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

Abstract

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.

Relational and collective excellence: unfolding the potential of Pacific early career researchers

“…What we leave behind, matters to those who go before we face the future with our backs, sailing shore to shore … . (Marsh 2020) In line with recent collaborative work of Pacific Early Career Academics (see Baice et al 2021;Leenen-Young et al 2021;Thomsen et al 2021), this article also confronts many assumptions about what it means to be Pacific early career researchers (ECR), and the cultural mechanisms we use to make sense of our positionalities as researchers in academia, industry, and our wider communities. Our Collective encompasses a range of disciplines, including science, design, education, humanities and social sciences.…”