A Reading List Inspired by New Zealand

During my sabbatical (January 2017 – December 2017), I have had the opportunity to travel to New Zealand twice to meet with faculty and staff at four universities, Auckland, Waikato, Otago, and Canterbury. My goal has been to learn more about how Māori and Pasifika students are supported at these universities through campus-wide initiatives and in mathematics departments and to apply what I learn to better support an increasingly diverse population of students at Allegheny. Along the way I have learned about some useful resources, some of which I will describe in this post.

Two books that were recommended to me by faculty members at the University of Otago were “Disobedient Teaching: Surviving and Creating Change in Education” by Welby Ings (Auckland University of Technology) and “Why Science is Sexist” by Nicola Gaston (University of Auckland). In the first book, Ing speaks from experience as he describes how teachers can feel empowered to take risks and try unconventional approaches in order to improve student learning, in the face of structures and systems that work against teacher creativity and agency. Meanwhile, Gaston summarizes research that explains both what it means to say that science is sexist and what the possible causes may be. It’s a quick read and is definitely eye-opening.  

At the University of Otago, I was fortunate to be able to spend some time with Moana Theodore, an investigator on the Graduate Longitudinal Study NZ (GLSNZ), which follows New Zealand university students who were in their final year of study in 2011 with the goal of "determin[ing] the ongoing impact of a tertiary education on graduates' lives."  Some of their findings can be found in the following articles:

• "Equity in New Zealand University Graduate Outcomes: Māori and Pacific Graduates," Higher Education Research and Development.
• "Māori University Success: What Helps and Hinders Qualification Completion," AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples. 13(2):122-130. 
• "Māori University Graduates: Indigenous Participation in Higher Education," Higher Education Research and Development. 35(3):604-618.

During my second visit to NZ, I attended uLearn17, a professional development conference for primary, secondary, and tertiary educators (i.e. K-12 and college/university). The final keynote presenter was Ann Milne, former principal of Kia Aroha College in Auckland. Dr Milne recently published an expanded version of her University of Waikato Ph.D. thesis, “Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools.” Her keynote summarized some of the main ideas from her book; you can watch the full presentation here. Although I also enjoyed the presentation by Eric Mazur, Dr. Milne's talk was easily the most exciting, inspiring, and provocative keynote of the conference.

I have been interested to note that several books and papers that are commonly cited in the US are referenced in these New Zealand resources, illustrating the global nature of certain educational challenges. Two examples are “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” by Paulo Freire and "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race," by Beverly Daniel Tatum.