How Streaming (Tracking) in Eighth Grade Mathematics Reinforces Racialized Social Class Inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand

Bibliographic Data

ID11259634
AuthorsDavid Pomeroy (0000-0003-3187-4942, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, corresponding author), Liam Gibson (0000-0001-6009-0149, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand), Richard Manning (0000-0002-8151-370X, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand)
Year2024
Volume99
Issue1
Pages4-22
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePeabody Journal of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0161-956X • E-ISSN: 1532-7930
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0161956x.2024.2310461
OpenAlexW4392096262
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited28

In Aotearoa New Zealand stark social class inequities persist between Mori (Indigenous) and Pacific people and the Pkeh (New Zealand European) majority.These inequities are apparent in domains including education, income, health, and incarceration.The article explores the relationship between streaming (tracking) and historically rooted ethnic inequalities in one diverse urban setting.Drawing survey, assessment, and administrative data from 450 eighth-grade students across three multicultural secondary schools, we ask how school mathematics reinforces or disrupts social-class divisions between majority Pkeh and minoritized Mori and Pacific students.Students entering secondary school imagined their future careers in ways that were already strongly differentiated by race, class, and gender.Tracking students into racially stratified mathematics classes reinforced such inequalities through a self-reinforcing interaction between aspirations and mathematics achievement.In Aotearoa 1 New Zealand, stark social class inequities persist between Mori (Indigenous) and Pacific people on the one hand, and the Pkeh (New Zealand European) majority on the other.These inequities are apparent in the domains of education, income, health, incarceration, and others.In this article, we examine the extent to which streaming (tracking) in eighth-grade mathematics reinforces or disrupts social-class divisions between majority Pkeh (New Zealand European) and minoritized Mori (Indigenous) and Pacific 2 students, in Aotearoa New Zealand.In doing so, we empirically investigate two questions:(1) How are social class, mathematics achievement, and stream (track) allocation racialized on entry into secondary school?(2) To what extent does mathematics achievement mediate the relationship between parental social class and student job aspirations?Regarding the first question, Pkeh students, compared to Mori and Pacific students, come from more-privileged social-class backgrounds, have higher mathematics achievement, and are allocated into higher streams.Regarding the second question, mathematics achievement has a small mediating effect on the relationship between parental social class and student job aspirations-students with higher mathematics achievement are more likely to aspire to upward occupational mobility.We discuss these empirical results in the context of previous studies that show that streaming exacerbates

Aotearoa · Class (philosophy · Inequality · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Social class · Social inequality · Sociology · Tracking (education · Computer Science · Early Childhood Education and Development · Gender Studies · Mathematics · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · School Choice and Performance