Māori Scholars and the University
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13RF01 MᾹORI SCHOLARS AND THE UNIVERSITY Joanna Kidman & Cherie Chu (Investigators) Victoria University of Wellington Final Report prepared by Joanna Kidman, Cherie Chu, Sean Fernandez & Ivy Abella December, 2015 1 2 Acknowledgements We gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga for this project. Our thanks also go to Ema Sanga who transcribed the Pacific data and to Pine Southon for her support in organising field trips and helping us to manage the project budget. We thank our patient colleagues at Te Kura Māori, Victoria University of Wellington, who listened as we rehearsed endless theoretical debates about Māori and Pacific academics and the politics of higher education. We especially want to acknowledge and thank the 43 men and women who took so much time from their busy lives to talk to us about their hopes, frustrations and daily routines as Māori and Pacific senior scholars. 3 4 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 3 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 9 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Key findings ............................................................................................................... 9 1.3.1 Ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi ..................................................................... 9 1.3.2 Workplace satisfaction and the role of Deans and departmental heads .......... 10 1.3.3 Discrimination ................................................................................................... 11 1.3.4 Academic socialization process ......................................................................... 11 1.4 Future research ........................................................................................................ 12 2.0 INTRODUCTION TO STUDY ..................................................................................... 13 2.1 Research rationale ................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Research questions .................................................................................................. 15 2.3 Research objectives .................................................................................................. 16 3.0 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 19 3.1 Research strategies and data collection methods .................................................... 19 3.1.1 The original research design ............................................................................ 19 3.1.2 The revised research design ............................................................................. 20 3.2 Characteristics of the participants ........................................................................... 21 3.2.1 Māori participant group and Pacific participant group ................................... 22 3.2.2 Academic status ................................................................................................ 22 3.2.3 Gender of participants ...................................................................................... 23 3.2.4 Academic discipline affiliations ........................................................................ 23 3.2.5 University location ........................................................................................... 23 3.3 Recruitment of participants ..................................................................................... 24 3.4 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................. 24 3.5 Transcriptions .......................................................................................................... 24 3.6 Coding and analysis ................................................................................................. 25 3.6 Limitations of study ................................................................................................. 26 3.8 Quantifying terminology (“some,” “many” and “most”) ......................................... 26 5 4.0 DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS: KO WAI, NO HEA TᾹTOU? .................................... 29 4.1 Academic career motivations and influences .......................................................... 29 4.1.1 Whānau and community .................................................................................. 30 4.1.2 First generation university students ................................................................ 31 4.1.3 Engagement with students ............................................................................... 33 4.2 Academic communities ............................................................................................ 34 4.2.1 Academic communities in twenty-first century New Zealand ......................... 36 4.2.2 Academic community as site of exclusion ........................................................ 37 4.2.3 Pacific academic communities ......................................................................... 38 4.2.4 Academic communities as micro-geographies ................................................. 40 4.3 Gender...................................................................................................................... 41 4.3.1 Māori women’s access to university ................................................................. 42 4.3.2 Māori women’s engagement with the university institution ........................... 43 4.3.3 Cross-cultural male alliances ........................................................................... 44 4.4 The institutional positioning of indigeneity ............................................................ 46 4.4.1 Tertiary institutions as microcosm of society .................................................. 46 4.4.2 Institutional perception management: Equity and diversity policies .............. 47 4.5 Coping strategies...................................................................................................... 51 4.5.1 Academic mentors ........................................................................................... 51 4.5.2 Academic networks........................................................................................... 52 4.5.3 Some tips from “old-timers” ............................................................................. 52 4.6 Ko wai, no hea tātou? ............................................................................................... 54 5.0 ANALYSIS OF THE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: HE AHA NGᾹ MAHI? ................... 55 5.1 Political activism and Māori scholars ...................................................................... 56 5.2 Scholarship, intellectual vanguards and social transformation .............................. 57 5.2.1 The 1979 University of Auckland engineering students’ “haka” party ............. 58 5.2.2 Political activism .............................................................................................. 60 5.2.3 Activist scholarship .......................................................................................... 63 5.2.4 The racializing of Māori scholars ..................................................................... 65 5.2.5 Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and the new generation of Māori scholars ........... 68 5.2.6 The neoliberal university and its scholars ........................................................ 70 5.2.7 Māori academic legacies ................................................................................... 74 5.3 What’s Māori about Māori scholarship? ................................................................. 75 6 5.3.1 The changing landscape of Māori scholarship ................................................. 75 5.3.2 Māori scholarship and knowledge production ................................................. 77 5.3.3 PBRF and Māori scholarship ............................................................................ 80 5.4 Academic socialization ............................................................................................. 83 5.5 Indigeneity and ethnicity ......................................................................................... 86 5.6 He aha ngā mahi? .................................................................................................... 86 6.0 HE AHA NGᾹ MAHI MŌ ᾹPŌPŌ? ............................................................................. 87 6.1 Future inquiry .......................................................................................................... 91 7.0 About the authors ........................................................................................................ 93 APPENDIX A: Draft interview schedule ............................................................................... 95 APPENDIX B: Consent form ................................................................................................ 97 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 99 7 8 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 Introduction The purpose of this report is to review the findings of a two-year project, Māori Academic socialization and