Why isn’t my professor Pasifika? A snapshot of the academic workforce in New Zealand universities

Abstract

This paper examines the ethnicity of academic scholars employed by New Zealand's eight universities, with a particular focus on Pasifika academics. The paper discusses how, despite national and university policies to see education serve Pasifika peoples better, there has been no change in the numbers of Pasifika academics employed by the universities between 2012 and 2017, and notes that Pasifika who are in the academy are continually employed in the lower, less secure levels of the academy. Examining international discourses of exclusion from universities, this paper builds on current Pasifika understandings and experiences of universities and highlights the urgent need for universities to reconsider their current recruitment, retention and promotion practices, and overarching structures and habits that operate to exclude Pasifika peoples.

Pūtahitanga: the intersection of western science and mātauranga Māori in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand’s physical oceanography

“…Instead, an initiative could involve no-strings promotion of science and scientific ideas to early school-age students (O'Connor and Stevens 2015). From there it needs continued support at high-school and university levels, as well as visible role models (McAllister et al 2019;Naepi 2019).…”

“…'Fund a scholarship' is a typical response but this requires a meaningful and engaged senior Māori scientist to supervise and/or mentor. As noted by McAllister et al (2019) and Naepi (2019), Māori and Pasifika are poorly represented in the research/academic sector. A consequence is researchers with Māori interests and perspectives are highly over-subscribed in terms of projects they are asked to contribute to, and get co-opted into.…”

Re-placing “Place” in Internationalised Higher Education: Reflections from Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Similarly, McAllister et al (2019, p. 245) call for the development of "plural-" rather than uni-versities, in which indigenous bodies, ontologies and epistemologies are "understood as equal partners" at all levels. Notably, they acknowledge that re-imagining education in this way would require thinking "outside of our current economic system" (p. 245, also see Naepi, 2019).…”

“…In higher education contexts, this may... translate into confusion about who is responsible for welcoming new arrivals and how best to create ongoing markers of belonging for international students in a context where the very notion of belonging is contested between indigenous and settler groups. (p. 1211) At a classroom level, manaakitanga-based teaching would refuse to represent Western knowledge as drawing on a monolithic, unified tradition that is inherently superior to others (Doherty & Singh, 2005;McAllister et al, 2019;Naepi, 2019;Takayama, 2016). This is challenging, given the dominance of the English language in academic publishing and communication internationally.…”

Understanding Indigenous Exploitation Through Performance Based Research Funding Reviews in Colonial States

“…The situation is equally disturbing in the United States where Native American peoples make up only 0.5% of the academic faculty in higher education despite comprising roughly 2% of the population (Walters et al 2019). Likely the product of adverse academic experiences for indigenous peoples, such underrepresentation is unsurprising given the inequities faced by indigenous faculty who often have a different occupation shape and career trajectory to their peers (Middleton and McKinley, 2010), are more likely to witness or experience discrimination (Henry et al, 2017), are much less likely to be on permanent contracts, and who have much shorter careers than other researchers in the ethnic majority (Kidman and Chu, 2015), who experience hurtful public censures from non-indigenous academics (Calhoun, 2003), and who face identity related tokenism (e.g., increased scrutiny, stereotyping) and exclusion (feeling invisible, lack of belonging) (Henry et al, 2017;McAllister et al, 2019;Naepi, 2019;Settles et al, 2019). Such feelings and experiences can have devastating impacts on indigenous faculty trying to prove their worth in colonial institutions pushing neoliberal agendas of excellence.…”