The 'Pasifika Umbrella' and quality teaching: Understanding and responding to the diverse realities within

Abstract

The New Zealand Ministry of Education recognises that the most important challenge facing teachers today is the ability to manage simultaneously the complexity of learning needs of diverse students (Alton-Lee, 2003, p. v). It also holds the view that for quality teaching to occur, teachers must be responsive to diversities between groups of learners as well as within groups of learners. This paper aims to enhance educators' understandings about the intra-group diversities of Pasifika and to signal the implications for teaching and learning.