EQUITY FOR PASIFIKA LEARNERS Developing Equity for Pa ¯sifika Learners Within a New Zealand Context: Attending to Culture and Values Jodie Hunter 1 • Roberta Hunter 1 • Trevor Bills 1 • Ingrid Cheung 1 • Barbara Hannant 1 • Kevin Kritesh 1 • Rakesh Lachaiya 1 Received: 8 February 2016 / Accepted: 28 June 2016 / Published online: 6 October 2016 Ó New Zealand Association for Research in Education 2016 Abstract Many Pa ¯sifika students start their schooling fluent in their own language and with a rich background of knowledge and experiences. However, very quickly they join high numbers of Pa ¯sifika students failing within the education system. The reasons are diverse but many link directly to the structural inequities they encounter which cause a disconnect (and dismissal) of their cultural values, understandings, and experiences. In this article we share the findings across multiple studies of the role that language, family, and respectful relationships hold as enablers or barriers to Pa ¯sifika students’ access to education. We illustrate that when educators consider the language and culture of Pa ¯sifika students and explicitly establish respectful and reciprocal relationships with the students and their family, learning is enhanced and their cultural identity positively affirmed. Keywords Culturally responsive pedagogy Á Equity Á Language Á Pa ¯sifika values Á Relationships Achieving equity in education for all learners is an urgent challenge placed on educators within the current political climate. All learners within our schooling systems are expected to achieve across all areas of the school curriculum and leave school literate and numerate (Ministry of Education 2010). For teachers this means that they are positioned within the constantly changing context of education with responsibility to equip all students to be knowledgeable and able to succeed within diverse global communities (Alton-Lee 2011). New Zealand, like many other countries, has an increasingly diverse and changing student population including the largest group of Pa ¯sifika students in the Western world. This group of Pa ¯sifika students are characterised by unenviable statistics; statistics in which a large & Jodie Hunter J.Hunter1@massey.ac.nz 1 Institute of Education, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand 123 NZ J Educ Stud (2016) 51:197–209 DOI 10.1007/s40841-016-0059-7