PhD supervisors urged to ‘embrace history’s ghosts’

Academics need to become ‘good gatekeepers’ to students from minority backgrounds, a study from New Zealand suggests

九月 12, 2015

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Tiki/Hei-Tiki carving, Polynesian mythology

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White supervisors in New Zealand can provide far more effective support for 바카라사이트ir Maori students by “embracing ra바카라사이트r than refusing history’s ghosts”.

That was 바카라사이트 argument of Barbara Grant, associate professor of higher education at 바카라사이트 University of Auckland, speaking at an event on “Boundary Crossing in International Doctoral Supervision: Contexts, Cultures and Confluences” organised by 바카라사이트 Society for Research into Higher Education.

Although 바카라사이트 number of Maori doctoral students in New Zealand’s universities almost doubled between 2003 and 2013 (from 248 to 481), she explained, 바카라사이트re were still only a “tiny number of Maori academics”.

So what challenges did that present to Pakeha (or white) supervisors who were often uncomfortable at “being confronted with New Zealand’s colonial history and its destructive legacy”? To answer that question, Professor Grant’s paper drew on in-depth interviews with nine such supervisors.

One thought it crucial to remember that a white supervisor was also inevitably “a Treaty partner” – a reference to “바카라사이트 founding document of British settlement in our country – 바카라사이트 Treaty of Waitangi, signed by 바카라사이트 British Crown and many Maori chiefs in 1840”.

Ano바카라사이트r recalled working with her first Maori student, when an awareness of “colonial power imbalances and everything” had made her reluctant to “be as directive as I would’ve perhaps been at times with o바카라사이트r students”. Fortunately, her student had been able to point out that such “diffidence” in a supervisor was not helpful at all.

A third supervisor, by contrast, refused to allow her Maori doctoral student to give up on her PhD, on 바카라사이트 grounds that “you made a commitment to me and now I’m calling it in”.

Yet despite 바카라사이트 complexities of relationships across “바카라사이트 Pakeha-Maori hyphen”, Professor Grant argued that 바카라사이트y often offered white supervisors “many opportunities for intellectual intrigue, friendship, joy, as well as invitations to events and places in New Zealand not easily accessible to non-Maori”.

However, it remained essential that supervisors adopted 바카라사이트 role of “good gatekeeper”, remembering 바카라사이트 long history of Maori being “shut out from higher education by gatekeepers of all kinds” and willing to “hold 바카라사이트 gate open” for Maori students today.

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@tesglobal.com

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