Language Games and Schooling: Discourses of colonialism in Kiribati education

The present secondary education system in Kiribati is little changed from its establishment and growth through the colonial years when the island group was known as the Gilbert Islands. It is marked by a heavy emphasis on English language and a curriculum geared to place students in a limited labour market. It is also marked by an uneven distribution of privilege across the population it serves. This article suggests a theoretical basis for critiquing the dominant voices in the educational and colonial past and their representations of Kiribati others. In such a critique, the legitimising technologies and discursive practices that have helped shape these educational practices are exposed. The act of exposing “how they did it” in turn creates the conditions for more equitable educational futures. This article presents a critical postcolonial discourse analysis of some language and language teaching policies from the Kiribati educational and colonial past. Though focused on Kiribati, the ideas here have relevance across the Pacific region.     

Place-responsive pedagogy: learning from teachers’ experiences of excursions in nature

The nature-based excursion has been a significant teaching strategy in environmental education for decades. This article draws upon empirical data from a collaborative research project where teachers were encouraged to visit natural areas to provide an understanding of their roles and experiences of planning and enacting excursions. The analysis indicates that teachers’ sensitisation towards place was aided by collaboration, advance planning visits and the very practice of making place-responsive excursions with pupils. The authors build on the analysis to propose a theory of place-responsive pedagogy. At its core, place-responsive pedagogy involves the explicit efforts to teach by means of an environment with the aim of understanding and improving human–environment relations. Some implications for teacher professional development are offered.     

Postgraduate research in Pacific education: Interpretivism and other trends

This article examines research by postgraduate students in education at the University of the South Pacific (USP) between 1968 and 2009. These experienced educators, who later return to their original education sector to influence policy and practice in some way, are producing new knowledge intimately connected to Pacific education systems. The article identifies broad trends in supervision, growth in completed degrees, research area, and national focus, and makes some comparisons with similar research in New Zealand. The article also focuses on how students position their research theoretically, using Lather??s research paradigm typology. The analysis indicates that many of these projects are positioned within an interpretivist paradigm, a few within positivist and emancipationist paradigms, and none at all within deconstructivist paradigms. The authors suggest that a Pacific education system underpinned by socially-critical theoretical perspectives, particularly deconstructive ones, can better respond to the twin challenges of creating universal and equitable access to education and arresting the loss of language, culture, identity, and life skills via rapid globalization.     

Research Issues in Australian Approaches to Policy Development

Drawing on his experience at the Australian Archives in policy development on electronic records and recordkeeping for the Australian Federal Government sector the author argues for greater emphasis on the implementation side of electronic records management. The author questions whether more research is a priority over implementation. The author also argues that if archival institutions wish to be taken seriously by their clients they need to pay greater attention to getting their own organisations in order. He suggests the way to do this is by improving internal recordkeeping practices and systems and developing a resource and skills base suitable for the delivery of electronic recordkeeping policies and services to clients.