The Relationship Between Student Achievement and Self-esteem through Cultivating Cultural Identity:From the Point of View of the Policy of Cultural Education in New Zealand

The school teachers in New Zealand try to encourage their students with their attitude that all teachers should be generous toward cultural diversity.This attitude might be a great suggestion to teachers in other countries who pay too much attention to PISA results.KeywordsPISA, culture, diversity, identity IntroductionNew Zealand used to strive to be the United Kingdom of the South Pacific.Immigrants from Britain worked hard to improve their labor force in order to build a stronger nation after arriving in New Zealand.As a result, many immigrants from around the world who came to New Zealand to work were accepted.Only immigrants from the U.K. were accepted in the beginning.However, New Zealand began to cooperate with Asian countries after the U.K joined the European Union.This relationship between Asia and South Pacific countries allowed New Zealand to become a multicultural country.The policies implemented to build up their labor force led to the creation of a multicultural society which recently has caused problems within the education system.The indigenous people of New Zealand, the Maori, and immigrants from U.K. signed the Waitangi Treaty in 1840.This treaty is considered to be the backbone of New Zealand politics and highly influences various national policies.Even though the Maori population decreased dramatically, it started to recover after the last war.As for their cultural studies, children are learning multicultural circumstances under a basic bicultural policy.This theme of teaching, which was inherited from the U.K., was added to the curriculum in 1993 and practiced until the end of the 20 th century.They reinforced their children's literacy ability with storytelling methods and IT programs atThe Relationship Between Student Achievement and Self-esteem through Cultivating