Assignment 2 - 741 Muhammad Ali

Under the Bridge Documentary Analysis Notes

Slide 1 - Intro
Under the Bridge is a NZ Herald Feature documentary that followed the lives of three
Papakura High School students in their final year of school showing their ups and downs to
challenge the stereotypical view of the school and area. The documentary presents what it's
really like to be a student in this school from their perspective. It is a story of how a
community struggles and fights against the odds for survival and success.

Slide 2 - Dominant Discourses and Implicit Beliefs

The documentary challenges the dominant discourse that the education system benefits all
students equally by showing how this is simply not true in the case of Papakura High
School. The documentary outlines how Radical changes are needed to New Zealand's
schooling model to stop the success of wealthy schools at the expense of the poor. The
Principal, John Rohs points out the impact of poverty on the education of young people at
this school is significant and how many people find it difficult to understand this coming from
various backgrounds. "Those who grow up in privilege find it hard to grasp what our world
looks like. Our kids grow up with a worldview that is so narrow and so limited that it's quite
scary," he says. The education system is failing Papakura High as it is not benefitting all
students. Many parents in the Papakura community send their own kids to schools outside of
the Papakura area as they belief it is not a good place to be educated. These kind of
implicit beliefs impact on the students who do attend the school and question their self-worth
and identity.

Slide 3 - Educational Problems/Solutions

Under the Bridge frames a significant educational problem - the decile system which
consequently outlines problems in inequality and equity in education. Looking at the decile
system, the documentary talks about how Papakura High, a decile 1 school was losing
students to Rosehill, a decile 6 school. On one hand, Papakura High was on the verge of
shutting its gates and on the other Rosehill gained new buildings, extra funding and a
reputation of a better school. Papakura High was left with a higher concentration of
students from poor backgrounds, who brought with them added social and educational
problems. Papakura High is seen as a last resort. This impacts ones identity as Stephen
May & Christine E. Sleeter (2010) describe location to be an integral part of ones identity.
So if students are not able to feel a sense of belonging to their school, then this impacts their
state of engagement and motivation in a classroom.

Slide 4 - Purpose of Education

What is the purpose of education? "... it's not that I need to give them a sandwich, it's about
giving our kids the opportunity to actually experience what a rich life is all about." The NZC
states that education instills values such as diversity, equity, community and the
participation for the common good so that we create young people who will be confident,
connected, actively involved and are lifelong learners. John Rohs defines the purpose of
education at his school which consists of teachers that give a sense of hope to the students
that education is going to be the lever that's going to give them a future and a life. Wendy
from the documentary calls her school, her home. The purpose of education is to have a
positive impact on identity formation for young people where education interplays among
community recognition, societal categorization, classification and socialisation (Adams,
2013). Furthermore this purpose of education needs to be implemented on a government
Assignment 2 - 741 Muhammad Ali

level, reiterated by Papakura Highs Principal on many occasions talking about tackling a lot
of the issues faced by the school. Political factors interrupted the social and educational
commitment to securing the rights of all students to be schooled with their age peers
(Selvaraj, 2015).

Slide 5 - Concepts Covered in 741 and Practicum Experience

The concepts covered in 741 that helped me to unpack narratives presented in this
documentary were multiculturalism, advantage and disadvantage in education, diversity and
identity. Most of these concepts I believe relate directly with the issues faced by Papakura
High, their students, staff and community. The ideas and some of the issues expressed in
the documentary coincide with my practicum school who are also a low decile school with a
majority of Maori and Pasifika student population. My practicum school which was also my
high school, went through what Papakura High is going through while I was at school with a
reputation of a bad school with gang influences. So I was able to relate to what the
students were going through as my parents wanted to send me to a different school but I
was out of zone and ended up at this particular school. Through the efforts of the hard
working teachers and the community coming together to support my school, it is now one of
the most renowned schools in South Auckland and NZ with the highest roll in its history, over
1600. Through my time at my practicum school, I can see why this is so. I strongly believe, if
the education system can support our most vulnerable students, we can truly work together
in creating brighter futures for our young people.

References:

Adams, M. (2013). Readings for diversity and social justice (Third edition). New York:

Routledge Taylor & Franacis Group.

Johnston, K. (2017). Under the Bridge. Retrieved from

http://features.nzherald.co.nz/under-the-bridge/

New Zealand Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, NZ:

Published for the Ministry of Education by Learning Media c2007. Retrieved from

http://ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/login?url=http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/content/download/8

66/6081/file/Curr%20-TEXT.pdf

Selvaraj, J. (2015). Inclusive education in New Zealand: policies, politics and contradictions.

International Journal of Inclusive Education, 19(1), 86101.

https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2014.907584

Stephen May, & Christine E. Sleeter. (2010). Critical Multiculturalism. Routledge. Retrieved

from http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203858059