Supervision of Maori doctoral students: A descriptive report

This report follows up a previous paper that outlined the goals and plans of a research project that focused on both theoretical and cultural questions regarding the supervisory process for Māori doctoral students (McKinley, Grant, Middleton, Irwin, & Williams, 2007). The major goal of the project is to enhance understanding of the teaching and learning process of supervision for students and supervisors, particularly around issues of culture that arise in research methodologies and practices. This paper reports on the completed project by providing further operational background, design features, the nature of the student and supervisor samples and a summary of interview findings. The results show that there are indeed distinctive issues arising within the supervision of Māori doctoral students. Some of these are to do with both pleasures and challenges found in the supervision relationship, while others relate to the kinds of projects the students undertake. Many projects for example, push at the disciplinary boundaries of Western knowledge and are often rooted in a political desire to enhance the everyday lives of Māori. Yet others are connected to identity formation processes that concern many Māori during their years as doctoral students. A central message for supervisors from this work is that the supervision of Māori doctoral students may require unfamiliar forms of engagement but that these are likely to be deeply rewarding in many different ways

Maori Education in 1992: A Review and Discussion

From the voyages of Te Aurere, the waka that retraced the voyage of our tipuna by sailing from Aotearoa to Rarotonga and back (Te Puni Kokiri, 1992), to the daily symposium of research based papers on Maori education at the joint NZARE/AARE Researchers in Education conference in Geelong, Melbourne (AARE/NZARE, 1992), Maori education in traditional and contemporary forms has followed this counsel in interesting ways in 1992, both in Aotearoa as well as in the wider international context. A sampling of these programmes throughout this paper will highlight the diversity this expression has taken in the past twelve months. The year also marked the anniversary of some significant events in our educational history: a decade since the opening of the first Te Kohanga Reo, effectively launching the movement and, nine decades since the birth of Clarence Beeby, former Director General of Education, one of this country’s educational giants, whose words in 1939 gave Peter Fraser, then Minister of Education, the first education policy on equal educational opportunity. In August 1992 it was announced that the Contestable Equity Fund would not be continued in the 1993 academic year. Somewhat incredible was the statement which announced the fund’s abolition: The fund was set up to encourage institutions in ways of equity, and this has been done. (AUS, 1992) ...an interesting claim, on the eve of the 1993 Suffrage Year activities and the 1993 United Nations Indigenous People’s Year. Indeed, the fate of equity in education since the National government came to power in late 1990 has been a matter of real concern. Equity remains one of this country’s critical contemporary issues. Analyses of the equity women have attained in this country, particularly Maori women, will be discussed in the light of this claim and the recently released Status of Women in New Zealand. The Second Periodic Report on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, it is described by the Hon. Jenny Shipley in its foreword as “the most definitive piece of work to date on the status of women in New Zealand” (CEDAW, 1992, p. vi). Prepared by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for submission to the United Nations and released in December 1992, this report will provide the most up to date data against which to test claims about the attainment of equity on any economic, social or educational indicators. These events will be briefly visited in order to provide something of a historical perspective on this 1992 review, ensuring that it is not read in an ahistorical timeless void. In summary, then, this paper will analyse Maori education in 1992, by providing an overview of Maori education initiatives in national and international contexts, and by comparing some issues and trends in Maori education in 1992 with their historical antecedents

Maori Education in 1993: A Review and Discussion

Was 1993 a happening year or was 1993 a happening year! A number of significant events, in national as well as global terms, occurred. It was: the centenary year of Women’s Suffrage in Aotearoa; the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, linking “an estimated 250 million indigenous people in more than seventy countries around the world” (Te Puni Kokiri, 1993a); an election year; and the final year of the Development Decade, which was outlined as the third objective of the kawenata, the covenant, declared by Maoridom at the Hui Taumata, the Maori Economic Development Summit held in 1984, marked in Te Rapa this year with the holding of the 1993 National Commercial and Economic Development Conference, organised by the Ki Tua o Te Arai Trust (Te Puni Kokiri, 1993b). Each of these events has major implications for Maori education during 1993 and beyond. Analyses of the implications of these events for Maori education provide the major organising themes for this paper. The events of 1993 have stimulated much critical debate, research and scholarly analyses of the issues they encompass. We will all be the richer for the publication of these new works. Numerous conferences have been held and books launched. Some of the books capturing this year’s themes with significance for Maori education include: Standing in the Sunshine (Coney, 1993); Maori Women and the Vote (Rei, 1993); Nga Mahi Whakaari a Titokowaru, Ruka Broughton’s previously unpublished draft doctoral thesis (Broughton, 1993) (the first Maori text on Titokowaru to be published, following the two previously published texts in English by Pakeha writers); Learning Liberation: Women as Facilitators of Learning (Manchester and O’Rourke, 1993); Te Ara Tika: Maori and Libraries – A Research Report (MacDonald, 1993); Educating Feminists: Life Histories and Pedagogy (Middleton, 1993); Te Maori i roto i nga Mahi Whakaakoranga – Maori in Education (Davies and Nicholl, 1993); Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand (Else et al., 1993); and Te Hikoi Marama, Volume 2 – A Directory of Maori Information Resources (Szekely, 1993)..

Maori Education in 1993: A Review and Discussion

Was 1993 a happening year or was 1993 a happening year! A number of significant events, in national as well as global terms, occurred. It was: the centenary year of Women’s Suffrage in Aotearoa; the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, linking “an estimated 250 million indigenous people in more than seventy countries around the world” (Te Puni Kokiri, 1993a); an election year; and the final year of the Development Decade, which was outlined as the third objective of the kawenata, the covenant, declared by Maoridom at the Hui Taumata, the Maori Economic Development Summit held in 1984, marked in Te Rapa this year with the holding of the 1993 National Commercial and Economic Development Conference, organised by the Ki Tua o Te Arai Trust (Te Puni Kokiri, 1993b). Each of these events has major implications for Maori education during 1993 and beyond. Analyses of the implications of these events for Maori education provide the major organising themes for this paper. The events of 1993 have stimulated much critical debate, research and scholarly analyses of the issues they encompass. We will all be the richer for the publication of these new works. Numerous conferences have been held and books launched. Some of the books capturing this year’s themes with significance for Maori education include: Standing in the Sunshine (Coney, 1993); Maori Women and the Vote (Rei, 1993); Nga Mahi Whakaari a Titokowaru, Ruka Broughton’s previously unpublished draft doctoral thesis (Broughton, 1993) (the first Maori text on Titokowaru to be published, following the two previously published texts in English by Pakeha writers); Learning Liberation: Women as Facilitators of Learning (Manchester and O’Rourke, 1993); Te Ara Tika: Maori and Libraries – A Research Report (MacDonald, 1993); Educating Feminists: Life Histories and Pedagogy (Middleton, 1993); Te Maori i roto i nga Mahi Whakaakoranga – Maori in Education (Davies and Nicholl, 1993); Women Together: A History of Women’s Organisations in New Zealand (Else et al., 1993); and Te Hikoi Marama, Volume 2 – A Directory of Maori Information Resources (Szekely, 1993)..

Maori Education in 1991: A Review and Discussion

So much has happened in education in the past few years that it is extremely difficult to know, even at a basic descriptive level, what constitutes the full range of programmes coming under the rubric of “Maori education”, in formal, institutional contexts as well as in non-formal community based ones, let alone to review or offer critical analysis of them. We need to do urgent work just to establish what constitutes Maori education. Many new developments are a long way ahead of publications about them. Indeed, the published literature on Maori education is behind the cutting edge of change as many of the most exciting innovators in Maori education are so busy there seems little opportunity for them to take time out, to reflect, and to write in depth about their work. At this crucial time in Maori education, we need to identify and analyse the totality of what counts as “Maori education”, the good news and the bad, to provide a balanced view. We need to identify success in Maori education at this time, as much as if not more than we need to identify failure. We have had the “bad news” for years, indeed, there is a whole educational industry which has grown around it. This is not to deny the urgency of the need to keep addressing the areas of Maori education which remain serious concerns. The Education Gazette of March 15, 1991 identified the following key policy issues as critical to Maori education: 1. achievement rates of Maori students are low in comparison with other groups in New Zealand, and the gap is widening; 2. the Maori language is facing extinction; 3. there is debate about whether mainstream education or separate structures offer the most promising solutions for improving achievement rates and retaining the Maori language. But if justification can be made for continually funding the educational enterprise which is centred on Maori educational failure, surely an equally powerful argument, if not more so, can also be made for funding a new enterprise which is concerned with Maori educational success. This paper aims to critically review and analyse, as completely as is possible, given the constraints identified above, Maori education in 1991. Though a difficult aim for a short paper like this, anything less at this time, it seems to me, would do the breadth and depth of development that is Maori education in the nineties a disservice..

Maori Education in 1994: A Review and Discussion

This article comprises four main sections each of which explores “whanau” in a range of educational contexts. The first section draws from research published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society by Dame Joan Metge (1990) to comment on the meaning and changing use of the concept “whanau”. This overview is then followed by the second section which comprises reflections and analyses of the Te Kauru family reunion which I attended at the beginning of this year. The third section takes May 6th, 1994, the day the film Once were Warriors and the book Te Maranga a te Ihu a Hukarere were launched, as a focal point to illuminate and explore the impact of two of the main contemporary uses of whanau in their respective contexts. Section four highlights and discusses the findings of a major study completed in 1994 in which “whanau” played a significant role. The study, “What happens to Maori girls at school?”, is the final report of The Regional Study of the School Based Factors Affecting the Schooling of Maori Girls in Immersion, Bilingual and Mainstream Programmes in the Wellington Region, commissioned by the Ministry of Education

Maori Education in 1994: A Review and Discussion

This article comprises four main sections each of which explores “whanau” in a range of educational contexts. The first section draws from research published in the Journal of the Polynesian Society by Dame Joan Metge (1990) to comment on the meaning and changing use of the concept “whanau”. This overview is then followed by the second section which comprises reflections and analyses of the Te Kauru family reunion which I attended at the beginning of this year. The third section takes May 6th, 1994, the day the film Once were Warriors and the book Te Maranga a te Ihu a Hukarere were launched, as a focal point to illuminate and explore the impact of two of the main contemporary uses of whanau in their respective contexts. Section four highlights and discusses the findings of a major study completed in 1994 in which “whanau” played a significant role. The study, “What happens to Maori girls at school?”, is the final report of The Regional Study of the School Based Factors Affecting the Schooling of Maori Girls in Immersion, Bilingual and Mainstream Programmes in the Wellington Region, commissioned by the Ministry of Education

Pragmatism and caffeine: lessons from cross-agency, cross-sector working

The ways forward for addressing complex policy problems have been well documented and concepts like network leadership, collaboration and citizen engagement espoused. In reality, for those working in cross-agency, cross-sector teams, the way forward is messy, frustrating, and simultaneously exciting. This article shares the practical experience of a cross-agency, cross-sector project team in the hope that thinking is invested not only in the virtues of new ways of working, but in how to operationalise them

Working at the interface: Indigenous students’ experience of undertaking doctoral studies in Aotearoa New Zealand

Māori (indigenous)¹ doctoral students in Aotearoa New Zealand face challenges not usually experienced by other doctoral candidates. We draw on data from in-depth interviews with 38 Māori doctoral candidates and argue that because of the tensions between academic disciplinary knowledge frameworks and knowledge drawn from te ao Māori (the Māori world) indigenous students have additional cultural, academic, and personal demands placed on them while aiming to produce research theses that meet conventional standards of academic scholarship. Complex methodological and ethical issues also emerge in undertaking doctoral research projects situated at the interface of academy and indigenous communities. Moreover, Māori students experience various degrees of tension between their sometimes strong cultural identities and their emerging and, therefore, less certain identities as researchers and scholars