Colonial Privileges in a Settler Society: Disparities of Cultural Capital in a University Setting

Drawing on forty one-on-one interviews with third year students from The University of Auckland, this study contrasts the experiences of students from working- and upper-class backgrounds. In particular, the study demonstrates how working-class students, most of whom come from Indigenous Māori and Pacific ethnic backgrounds, are forced to navigate obstacles infused with interpersonal and institutional racism. These students also report a stigmatising awareness of their lack of privilege and sense of obligation to give back to their ethnic communities. In contrast students from upper-class backgrounds, though hard-working, discuss a litany of opportunities extending their academic and occupational privilege. These capital-building opportunities are tightly connected to consistent family support in the form of gifted money, flexible work options, and networks that enhance professional experience. Working with kaupapa Māori and Bourdeausian conceptual frameworks, the study highlights privileged students’ ability to access and extend their objectified cultural capital, as less economically privileged students work their way through colonial blockades and classed pitfalls. Given the clear disparities expressed by study participants, the research suggests universities radically reframe how resources are allocated to students from diverse backgrounds

Reaching Social Impact Through Communicative Methodology. Researching With Rather Than on Vulnerable Populations: The Roma Case

Communicative methodology has been acknowledged as having an impact at all levels: social, political, and scientific. The social impact is achieved with communicative methodology by involving the people or communities we intend to study from the beginning to the end of the research. There are positive benefits to those involved, which increases the impact. Therefore, communicative methodology enhances the potential of stakeholders (including those traditionally excluded) for social transformation through the use of egalitarian dialogue. Additionally, those stakeholders co-lead the research and promote change in their own social environments because of their inclusion in all stages of the research process. The theoretical basis of communicative methodology led to the assumption of postulates that enable social transformation. Researchers, taking into account the theoretical principles and postulates, interpret reality through dialogic knowledge while researching with vulnerable populations. This article illustrates how it is possible to attain social impact using communicative methodology in diverse contexts and points out how the communicative organization of research and the communicative analysis of data can be decisive in attaining social impact. Such change contributes to the social and educational transformation of reality and to improving the lives of vulnerable populations

Growing grassroots post-graduates: A whanau approach to Maori Tertiary Success.

Principle-based pratice: Manaaki, Whanaungatanga,Tuakana-teina, Tikanga then guides practice, Kaumatua deepen understanding, Personal values shape kaw

Children Witnessing Parental Violence: A Social Worker from Aotearoa/New Zealand Responds, response within Case study #1:Children witnessing parental violence

Social work within each national context is complex and multifaceted—Aotearoa/New Zealand (A/NZ) is no different. Social workers fulfill a vast array of roles ranging from care to control, from agent of the state to activist, from educator to health promoter to family worker. The role of “social worker” has public, sanitized,and carefully delineated definitions made by professional associations, registration boards, and agency-based role descriptions, yet these often belie the underlying rubric of inconsistencies, power dynamics, tensions,and complexities of actual practice. Thus, it’s difficult to state with authority what a typical social worker would do in regard to this case study, as other A/NZ social workers may dispute the version of the “truth” about what actions a social worker might take in this case. Given these general caveats, the presentation here is one possible response within the A/NZ setting to the case study of Amina

Creating education spaces for successful Indigenous tertiary learners: The TATT Project

This paper describes the Tutorial Assistance Teaching Team (TATT) project: a holistic, collaborative student success and retention initiative, designed for first-year social work students at Unitec Institute of Technology in New Zealand. The TATT project underwent its pilot year in the beginning of 2012. Though the project supports all students, it is particularly relevant to educators working with Indigenous student populations as the initiatives use Maori cultural principles. The TATT project brings together academic and pastoral care resources and creates culturally safe spaces for a diverse student cohort. The paper outlines the project’s cultural underpinnings, components, processes and student response, and discusses the lessons learned from the experimental first year of this on-going project