Pasifika Students, Literacy As Social Practice, and the Curriculum

Ministry of Education guidelines for primary teachers increasingly emphasise literacy as social practice, and with growing diversity in schools, the Ministry advocates that teachers may help reduce disparity in achievement by making connections between students’ out-of-school and school literacies. However it may be difficult for teachers to address this due to the Ministry’s expectation of more detailed literacy skills to be acquired by specific levels of schooling, and the expectation of more detailed assessment. This article offers examples of out-of-school literacies from a doctoral study which investigated literacy as social practice in family, church and neighbourhood sites as described by Year 7 and 8 Pasifika students. It raises the question as to whether existing assessment approaches and teacher knowledge are sufficiently broad to encompass literacy as social practice, considering the diverse literacy experiences students bring with them to school.