Education and identity

"For years public figures have proclaimed that too few Maoris graduate from our universities, and innumerable commissions and committees have pondered why Maori youth have not been achieving the success in examinations that they expect. Few, however, have stopped to measure the personal and social outcomes of such success when it is achieved. Dr. Thomas K. Fitzgerald, an American anthropologist, attempts such an assessment. Vividly, and with apt detail, he brings out the complexities of the adjustment that is faced by Maori graduates, their attitudes to the past and the future, their expectations of the New Zealand Europeans and their notions of "the Maori" in New Zealand society. The core of his perceptive commentary is to be found in the life histories of eleven representative Maori graduates. Here, in brief episodic sketches of their lives and work, theoretical interpretations are nicely juxtaposed with more personal, intuitive appreciations. "Education and identity" will be of special interest to educators, particularly to those who reflect upon the roles and responsibilities of the well-educated among cultural minorities. But it is equally important as a contribution both to anthropology, and to public understanding of a new generation of Maori leaders." -- Inside front cover.