75 Human Rights Commission Deficit models in education Deficit models, often framed as ‘Māori underachievement’, has dominated education since the 1980s (The Southern Initiative, Ministry of Education, The Auckland Co-Design Lab & Innovation Unit, 2020a, p. 17; Hynds and Sheehan, 2010, p. 107). Ostensibly framed to uplift Māori, deficit models fail because it is assumed the problem lies with, and is inherent to, Māori students, rather than the result of the systemic deficiencies and racism in education. The result is an education system that has ‘consistently failed whānau, hapū, and iwi for many generations, and has low expectations for Māori and of Māori achievement’ (Office of the Auditor General, 2012, p. 15). In the classroom, this is expressed in teachers having low expectations of Māori students, creating a downward spiralling, self-fulfilling prophecy of Māori student achievement and failure (Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai & Richardson, 2003, p. 204) “irrespective of actual achievement” (The Southern Initiative et al, 2020b, p. 18). Deficit expectations by teachers via the dominant power relations of racism create low self-expectations in students from the subordinate culture: At high school, probably our biggest goal was to go on the Domestic Purposes Benefit and have children. There were no incentives to further yourself. We were not encouraged to achieve anything. It was like our futures were pre-written (Huria, Cuddy, Lacey, Pitama, 2014, p. 367). This system is highly resistant to change because it is Pākehā who prescribe and assess the measures of Māori performance (The Southern Initiative et al, 2020b, p. 17). Systemic racism in education: The dispossession of land, coupled with racist education curriculum and language policies, led to intergenerational poverty and hardship (Reid et al, 2017, pp. 36–7). Pākehā teachers thought that inferior Māori needed European education to civilise. “My white history teacher told us we should be grateful NZ was colonised, otherwise Māori would still be savages” (Muru-Lanning, 2020). And while the education sector conducts regular external and self-review systems it never critiques itself regarding Māori: Māori students are expected to thrive in a system that is not aware of its own Pākehā bias (The Southern Initiative et al, 2020b, p. 47). As former Moerewa School principal Keri MilneIhimaera commented, “Our Māori kids are inherently capable, it’s the system that doesn’t work. We keep doing the same dumb shit in schools and expect different results” (Franks, 2019). Racism and low expectations of tauira Māori Low teacher expectations of Māori go hand-in-hand with Pākehā assumptions that tauira Māori (Māori students) are “slow”, “unacademic”, “thick”, and “dumb” (Prasad, 2000, pp. 94–5). Māori are put in the too hard basket, “the effort is too much, they are not worth it, it’s useless to even try” (Prasad, 2000, p. 97). Over the past few years, new research has shown both the extent of these attitudes among teachers and a double standard in how they treat tauira Māori (Māori students) and non-Māori students: Because we’re Māoris and the teacher might think we’re dumb, they don’t wanna pay as much attention to us, they focus more on the white peoples (Office of the Children’s Commissioner and New Zealand School Trustees Association, 2018, pp. 19–20).