Philippa Butler

Citation

Thesis Title
Negotiating multiplicity: Macro, meso and micro influences on the ethnic identifications of New Zealand secondary school students

Read article at Massey Research Online:

In New Zealand, the number of people who identify with more than one ethnic group is increasing, but there is little understanding of what this means for individuals. This mixed methods research examined the multiple ethnic identities of senior students (aged between 16 and 18 years), by focusing on how they identified themselves, what decisions formed the bases of their identifications, and what influenced their identifications at three interconnecting levels: the macro (state) level, the meso (institutional) level, and the micro (family and individual) level. Ms Butler explored the ways that students negotiated their multiple ethnic group identifications, despite state, school and family pressures towards singularity. Her thesis contributes a complex and nuanced examination of the ways that ethnic identifications are constructed at each of the three levels for adolescents who identify with multiple ethnic groups.

Supervisors
Associate Professor Robyn Andrews
Dr Avril Bell
Professor Margaret Walshaw