UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AND EDUCATION

Foreword
Post-colonialism and anti-racist rhetoric have defined New Zealand’s biculturalism since
the Māori protest movement of the 70s. This has been a necessary development for Māori,
who have been unified by an homogenous cultural identity to address the systemic
discrimination of Māori so clearly evident in Aotearoa New Zealand. There have been very
significant gains, which include the evolution of Māori education, the revitalisation of te reo
Māori, and the Treaty settlement process.
Working in industries focused on Māori development since the 80s, I have observed this
sometimes painful development from the frontline. During the early decades of the period,
the process was very confrontational as Māori became aware of the victimisation they had
experienced through colonisation. Pākehā also had to confront the institutional racism
perpetuated by the apparatus of the state and its institutions – of which they were part.
Many Pākehā have learned about tikanga and te reo Māori as a bridge builder between the
cultures.
Fifty years down the track, what progress have we made? Here is some data lifted from the
body of this report:
Data from the 2011/2012 New Zealand Health Survey – a national survey of approximately
13,000 adults and 4500 children (New Zealand Ministry of Health, 2012) – indicated Māori
are almost three times as likely as non-Māori to have experienced unfair treatment on the
basis of ethnicity. 12.4% of Māori reported unfair treatment in the areas of health care,
housing or work, compared to 4.2% of non-Māori. Data also showed Māori were more than
1.5 times more likely to have ever experienced ethnically motivated physical or verbal
attacks, with 26.9% of Māori men, having experienced such attacks (New Zealand Ministry
of Health, 2015). 1
In 2013 the New Zealand Human Rights Commission 2 (NZHRC) received 496 complaints of
racial discrimination from New Zealand citizens. People of Asian, Polynesian and Māori
descent all made complaints of racism, however, Māori reported experiencing the most
discrimination. The largest number of complaints related to perceived discrimination in the
employment area.
So, racism continues to be a lived experience for many Māori, and in the case of this report,
for Māori children as a population. Compared to all other groups, teachers have lowest
expectations of Māori students. Teacher expectations set the bar for Māori educational
achievement, so it should be no surprise to anyone that Māori have a long history of underachievement
in the New Zealand education system.
If protest and confronting racism head-on doesn’t work (and this seems to be the case),
what then is the solution? Enter the paradigm of unconscious bias, which we present as a
much-needed pathway out of the mire. The framework posits that bias is a natural human
characteristic, socialised into us by a complex mish-mash of cultural messaging. We have
2