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Success for All: Eroding the culture of power in the one-to-one teaching and
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IJM0010.1177/0255761415590365International Journal of Music EducationRakena et al.

Article

International Journal of

Success for All: Eroding the

Music Education
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teaching and learning context DOI: 10.1177/0255761415590365
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Te Oti Rakena
School of Music, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Airini
Critical Studies in Education, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Deidre Brown
School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract
This study applied a cultural lens to the “expert–novice dyad” (Kennell, 2002, p. 243) and explored
the learning experiences of indigenous minorities studying in this context. The purpose of this
study was to gather narratives that reflected the nature of teaching practices in the one-to-one
studio context. The resulting data presented more complex stories that described how indigenous
and minority students participate in the conservatory learning culture. The narratives described
strategies for overcoming educational and institutional obstacles, and outlined examples of social
practices within their ‘learning culture’ (Hodkinson, Biesta, & James, 2007, p. 419) that students
had culturally modified in order to optimize their educational experience. The article examines
the notions of critique, resistance, struggle and emancipation in a specific learning culture, a
School of Music founded on the European conservatory model.

Keywords
conservatory, learning culture, Māori, one-to-one teaching, Pacific Island, indigenous

Success for all: Eroding the culture of power in a post-colonial

studio context
In the second decade of the 21st century, pedagogues with an interest in conservatory-based learn-
ing are witnessing a range of educational transformations designed to create “a core business that

Corresponding author:
Te Oti Rakena, School of Music, National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries the University of Auckland, 6
Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand.
Email: t.rakena@auckland.ac.nz

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2 International Journal of Music Education 

is more inclusive and outward looking” (Gregory, 2005, p. 22). Responding to changing cultural
values, the challenges of fiscally defined agendas and the demands of contemporary culture,
researchers are more aggressively investigating students’ educational needs by “becoming aware
of their views, conflicts, and expectations” (Feichas, 2011, p. 282). Exploring the differences
between the studio music teacher and music student worldviews is a welcome shift for researchers
in the New Zealand context. While other education fields have pursued this research focus, studio
teachers in this nation have yet to investigate these themes. This study was the first in New Zealand
to apply a cultural lens to the “expert-novice dyad” (Kennell, 2002, p. 243), and to target the learn-
ing experiences of indigenous minorities studying in this context. The purpose of this study was to
gather narratives that reflected the nature of teaching practices in the one-to-one studio context.
The resulting data presented complex stories that revealed the way indigenous and minority stu-
dents participate in the conservatory learning culture. The narratives described strategies for over-
coming educational and institutional obstacles, and outlined examples of social practices within
their “learning culture” (Hodkinson, Biesta & James, 2007, p. 419) that they had culturally modi-
fied in order to optimize their educational experience. This study demonstrates “the mutual inter-
dependence of social constraint and individual volition” (James, Biesta, Hodkinson, Postlethwaite,
& Gleeson, 2007, p. 12), and examines the notions of critique, resistance, struggle and emancipa-
tion in a specific learning culture, a School of Music founded on the European conservatory model.

Looking backwards to move forward

This study is specific to New Zealand, a South Pacific nation with a range of historic colonial
interventions that disadvantaged the indigenous people by restricting their educational choices.
Many education systems share the same historic initiatives with policies that were designed to civi-
lize, assimilate, and assert colonial superiority over indigenous peoples (Simon & Smith, 2001,
p. 8). Simon and Smith note that the effects of these approaches have been recorded in testimonials
from indigenous students in variety of western countries and colonies (2001, p. 8). In the New
Zealand context these interventions have contributed to the state of current relations between
Pākehā, the descendants of the colonial body, and Māori, the indigenous people. Assumptions
deliberately cultivated by those in power created a division of privilege that is now delineated
along color and non-western/western cultural lines. This division has also impacted Pasifika peo-
ple, a heterogeneous composite of indigenous Pacific Island ethnic minority groups living in New
Zealand. These peoples share ancestry, culture, and customs with Māori.
Māori and Pasifika student success in university-level studies is of strategic relevance to New
Zealand. By 2021 more than 25% of New Zealand’s population will be Māori or Pasifika, and will
make up an increasing proportion of the eligible workforce (Airini et al., 2011). Success by these
populations is key to nation building in New Zealand and has motivated the government to invest
in education research initiatives that work in partnership with indigenous and minority educators,
students, and their families to increase participation, achievement, and academic success (Gorinski
& Abernethy, 2007; Ministry of Education, 2008). This article discusses findings from Success for
All, a qualitative research project that emerged from one of these initiatives. The project was
located in a New Zealand university of more than 30,000 students in four different contexts. A
culturally diverse team of Māori, Pasifika, and Pākehā research practitioners used narrative enquiry
and a range of non-western research methodologies to gather and analyze the data.

Situating the study

One of the contexts in this study was the School of Music. The department was founded on the
European conservatory model and its associated signature pedagogies (Shulman, 2005). Consistent
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Rakena et al. 3

with other tertiary institutions, the framework for applied music instruction is the master–
apprentice model (Burwell, 2005; Gaunt, 2010; Jørgenson, 2000; Purser, 2005). In the New
Zealand context the studio teacher meets specific challenges when teaching the music traditions of
Europe. The study site is far from the source of those traditions and the nature of Schools of Music
is to privilege western art music (Drummond, 2010; Feichas, 2012; Smith, 2002; Thompson,
2002). This is also highly problematic in a country that recently committed to promoting the value
of regional knowledge and local cultures, and has undertaken to support target minorities who see
the School of Music as a pathway to higher education.
The project explored the “underlying assumptions that serve to conceal the power relations that
exist within society” (Pihama, 1993) and is underpinned by critical theory. Using non-western
research methodologies that emerge from the philosophies and values of the peoples being studied,
in this case Māori and Pasifika, the study facilitates a localized theoretical positioning, what Smith
describes as “the modality through which the emancipatory goal of critical theory, in a specific
historical, political and social context is practiced” (1999, p. 185). The researchers accepted that
“teaching and learning cannot be decontextualized from broader social, economic and political
forces both current and historic” (James et al., 2007, p. 11). They also supported the notion that
“student’s dispositions towards learning are intricately related to their wider social lives, both
inside and outside the learning setting” (2007, p. 12). James et al. call this a learning culture, and
define it as “the social practices through which people learn” (2007, p. 4). This places the study
within a social-constructivist framework.
The researchers accepted the notion that indigenous and minority students live in two worlds.
They interact daily with the ideologies of a western hegemonic worldview, but also identify with
their indigenous and minority status. These students relate to their primary culture in a variety of
ways, but the researchers assumed that “traces of the traditional culture will resonate” (Henry &
Pene, 2001, p. 235) in the contemporary practice of their culture. With this assumption we under-
stand that the way these students organize themselves is bigger than the individuals involved and
the specific moment they live in. (Smith, 1999, p. 188). This signals two primary concepts, inter-
dependence and spirituality, as fundamental components of intellectual endeavor and knowledge
construction (Henry & Pene, 2001, p. 238). Therefore, within this study we accepted the indige-
nous understanding of the acquisition and construction of knowledge. We acknowledged that it is
a collective resource and operated with the understanding that for the researchers and participants,
this philosophical perspective would be the normative.
There is room in the literature for more studies based in the studio environment, particularly for
projects that are led by indigenous researchers with an interest in critical pedagogy. There is a lack
of studies that examine diversity and its sub-strand indigeneity through the one-to-one studio con-
text. This is unfortunate because, as Bloom stated in his 1985 study, one-on-one instruction “might
be a fascinating laboratory for the study of teaching and learning” (as cited in Kennell, 2002,
p. 243). Carey, Grant, McWilliam, and Taylor (2013) note that prior to the turn of this century, few
researchers had studied the nature of pedagogy in one-to-one spaces but since 2000 there has been
a wider range of studies in more diverse locations. Much of that literature has examined perfor-
mance training in higher education (Carey et al., 2013; Gaunt, 2010; Nerland, 2007; Perkins, 2013;
Zukhov, 2013). However, studies rarely describe encounters between the teacher and student with
different worldviews. Performance teachers interested in these interactions must look to music
education centered in the classroom and the wider education arena. In this literature we can find
studies that are relevant to the training of non-studio teachers and discourse on the nature of cultur-
ally responsive teaching in the classroom (Adler, 2011; Barnes, 2006; Grant, 1994; Ullman &
Hecsh, 2011; Wiggins & Folio, 1999).
The literature that relates to cultural diversity as in the area of multicultural education rarely
addresses post-colonial situations with an indigenous population. Ladson-Billings (1995) mentions
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4 International Journal of Music Education 

only a few studies aimed at identifying practices that will increase the achievement for indigenous
Hawaiian, and Native American children; however, she observed that the interventions that were
implemented to help these target populations seemed to do little but reproduce existing inequities
(p. 467). The findings emerging from the Success for All project align with the literature that theo-
rizes learning as a social event rather than an individual process and strongly support’s Wenger’s
Social Theory of Learning (2009) and the Theory of Learning Culture as used in the Transforming
Learning Cultures project (James et al., 2007).

Research design
Two research questions framed this study: (1) What teaching practices in the music studio context
affect Māori and Pasifika success? (2) How can this information guide teaching and university prac-
tices in order to best support Māori and Pasifika success in preparing for, or completing, a music
degree? The research was conducted in three phases. In Phase 1 the participants reported incidents
that were helpful and hindering in the music studio context. Phase 2 involved the design of interven-
tions created from the student narratives and implementation via academic support services. In
Phase 3 the researchers evaluated the impact of the interventions by interviewing new students
entering the university, and through these new narratives identifying additional incidents.

Associated methodologies
It is standard practice for researchers working with indigenous and minority communities to
explicitly define the processes they will utilize to ensure all stages of the research study occur in a
culturally appropriate manner (Cochran et al., 2008; Kovach, 2010). When working with Māori or
Pasifika populations, New Zealand researchers have often chosen to integrate Kaupapa Māori
Research and Pacific Island Research methodologies into their research design (Bishop &
Berryman, 2006; Irwin, 1992; Smith, 1999). Kaupapa Māori Research is a well-established aca-
demic discipline and research methodology that locates Māori at the center of the research enquiry
(Smith, 1999). It necessitates an understanding of the social, economic, and political influences on
Māori outcomes and uses a wide variety of research tools. Pacific Island Research methodology
ensures that research design prioritizes the wellbeing and empowerment of Pacific Island peoples
within New Zealand (Anae, Coxon, Mara, Wendt-Samu, & Finau, 2001; Health Research Council,
2005). In practice this meant that every step of the research study was scrutinized by the team to
ensure that participants and researchers were operating within a culturally safe site. In utilizing
these processes the researchers hoped to increase the quality of the data and mitigate the possibility
of ineffective practices that would reproduce systematic racism in the teaching–learning context.

Participants
The team interviewed 24 participants (11 Māori and 13 Pacific Island) and identified 291 incidents
when the teaching approach affected their success with university-level studies. The students were
contacted through a database listing all self-identified Māori and Pasifika students enrolled at the
university. Students studying performance in the School of Music were invited to participate in the
study and asked to contact the research administrator who coordinated the interviews. Independent
postgraduate students of Māori and Pasifika heritage were trained for this study and conducted all
interviews. In line with the agreed research processes, the participants were interviewed by an inter-
viewer of the same cultural heritage, and were offered the opportunity to conduct the interviews in
their mother tongue. All participants in this study chose to be interviewed in English. The students’

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Rakena et al. 5

narratives were independently transcribed and distributed to the researchers for analysis. In line with
the approved ethics process all students signed consent forms, and interviewers and independent
contractors transcribing narratives signed confidentiality agreements. Anonymity was guaranteed
and none of the researchers involved in data analysis had contact with the participants. The partici-
pants were able to approve the final transcription and withdraw from the project at any time.

Data collection and analysis tools

There is precedent for music studio-based educators to use learner narratives to inform their prac-
tice (Abeles, 1975; Clemmons, 2006). With regard to indigenous students, Bishop and Glynn
(1999) have shown that narrative inquiry can provide higher levels of authenticity and accuracy in
the representation of Māori and Pasifika student experiences because it is grounded in a participa-
tory design. Susan Adler supports the quality of information obtained through this method. She
proposes, “students from cultures that are different from the mainstream might be more informed
and insightful because they had to be bicultural to survive” (Adler, 2011, p. 613). Current discourse
suggests that citizens of a multicultural society can change cultural frames, depending on the situ-
ation, and that to some extent all people learn to function in different cultural contexts (Spring in
Wren, 2012, p. 78). However, indigenous or minority students reference very different experiences
as they interact daily with a system that has confiscated their land, exploited their resources, and
limited their education possibilities. Through this struggle it presupposes that this type of student
has developed a particular bicultural sensitivity. To identify this, Adler uses Du Bois’s term double-
consciousness (2011, p. 613).
The Success for All project involved a multicultural, transdisciplinary research team made up of
researchers equipped with this bicultural sensitivity. They used the Critical Incident Technique
(CIT) to analyze the students’ stories. CIT asks participants to provide descriptive accounts of
events that facilitated or hindered a particular aim. The critical incidents are defined as extreme
behavior, either outstandingly effective or ineffective, with respect to attaining the general aims of
the activity (Flanagan, 1954, p. 338). This technique is an effective tool for understanding the per-
sonal, dramatic impact of a practice that may not be evident through a quantitative method of col-
lection (Marrelli, 2005). Analysis of the transcripts involved locating complete stories. A usable
story needed three parts; a trigger, an initial occurrence the student identified as significant to their
learning; an action, the manner in which the incident was managed; and an outcome, the perceived
effect on the student. The stories collected from the students’ interviews were collaboratively
grouped by similarity into categories and subcategories that reflected the quality of the incident. In
line with the agreed research processes, the team included a “give way rule.” This rule permitted
all researchers to critically analyze the research data with an understanding that the group would
allow a member of the team with specific cultural knowledge, parallel with that of the research
participant, to decide on the final interpretation of the related data. Validity and trustworthiness of
the categories and subcategories was achieved by using the independent extraction method, an
effective creditability check cited in several CIT studies (Butterfield, Borgen, Amundson & Maglio,
2005, p. 486).

Findings and discussion

In this section we present the findings interwoven with the discussion, under two subheadings; (1)
culture of power, which summarizes students’ perspectives on the power interplay in the studio and
institution, and (2) enhancing the learning culture, which summarizes the teaching and social prac-
tices students outline as contributing to a successful learning culture. Included are extracts from the

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6 International Journal of Music Education 

narratives. The stories are presented unedited and retain a narrative form. The extracts concerning
teaching practices are presented in the CIT analyzed form of trigger, action, and outcome.

Culture of power
The Māori and Pasifika students displayed a sophisticated level of critical consciousness and an
eagerness to describe the events that were significant in their education. On analysis of the tran-
scripts, the incidents students identified as hindering their learning often occurred when their val-
ues and expectations came into conflict with the studio teacher, or the institution. When the
students’ learning was obstructed, time was wasted as the students mobilized a range of strategies
that allowed them to cope with additional psychological stress. The narratives provided explicit
sociological examples of what Delpit identifies as the “culture of power” (1988, p. 282), a rela-
tional concept that students identified as operating within the studio and the institution. Delpit
outlines five aspects of power that she claims are relevant to “the schism between liberal educa-
tionalists and non-White, non-middle class teachers and communities” (1988, p. 282). I use this
outline as a framework (see Delpit, 1988, p. 283) for the discussion on the power differentials
emerging in the one-to-one teaching contexts and the institution in which it is situated.

Issues of power enacted in the classroom (studio).  The narratives revealed that issues of power are
enacted in the learning space and students often perceive this as an assumption that their cultural
perspective has no cultural capital. A barrier to success in the studio environment occurred when
teachers used language that was difficult for students to comprehend or implied the teacher did not
value the student’s culture. This practice impacted their lives, not just their studio experience.
Pedagogic discourse that excludes marginalized populations leads these students to recognize
themselves within the established power relations (Bernstein, 2000, p. 17), in this case defined by
the colonial body. Students’ narratives align with Bernstein’s theory and this studio practice seems
to limit effective interaction and skills acquisition.

The tutor is bringing all these ideas, all these ways of teaching, all these pedagogies that don’t suit well …
like um it was already decided what we were going to learn. Rather than letting that happen in the moment
and within the experience of the students. I think she thought she was doing the best for us, but coming
from a British education background, doesn’t work well necessarily, you know, New Zealand, Māori,
Pacific Island students, because it is foreign.

Codes or rules for participating in power- the ‘culture of power’.  Codes operate within the learning
space and the institution. Students that have participated in the tradition of the performance studio
are more prepared for success in the institution, but some are conscious that their understanding of
appropriate modes of communication and presentation of the self challenge the established prac-
tices of the tradition, and feel excluded.

for young women, you know how we have to do performance and the clothes that we have to wear kind of
like ball gowns, long dresses and that, and sometimes it’s revealing up the top and I’m kind of not allowed
to wear that but, um, I still wear those for singing because you can’t just stop business for your religion or
anything … it’s really important to me because I want to change my family so that the next generation
they’ll have much more of an easier life than what we’re going through right now … so I have to go
through the hard yards and actually do the work.

The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of those who have power.  The narratives emphasized
students’ awareness that they were not able to participate fully in many aspects of the institution’s

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Rakena et al. 7

learning culture, because they lacked the prior experience or learning necessary to succeed. They
felt Pākehā students through their membership in the culture of power were better prepared for
higher learning.

it’s quite a prestigious, kind of, academy kind of thing, because it’s quite difficult to get accepted into this
course. And, you know, if you’re in it, the majority of people, are quite knowledgeable, they’re quite up
there … there’s only the minority … pretty much just the Islanders and the Māori who are really just like,
oh, you know, we just got in here because we have this talent, you know, but we’re not like you, but we
want to get out there, but we’re just not on the same level that’s all.

Helping non-participants in the culture of power acquire power.  Students were acutely aware that enter-
ing the learning domain associated with the culture of power’s traditions meant additional learning,
not just within the discipline but the associated rituals such as rehearsal etiquette, performance dress,
concert protocols, and teacher-interaction. Overcoming cultural paradigms, for example respecting
tutor status or not questioning elders, took a period of adjustment and were only fully implemented
by watching students from the culture of power interacting in appropriate ways. Students who had
membership in the culture of power meant they were better prepared for higher learning.

at first it was quite difficult because coming from Tonga it’s quite different, because the mentality that we
have to a student–teacher relationship … the boundaries are very high so you can’t overstep your boundary
to the teacher … for us Tongans teachers are considered very high, so you are a student you know your
place to stay there, what they tell you is right, you don’t question them …

Conscientizing participants in the culture of power.  Students identified moments where respected
teachers, who they believed were empathetic, still acted on ill-informed cultural assumptions.
Teachers were often unable to see the impact on students, misinterpreting resistance and ambiva-
lence in the studio for disinterest or laziness.

at the beginning of the year I did feel really looked down on, in the one on ones … the tutor would ask me
stuff like, so what repertoire have you learnt? What are your aspirations? What do you wanna be? All that
kind of stuff. And a Pacific Islander, that’s not what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear someone say: follow
me, do this, if you want to be this then you do this. But she was really asking me, like, what am I doing?
What am I doing here? Why am I doing this thing? When really the answer was, um, I don’t know and I’m
not sure, but I want to learn, but you’re really not helping … And she really made me feel like real stupid,
like an idiot

Enhancing the learning culture

The findings of this study support the notion that good teaching in the studio one-to-one context
has strong universal characteristics (Hodkinson et al., 2007b, p. 401). James et al. (2007) suggest
that while good teaching does influence learning, there is a complex interaction between many
factors that shape student’s learning (p. 4). They see improvement in teaching and learning as
occurring by changing the culture of learning rather than one element (Hodkinson, Biesta, &
James, 2007c).

Teaching practices
Students appreciated learning in the one-to-one context. One student reasoned, “I think it’s just the
time and knowing that you’re with someone who has been in your footsteps before and genuinely

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8 International Journal of Music Education 

has an idea of what they’re talking about.” What became apparent in the Success for All project, is
that the apprentice’s identity in this relationship was often dependent on the master’s assumptions
of the role, rather than the apprentice’s needs. What is also clear from the respondents’ narratives
is that apprentices seek out expert practitioners, and are willing to accommodate an imbalance of
power if the master is truly an expert in their field. Successful instrumental and vocal teachers have
strategies that activate students’ curiosity in a directed and energetic manner. Illeris calls this learn-
ing state the incentive dimension (2009, p. 12). He theorizes that the incentive dimension provides
the mental energy that is necessary for the learning process to take place. In the studio, the students
identified the quality of the interaction between the teacher and learner as vital to the activation of
the learning process.
When teachers demonstrated expert knowledge in the studio and professional arena, students
were more likely to submit to their role as apprentices in the relationship. While the students often
“sought out” expert teachers, they understood the role “related to the position of the master as
representative of the professional discipline” (Burwell, 2013, p. 288). Rarely did they describe the
desire for an intense master–apprentice relationship that Manturzewska (1990) depicts, extending
beyond the teaching realm into the development of the student’s career, and the development of
their entire personality. More often students related stories that showed relationships with explicit
examples of power differentials at play, and teachers with a very limited understanding of the stu-
dent perspective or interest in prior learning.
Burwell (2013, p. 287) lists the use of demonstration and imitation as one of the common
assumptions of the apprenticeship model in instrumental and vocal teaching. The students in this
study found modelling to be an effective strategy. They respected tutors who demonstrated expert
performance skills and displayed a deep content knowledge of the repertoire. Practical demonstra-
tions of theoretical concepts and historical conventions informed and strengthened the student’s
studio practice.

Social practices
It is all about creating these relationships with each other as students and with the teacher, I think that is
the basis of everything … the way that we can learn the best information is from forming these relationships,
forming relationships with other people, just gain understanding of other peoples’ perspectives on how on
whatever … It’s all about people when it comes down to it and, as a Māori, people are just the most you
know, the most important thing.

Stories encouraged teaching and learning as a shared process, where “shared” involves a com-
munity beyond teachers and learners and the university. It encompasses family, friends, peers and
collective identities such as community, culture, gender, sexuality, and religion. This is the learn-
ing culture of the Māori and Pasifika student. It is a fluid structure dependent on many variables,
but it always references the family and community rather than the self, a key difference between
the indigenous and western epistemologies (Smith, 1999). These stories offered examples of ways
the students utilized their learning community to support their studio outcomes.

Peer influence.  In Dennis, Phinney, and Chuateco’s study, which included the role of peer support
in the academic success of ethnic minorities, many students reported that, ‘peer support was the
most helpful strategy for dealing with academic problems’ (2005, p. 234). Māori and Pasifika stu-
dents actively seek out each other for support and for social activities. They are interested in shar-
ing the journey with students with similar worldviews, especially in the first year.

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Rakena et al. 9

Example:Trigger… I’ve talked to an honours student … and he’s been my main source really because I
learn from the same teacher …

Action … he’s like, he says it’s hard for them to understand our way … Everyone has their own way of
learning, not necessarily, doesn’t have to be the teacher’s way.

Outcome … if we can get what they’re looking for at the end, then that’s what really matters, because if
it’s easy for us then that’s what matters.

Cultural networking.  Māori and Pasifika students routinely sought out students of similar ethnicity
who had successfully progressed through the degree, and connected with tutors of similar ethnicity.
They formed their own study groups, and developed relationships parallel to the master–apprentice
studio partnership. These became the main sources of support throughout the degree and even into
the professional world. In many cases, the intense master–apprentice relationship that Manturze-
wska (1990) described was established between an older Māori and Pasifika student, or tutor rather
than with their individual studio teacher. These music students went to this person for degree,
career, and personal advice.

Example:Trigger… like [a tutor of Māori descent] who’s really been encouraging and he’s always
checking up on us, how we’re going.

Action … Māori and Pacific staff, seeing them around is just, yeah, helped, just helps with the environment
and makes me enjoy it more. I must say that’s really helped and really encouraged me and where I’m going
and just their stories.

Outcome … build up my confidence … just helped me being confident of, you know, this is where I’m
meant to be.

Cultural nourishment. Some students sought artistic and creative nourishment through cultural
activities. They stated that time spent in Māori and Pacific Island educational and non-educational
spaces was restorative and essential to sustaining ongoing mental health, achievement and
completion.

Example:Trigger… every semester I’ve got to make sure I’ve got one Māori class.

Action … doesn’t matter whether it’s in the wharenui (traditional building, and the context for Māori
learning) or not but just being around other Māori students and, you know, that’s how I make up for it. So
this semester just gone I did Māori Society, that stage one paper, I just needed to fill in the gap …

Outcome … being around other Māori students gives me a little bit of time when I can relax and let my
guard down and, you know, just chill out man … That’s how it is, you know, I go to my normal classes and
get robbed and then I go to that class and get filled up again.

Family.  Benseman, Coxon, Anderson, & Anae (2006) report that the collective nature of Pacific
cultures and the importance of family often clash with the demands of academic life. Pacific Island
and Māori cultures operate within a framework of extended family, which can extend to tribal or
village affiliations. The students recognized that they were expected to help, care for, and support
the family, and at times these obligations came into conflict with institutional requirements and
studio teachers’ expectations. This was an issue for Māori and Pasifika students in this study, but

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10 International Journal of Music Education 

they were adamant that the extended family obligations were mutual and that the collective ideal
provided emotional relief, psychological support, and motivation to complete.

Example: Trigger… It’s real easy to give up too. You just put your pen down and go home.

Action … I can remember I told dad a story because I said, oh man you know I’m having real troubles and
he says go read your Bible because you know I read it every day, but it was just go read your Bible … so
I remember opening it up and I remember Proverbs because that’s what I understood, open up a $20 note,
oh lucky so what else, let’s do Noah’s Ark again $20 note, like Daniel and the lions, $20 note so I shook
it, three hundred dollars comes out of the Bible. Dad, dad you won’t believe what happened I found $300
in my Bible, and he goes you’ve waited six months to read your Bible? …

Outcomes … in that time … those are the things that helped me [stay in my degree].

Spirituality.  Faith as motivation, referencing Christian imagery and metaphor was a common occur-
rence in the narratives of Pasifika students. These stories illustrate the importance of the spiritual
and, in particular Christianity, in framing Pasifika students’ understanding of their learning. We
found the stories from Māori students on the whole did not explicitly or implicitly reference Chris-
tian values, but demonstrated a frame of reference based in the Māori worldview, which includes a
spiritual dimension. This is most likely due to Māori generational shifts away from the church, a
trend that is not as apparent in the Pacific Island communities where adherence to Christian values
is constantly refreshed with each new diaspora.

Example:Trigger … she came to my second year recital after I did a really sham job and I said … I really
just want to leave.

Action … then she said no, no listen, I want to take you on and you will graduate and I will show you the
light, so I said you want to take me on, take me on? … because I starting doing, um, some bad things and
you know just things you see in the movies, and people get stressed and I was by myself, and then stopped
going to church, everything turned to crap … So what did help, is this lady, so she came in like an angel,
picked me up … Yeah picked me up and said listen you know let’s try this again. Come back next year,
yeah, and then we did a third year, went really well, and then my fourth year … really well.

Outcome … eventually I got a scholarship from the school, the Māori Pacific Island one so they pay for
the Master’s and they gave me a $2,000 grant.

The learning strategies invoked by most of these students contradict the studio assumption,
and the conservatory traditions, that learning is an individual process. Māori and Pasifika epis-
temologies are formed by the fundamental understanding that one is part of a collective. In
order to re-motivate their incentive dimension, overcome cultural barriers, enhance learning
opportunities and improve performance outcomes, students mobilized their learning culture.
Students expanded the framework of the institution to include family and their cultural, spirit-
ual, and performance communities. Within the learning institution, peers and teachers who had
lived experience of their cultures were included in the framework. It is clear that Māori and
Pasifika students see learning as a social phenomenon, firmly “in the context of their lived
experience of participation in the world” (Wenger, 2009, p. 210). Wenger suggests “a social
theory of learning” (p. 210) with social participation as a focus. This model fits very well with
indigenous students, allowing the component parts of the framework to include rather than
exclude elements of their daily life.

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Rakena et al. 11

The students’ stories indicate that the level of teachers’ self-awareness and reflection on their
own practice is highly variable. We assume this may be because there is no consistent training for
one-to-one studio teaching offered in New Zealand, and professional development is not required
of performance teachers at tertiary institutions. This is supported by the student stories, which often
describe pre-tertiary experiences with teachers that were more culturally sensitive. Training for
classroom teachers in pre-tertiary environments is more rigorous, so it is more likely that these
teachers have developed more culturally responsive teaching strategies.

Using the data

Boyer states: “understanding concepts of diversity and their implications is difficult for beginning
teachers” (as cited in Wiggins & Folio, 1999). If this is true of the classroom context, then it is more
relevant in the one-to-one studio partnership where pedagogical activities can evade scrutiny for
years because of the “intimacy and inaccessibility of the space in which it was conducted” (Carey
et al. 2013, p. 149). Cochran-Smith (2000) argues that including narratives about race and more
intellectual arguments about social inequality are essential for effective pre-service teacher educa-
tion. For this reason, it seemed prudent to follow Cochran-Smith’s logic and use the information to
support professional development for studio teachers in the community and within institutions.
The researchers realized that professional development interventions can be ineffective in the stu-
dio context, as studio teachers develop specific rituals and establish strong power dynamics within
their teaching space. This makes it difficult for studio teachers to critically self-reflect and there-
fore they are reluctant to open themselves to new realities (Abrahams, 2005, p. 5). The researchers
strategized for this scenario by infusing a newly developed pedagogy unit in the School of Music
(for performance students), with course content developed from the Success for All findings. The
aim of this additional intervention was to plant the seeds for organizational and professional
changes in the new generation of community teachers graduating from the School of Music,
through contemporized course content.
This study presents teachers and future teachers in applied music instruction with a snapshot of
the indigenous and minority learning experience. Within the narratives, students give examples of
the “culture of power” (Delpit, 1988, p. 282) operating within the studio learning space, and
describe actions intuitively invoked by the students respondents that allow them to overcome cul-
tural barriers and achieve success. They describe how their ‘dispositions, actions and personal
histories’ (Hodkinson, Biesta, & James, 2007a, p. 22) function in relation to the School of Music
and reveal how their learning outcomes were improved by reflexively “enhancing their learning
culture” with elements outside the learning site. Significant in this study is that, while the study
investigated teaching practices that affected student success in higher learning, the respondents
preferred to highlight social practices that had enhanced their studio experience and enabled them
to achieve success within the institution.
The stories have proved an effective tool for training future studio teachers. As the narratives
deal with issues of power and social hierarchies, the stories are able to move future teachers beyond
the realm of passive empathy and read the stories as “testimonials” (Boler, 1999). This inspires
future teachers “to reflect about power dynamics and their own role in relation to the people about
who they are reading” (Ullman & Hecsh, 2011, p. 608). This final intervention has given emerging
performance teachers real-life examples of studio situations where teachers struggled to connect
with students because they were unaware of differences in epistemologies. These testimonials from
indigenous students have also been utilized by sighted student teachers working with blind stu-
dents, students working in gender-specific contexts, students dealing with issues related to sexual
orientation, and students working in intergenerational contexts.

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12 International Journal of Music Education 

Funding
This research received funding from the New Zealand Teaching Learning Research Initiative

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