Gridiron-to-School Pipeline

Sports have served as a vehicle for steering Polynesian youth from the school to prison pipeline. For females sports like volleyball, softball and basketball have been the greatest impact. For males it has been American football, rugby and boxing. Sports have not only provided a pathway to success in school, but also provide spaces where their identities can be expressed without resentment and their cultures valued. In the state of Utah it is not uncommon to view sports rosters across high school and collegiate teams and find Polynesian names or players. For example, this year 28 Division 1 college football scholarships were given to Utah players with 18 of those to Polynesian players (Goldman, n.d.). I will specifically look at football and the success Polynesian males have found socially and academically. American football is a recent phenomenon in Polynesian communities. Despite football being prevalent in American culture Polynesians have adopted the sport and embraced it. With the recent exposure to the sport, Polynesians have gained a great amount of success on all levels of the game. Many football critiques and scholars attribute the success of Polynesians to their physical features and abilities. To be a successful player there are distinct attributes applied to specific positions. The attributes that are associated as natural abilities for Polynesians are size, strength, explosiveness and quickness. Due to these attributes football coaches and recruiters have great interest for Polynesian players.  Another aspect that contributes to success for Polynesians in football is cultural similarities. I would like to apply the framework of Gloria Landson-Billings culturally relevant pedagogy as a platform to describe how Polynesian and football cultures have similarities. Cultural relevant pedagogy is a form of teaching practices that consist of the educator accompanying aspects of student’s culture and identity with the traditional school curriculum as a method to produce an alternative way of learning for diverse student populations. Football offers this approach for Polynesian male students. In Polynesian cultures family is central.  The family is put before the individual, which creates respect, love, sacrifice, selflessness, passion, pride and loyalty. These are also central emotions and perceptions asked by a football coach from his players. Polynesian culture, like football needs a brotherhood type environment.  Many Polynesian male athletes associate football with school. With football being central to their education, this promotes motivation to do well in school to remain academically eligible for football and creates a pipeline to college. A reason for continual success of this gridiron to college pipeline is the amount of value Polynesians place in being successful in sports. For many, football has become part of the Polynesian American experience. As Polynesian parents find ways to customize their families to living in America, many parents are starting to recognize the issues their children face in their new land. The pathway of using football to reach their American dreams is strongly encouraged at home.  These aspects of Polynesian cultures and football counter the school to prison pipeline and create the gridiron to school pipeline.


References:

Goldman, T. (n.d.) Polynesians make life out of football. Samoa observer.

Landson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American

     educational research journal, 32.Retrieved from http://links.jstor.org 

The Clash of Cultures

Since the initial Mormon influenced migration, Tongans and Samoans make up majority of the Utah Polynesian populations of today. The LDS church constructed educational institutions throughout Polynesia. The LDS operated higher education facility BYU-Hawaii being central. This greatly influenced the pipeline from Polynesia to mainland U.S. Upon arrival many Polynesians resided in communities of color and low socioeconomic status. This was the beginning of the clash of cultures. As newcomers to the U.S. and wanting to obtain the American dream, many Polynesians were oblivious to the dominant discourse of whiteness that was embedded in American life. The American dream for many Polynesians is to obtain economic and educational opportunities not only for themselves, but for future generations. As Polynesians strive to reach their goals, issues arise that become barriers that are historically well-known amongst minority groups prior to their arrival.One significant barrier is poverty. In Utah 1 out of every 4 Polynesian student lives in poverty.  When comparing to the rest of Utah, 16.1% of Polynesians under the age of 18 live in poverty while the rest of Utah is at 11.4% (Utah health department, n.d.). Poverty also restricts their social mobility and resources. Another barrier Polynesians face is educational attainment. For many Polynesian cultures it is prestigious and honorable for children to graduate high school and go to college. However, similar to other minorities of color, lies implicit and explicit institutional policies and curriculums that feed the school to prison pipeline rather than high school graduation or attending college. Currently Polynesians make up .8% of Utah’s population, but have a school dropout rate of 6.1%. Due to the dominant White, male, middle class discourse prevalent in school curriculum and policies that cater to it, many Polynesian students reject the system in similar ways as their African American and Latino neighbors have. Examples of similar forms of resisting are expressed through music such as hip hop and reggae. Another form is to become very in tuned with their Polynesian heritage. Many Polynesians obtain an identity of being Polynesian American and being Polynesian. This creates a concept of what African American scholar W. E. B. Dubois calls “double consciousness”.  Double consciousness describes how an individual’s identity is divided into several facets (Bruce Jr., 1992). Dubois used this concept to describe the dual identities African Americans obtained due to their treatment by White American society. The identities were socially constructed. An individual would view himself/herself in terms of what it means to be American from their own understanding and the other identity was to view him/her through the perspective of another.  Dubois concept speaks to an identity issue many Polynesians live with. For Polynesians, this concept can be applied to describe the managing of anga fakatonga (Tongan way) or faa samoa (Samoan way) with anga fakapalangi or fie palangi (Western or White way). In many Polynesian homes, children are taught to live by their native culture at home. When outside of the home, they are then taught to apply their American identity, specifically when at school. This causes a complex identity problem as children become confused and abandon one or the other depending on what is accepted, if accepted at all.  In school, the Western or White way is what is accepted. This leads to the clash of cultures.

In the Utah media Polynesians have gained attention for reasons other than sports.  Polynesians have been marked as Utah’s biggest and most violent gangs (Sullivan, 2005). Due to this negative attention Polynesians have been stereotyped as physically large, violent, unintelligent and deviant. These descriptions have become a method of criminalization and accepted in educational institutions to funnel Polynesians into the school to prison pipeline.

References:

Jr, Bruce, D. D. ( 1992). W. E. B. Du Bois and the idea of double consciousness. American Literature, 64 (2), 299-309. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2927837

Sullivan, T. (2005, August 8). The gangs of zion. High country news. Retrieved from

     http://www.hcn.org/issues/303/15680

Taylor M. J. & Rodgers, P. L. (2002). Table 2: Utah 2000 drop-out rates and educational

     attainment rates by ethnicity. In Utah State University: Center  for the School of the Future.,  

     Increasing graduation rates for minority and other at-risk students: The high school

    completion study. Retrieved from http://www.csf.usu.edu/publications/hscs.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau. (2010, August 16). Utah. State and county quick facts.  Retrieved from

     http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/49000.html