scholarly journals Developing Our Voices: Pacific Early Career Academics’ Journeys in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Baice ◽  
Sereana Naepi ◽  
Seuta‘afili Patrick Thomsen ◽  
Karamia Muller ◽  
Marcia Leenen-Young ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The University

The proportion of Pacific academics in permanent confirmation path positions at New Zealand universities (1.4 percent) continues to lag far behind the Pacific share of New Zealand’s population (7 percent). In this paper, we use a thematic talanoa to explore the experiences of Pacific early career academics (PECA) at the University of Auckland to highlight the key themes, challenges and features of our daily lives in the colonial, Western, and Pākehā institution that is the university. This paper sheds light on the systemic and structural barriers that impact PECA journeys through higher education and suggests actions that universities in New Zealand can take to further support, nurture, and develop PECA pathways into and upward through the academy.

scholarly journals Poetic Deviances, Lessgo Deconstruct the Master’s Tools: Creatively Critical Talanoa Mālie and Critical Autoethnographic Defiance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Taufui Mikato Faʻavae ◽  
Edmond Fehoko ◽  
Sione Siuʻulua ◽  
Finausina Tovo
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The University

Indigenous Pacific knowledges embody creative modes of expression and sensibilities as meaning–making. Academia, as a Western-oriented institution, however, privileges intellectualisations that favour abstract critical thinking through more objective lenses. As Moana–Pacific–Pasifika researchers, being creatively critical in higher education begins from our Indigenous concepts and creative practices such as poetry. Talanoa mālie provides a worldview of being–knowing–seeing–doing that we inhabit as Tongans within higher education beyond the boundaries of our ancestral fonua or whenua. Our critical autoethnographic reflections as early career academics are woven through and positioned within our wider talatalanoa, which ultimately seeks to defy, disrupt, and deconstruct dominant Western academic tools and practices within the university context in Aotearoa–New Zealand.  

scholarly journals Reflexivity, Internal Conversation and Societal Influences on Higher Education Students’ Consideration of Values and Priorities during their Citizenship Studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Linda Rowan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Framework Analysis ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
New Graduates ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Technological Developments

<p>My thesis examines the reflexive processing of knowledge, beliefs, values and personal priorities in the internal and external conversations of students during a period of university study. In higher education, learners encounter the values and views of knowledge prioritised by political, institutional, departmental and academic discourses; beliefs, values and dispositions which may differ from their own. Currently there is little understanding of how university students examine and act on new understandings of knowledge in light of their existing reference points and priorities. I use structure-agency and reflexivity theory as lenses to understand individuals’ agentic responses to the personal, social and structural enablements and constraints encountered in their university studies and daily lives.  Using reflexivity methods drawn from Margaret Archer’s work, I investigated students’ responses to citizenship concepts presented in three compulsory courses at one Aotearoa/New Zealand university. My research involved a unique application of framework analysis methods to draw themes from the 31 participants’ stories while retaining the integrity of each narrative.  In a new application of Archer’s work, I found that some participants demonstrated controlled reflexivity in containing their reflexive thought processes in response to situational changes such as family trauma or mental health. Controlled reflexivity ensured the actor balanced their concerns against their projects and goals to manage and contain both their internal and external deliberations. This research challenges Archer’s idea that the disruptions of late modernity removed people from their natal contexts, increasing their need for higher levels of reflexivity. While reflexivity shifts when students’ values and concerns are challenged, I found that technological developments have allowed individuals to retain more and deeper connections with their natal context than in Archer’s work. Furthermore, I argue that Archer’s claim of a reflexive progression in dominant modes due to increased education is too simplistic and fails to acknowledge that students’ reflexive practices are highly contextual (such as living in a bicultural country like Aotearoa/New Zealand) and strongly influenced by personal circumstances. Internal conversations for my research participants were complemented with external conversations to build reflexivity. Single, dual or multi modes of reflexivity were revealed in study-work life as students’ personal priorities shifted. The specificity of reflexive processing means reflexivity typologies need to be robust to be applied across cultures and contexts.  This work is a reminder to policy developers, universities, teachers and employers that the “invisible” personal characteristics and attributes that society seeks to see in new graduates are neither easy to assess nor to confirm using typologies. Academics need to remain open to understanding the multiple intersections of the study world with individuals’ wider social worlds and circumstances.</p>

Searching for tūpuna

IFLA Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 034003522110246
Author(s):  
Nicola Andrews
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Natural History ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The University ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
New Location

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture opened the “Pacific Voices” exhibition in 1997, a community-led exhibition of Indigenous cultures throughout the Pacific Rim, including Māori. Twenty years later, Nicola Andrews, a Ngāti Pāoa Māori student at the University of Washington, serendipitously visited the Burke and began collaborating with the museum to reframe taonga (treasure, anything prized) descriptions in its catalogue and physical spaces. The Burke collection also includes 962 Māori photographs spanning the 19th century, which were removed from Aotearoa New Zealand and donated to the museum in 1953. These photographs had been digitized but not published, and the museum had almost no identifying information about their subjects. This article describes what is perhaps the first attempt in over six decades to identify the rangatira (chief, person of high rank) depicted in these images, and ways for the Burke to honor the tūpuna (ancestors) and taonga in its care as it prepared to open a new location in late 2019.

scholarly journals Reflexivity, Internal Conversation and Societal Influences on Higher Education Students’ Consideration of Values and Priorities during their Citizenship Studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Linda Rowan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Framework Analysis ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
New Graduates ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Technological Developments

<p>My thesis examines the reflexive processing of knowledge, beliefs, values and personal priorities in the internal and external conversations of students during a period of university study. In higher education, learners encounter the values and views of knowledge prioritised by political, institutional, departmental and academic discourses; beliefs, values and dispositions which may differ from their own. Currently there is little understanding of how university students examine and act on new understandings of knowledge in light of their existing reference points and priorities. I use structure-agency and reflexivity theory as lenses to understand individuals’ agentic responses to the personal, social and structural enablements and constraints encountered in their university studies and daily lives.  Using reflexivity methods drawn from Margaret Archer’s work, I investigated students’ responses to citizenship concepts presented in three compulsory courses at one Aotearoa/New Zealand university. My research involved a unique application of framework analysis methods to draw themes from the 31 participants’ stories while retaining the integrity of each narrative.  In a new application of Archer’s work, I found that some participants demonstrated controlled reflexivity in containing their reflexive thought processes in response to situational changes such as family trauma or mental health. Controlled reflexivity ensured the actor balanced their concerns against their projects and goals to manage and contain both their internal and external deliberations. This research challenges Archer’s idea that the disruptions of late modernity removed people from their natal contexts, increasing their need for higher levels of reflexivity. While reflexivity shifts when students’ values and concerns are challenged, I found that technological developments have allowed individuals to retain more and deeper connections with their natal context than in Archer’s work. Furthermore, I argue that Archer’s claim of a reflexive progression in dominant modes due to increased education is too simplistic and fails to acknowledge that students’ reflexive practices are highly contextual (such as living in a bicultural country like Aotearoa/New Zealand) and strongly influenced by personal circumstances. Internal conversations for my research participants were complemented with external conversations to build reflexivity. Single, dual or multi modes of reflexivity were revealed in study-work life as students’ personal priorities shifted. The specificity of reflexive processing means reflexivity typologies need to be robust to be applied across cultures and contexts.  This work is a reminder to policy developers, universities, teachers and employers that the “invisible” personal characteristics and attributes that society seeks to see in new graduates are neither easy to assess nor to confirm using typologies. Academics need to remain open to understanding the multiple intersections of the study world with individuals’ wider social worlds and circumstances.</p>

scholarly journals Unwaged Posts in UK Universities: Controversies and Campaigns

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 533-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Forkert ◽  
Ana Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The University ◽  
Uk Higher Education

This article examines unwaged posts at UK universities, using recent examples of advertised job posts. While unpaid work is common in the UK higher education system, unwaged posts are not. The posts under scrutiny in this article differ from traditional honorary titles as they target early career academics, who are unlikely to have a paid position elsewhere, rather than established scholars. The article contextualizes the appearance of these posts in a climate of increasing marketization of higher education, entrenching managerialism in higher education institutions, and the casualization of academic work. We also discuss resistance to the posts, arguing that the controversy surrounding unpaid internships in the creative industries created a receptive environment for resisting unwaged posts in academia. We analyze the campaigns that were fought against the advertisement of the posts, mostly through social media and the University and College Union. We explore the tactics used and discuss the advantages and limitations of the use of social media, as well as the role of trade unions in the campaigns against these posts, and we reflect on what future campaigns can learn from these experiences.

A Saturated Time: Three Festivals in Poland, 2007

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-321
Author(s):  
Murray Edmond
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Contemporary Theatre ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Theatre Company ◽  
Street Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
Special Time

What different kinds of festival are to be found on the ever-expanding international circuit? What companies are invited or gatecrash the events? What is the role of festivals and festival-going in a global theatrical economy? In this article Murray Edmond describes three festivals which he attended in Poland in the summer of 2007 – the exemplary Malta Festival, held in Poznan; the Warsaw Festival of Street Performance; and the Brave Festival (‘Against Cultural Exile’) in Wroclaw – and through an analysis of specific events and productions suggests ways of distinguishing and assessing their aims, success, and role in what Barthes called the ‘special time’ which festivals have occupied since the Ancient Greeks dedicated such an occasion to Dionysus. Murray Edmond is Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His recent publications include Noh Business (Berkeley: Atelos Press, 2005), a study, via essay, diary, and five short plays, of the influence of Noh theatre on the Western avant-garde, and articles in Contemporary Theatre Review (2006), Australasian Drama Studies (April 2007), and Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand Theatre and Drama in an Age of Transition (2007). He works professionally as a dramaturge, notably for Indian Ink Theatre Company, and has also published ten volumes of poetry, of which the most recent is Fool Moon (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2004).

Intelligent Careers of Pacific Island Leaders

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polly Parker
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Leadership Behaviour

AbstractPacific peoples hold a unique place as an ethnic community within Aotearoa-New Zealand. The largest immigrant minority population in New Zealand brings a different culture to that of the dominant Pakeha (European). One implication is the need for acculturation into New Zealand society. Leadership, when characterised here as a process through which Pacific elders model the “Pacific way” to guide their youth, is critical to manage the tension between maintaining traditional ways and integrating into a dominant culture different from the people's own. This paper reports an empirical study conducted with Pacific professionals working in the public sector of New Zealand. Recognised for their potential to influence Pacific peoples, the participants were sponsored by the ministries of Health and Pacific Island Affairs to attend a three-day leadership development course that included a careers component. The scarcely researched links among leadership, careers and social cultural issues are explored. Intelligent career theory is introduced and the processes associated with eliciting subjective and inter-subjective career data are explained The results reflect the interdependence of motivation, skills and knowledge, and relationships, which together strongly influence the career and leadership behaviour of Pacific peoples to enhance the outcomes for Pacific peoples in New Zealand. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Enhancing higher education curricula: A case study from the University of Waikato, New Zealand

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn Longhurst ◽  
Alister Jones
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Curriculum Change ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
Auto Ethnography ◽  
The University

In 2014, the University of Waikato launched the Curriculum Enhancement Programme (CEP). As the leaders of this programme we have used auto-ethnography to reflect critically on our experience. Throughout the course of the CEP some things have gone well; others, in hindsight, have not gone so well and in retrospect we would have done them differently. This includes using more channels of communication, more frequently, especially with staff; getting all of Waikato's faculties to pull together more effectively as one institution; and working harder to increase students' opportunities for interdisciplinarity in teaching and research. These lessons, we hope, will be helpful for others also embarking on wide-scale curriculum change.

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