Imaginary subjects: school science, indigenous students, and knowledge–power relations

The perspectives of indigenous science learners in developed nations offer an important but frequently overlooked dimension to debates about the nature of science, the science curriculum, and calls from educators to make school science more culturally responsive or ‘relevant’ to students from indigenous or minority groups. In this paper the findings of a study conducted with indigenous Maori children between the ages of 10 and 12 years are discussed. The purpose of the study was to examine the ways that indigenous children in an urban school environment in New Zealand position themselves in relation to school science. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein, we argue that although the interplay between emergent cultural identity narratives and the formation of ‘science selves’ is not as yet fully understood, it carries the potential to open a rich seam of learning for indigenous children

The Pakaru ‘Pipeline’: Māori and Pasifika Pathways within the Academy

We examine the academic ‘pipeline’ for Māori and Pasifika graduates and illustrate the chronic under-representation of Māori and Pasifika in permanent academic positions in New Zealand universities. We identify areas within higher education where significant opportunities are being lost for the recruitment and retention of Māori and Pasifika. The narratives of Māori and Pasifika post-doctoral researchers, research associates and professional teaching fellows provide further insight into the advantages and disadvantages of these positions. Lastly, we propose a Pacific alternative metaphor ‘Pacific Navigation of Academic Pathways’ based on Pacific navigation, as opposed to the more commonly used term ‘pipeline’, in order to capture the nuances of Pasifika and Māori experiences

The Pakaru ‘Pipeline’: Māori and Pasifika Pathways within the Academy

We examine the academic ‘pipeline’ for Māori and Pasifika graduates and illustrate the chronic under-representation of Māori and Pasifika in permanent academic positions in New Zealand universities. We identify areas within higher education where significant opportunities are being lost for the recruitment and retention of Māori and Pasifika. The narratives of Māori and Pasifika post-doctoral researchers, research associates and professional teaching fellows provide further insight into the advantages and disadvantages of these positions. Lastly, we propose a Pacific alternative metaphor ‘Pacific Navigation of Academic Pathways’ based on Pacific navigation, as opposed to the more commonly used term ‘pipeline’, in order to capture the nuances of Pasifika and Māori experiences

Comparatively Speaking: Notes On Decolonising Research

This paper kindly shared by Associate Professor Kidman is a developed version of her Keynote Address at the OCIES 2018 Annual Conference held at Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa.We reprint it here in order to share it with our international readership.For citation purposes, her paper was given on 21 November 2018.Thank you, Joanna, for this gift.

MᾹORI SCHOLARS AND THE UNIVERSITY.

The purpose of this report is to review the findings of a two-year project, Māori Academic socialization and the university, funded by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (2014-2015). The principal investigators on this report were Joanna Kidman and Cherie Chu (Te Kura Māori, Victoria University of Wellington). The study explored the ways that Māori and Pacific senior scholars became academics; how they shape their interactions and relationships with their institutions of higher learning; how they engage with their disciplines; and, how they transform academic knowledge in ways that support and sustain their cultural and tribal communities as well as contribute to national development. The project also investigates the institutional challenges experienced by Māori and Pacific faculty who work within universities and Wānanga. Over a two-year period, the investigators conducted a qualitative, ethnographic study that included 43 participants (comprising 29 Māori participants and 14 Pacific participants) who were senior academics (i.e. senior lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor) based in a range of disciplines in the sciences, humanities, social sciences and professional and applied disciplines. The participants were located in nine PhD-granting tertiary institutions in New Zealand; a small amount of comparative data were collected from senior scholars in two universities in the Pacific region

Boulcott Memorial Project Report

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‘We’re not the hottest ethnicity’: Pacific scholars and the cultural politics of New Zealand universities

Academic labour markets around the world are increasingly globalised and tied to transnational circuits of neoliberal capital. Universities in New Zealand are closely aligned with these trends and an academic labour force has developed over time that reflects these economic flows and currents. This labour force is characterised by an exceptionally high number of multinational academic staff, many of whom contribute to research and inquiry aimed at maintaining and broadening the influence of their institutions abroad. Pacific faculty, however, experience the micro-geographies of New Zealand universities in different ways from other migrant scholars, especially those who hail from the global North. They are rarely included in academic ‘prestige economies’ or elite scholarly networks and are often isolated in their academic departments. This paper draws on a study about the experiences of senior Pacific academics in Aotearoa New Zealand and explores how they formulate pan-Pacific solidarities within the neoliberal and settler-colonial milieu of higher education. We focus on the often fraught dynamics of encounters between Pacific scholars, white academic elites and indigenous Māori colleagues as they map academic identities on to institutional space