between the two groups on five of the six variables. Study 2 implemented a brief ‘wise’ intervention procedure adapted from Walton and Cohen (2007, 2011), which used contextually targeted storytelling narratives and a brief writing and reading exercise to reframe social concerns and subsequent doubts about belonging as common, rather than evidence that students (and students like them) do not belong. The results found that Māori students given the intervention (N = 40) did not show significant changes in any of the belonging based variables compared to a control condition (N = 39). There were no differences between non-Māori-non-Pasifika in the intervention (N = 48) and control (N = 53).
Study 3 comprised a qualitative analysis of Māori and New Zealand European first-year students written experiences at university. In this analysis, three main themes were identified – 1) ‘Social Support – Not Instant but Critical’, 2) ‘Independence: A Goal or a Challenge?’, 3) ‘University is Challenging’. The latter two themes identified differences in the experiences of Māori and New Zealand European students. Notably, within Theme 2 Māori students were more likely to contextualise learning to become independent as a challenge. In comparison, the NZ European students were more likely to describe independence as an expected goal to achieve. Within Theme 3, Māori students described several challenges that were directly related to their identity as Māori.
Collectively, these results suggest that a slightly altered and lightly contextualized wise intervention does not provide any clear benefits for Aotearoa New Zealand tertiary students. In particular, these results do not appear to offer much evidence in support of a wise intervention framework to impact belonging (or by association, whanaungatanga) for Māori tertiary students. The qualitative differences in themes found within Study 3 suggest that interventions and approaches that are cognizant of Māori experiences are still, nevertheless, important. The implications of these findings, as well as the limitations and future directions for research are discussed.