Jacoba Matapo - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Jacoba Matapo
Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children, Jul 12, 2019
Educational Philosophy and Theory
"...members of the Editorial Development Group explore the nature of digital spaces, alo... more "...members of the Editorial Development Group explore the nature of digital spaces, along with the philosophical advantages and drawbacks that those spaces offer. We are also fortunate to have two highly interesting open reviews that reflect and expand on some of themes. Overall, our aim is not so much to draw a line through digital spaces but underneath them - to underscore their vulnerabilities as well as their potential conviviality with certain areas of philosophical thought."
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2021
This article begins by accepting that strategic ignorance, or agnotology, underpins academic prac... more This article begins by accepting that strategic ignorance, or agnotology, underpins academic practice and perpetuates the systemic disadvantage experienced on a global level by non-White and Indigenous academics and university students. Agnotology is a post-millennial word, coined by Robert Proctor (2008) for the concept and study of ‘managed ignorance’ that many commentators see exploding, along with the availability of information in the post-digital age, since, as the saying goes, ‘the more you know, the more you don’t know.’ Before ‘agnotology,’ the phrase ‘passion for ignorance’ (originally attributed to French psychoanalyst Lacan) was applied by Alison Jones (2001) to explain the reactions of New Zealand European university students, who resisted the idea that there could be limits to their (Western) knowledge.
Journal of Global Indigeneity (JGI), Feb 10, 2021
The Covid-19 global phenomenon has significantly disrupted economic, political and social systems... more The Covid-19 global phenomenon has significantly disrupted economic, political and social systems at all levels. For Pasifika 1 peoples, the impact of Covid-19 has exacerbated inequities that have long existed within the order of capitalist and neo-liberal ideologies. Higher education has been a home for such discourse, privileging western knowledge systems that inform the nature of teaching and learning, and the so-called image of the 'individual' student or academic. This pandemic has shown how Pasifika people are not merely 'individual' but are interrelational beings, permanently entangled with broader collective entities such as aiga (family), lotu (church), and fanua (land/place). This article emerged from an online talanoa between Pasifika academics during the time of national social distancing. From the talanoa process, we interrogated issues arising from our current experiences of research and teaching during the global pandemic. Covid-19 discourse presents unpropitious assumptions about the 'crisis' from an anthropocentric notion of humanity. As Indigenous academics, we reject such assumptions.
Teaching in Higher Education, 2021
For Pacific early career academics (PECA) in Aotearoa, there is a tension between the Indigenous ... more For Pacific early career academics (PECA) in Aotearoa, there is a tension between the Indigenous knowledges inherited from our Pacific ancestors and those we have been taught within the western edu...
Waikato Journal of Education, 2021
This article proposes a Samoan indigenous philosophical position to reconceptualise the dialogic ... more This article proposes a Samoan indigenous philosophical position to reconceptualise the dialogic spaces of talanoa; particularly how talanoa is applied methodologically to research practice. Talanoa within New Zealand Pacific research scholarship is problematised, raising particular tensions of the universal and humanistic ideologies that are entrenched within institutional ethics and research protocols. The dialogic relational space which is embedded throughout talanoa methodology is called into question, evoking alternative ways of knowing and being within the talanoa research assemblage[1] (including the material-world). Samoan epistemology reveals that nature is constituted within personhood (Vaai & Nabobo-Baba, 2017) and that nature is co-agentic with human in an ecology of knowing. We call for a shift in thinking material-ethics that opens talanoa to a materialist process ontology, where knowledge generation emerges through human and non-human encounters. [1] The concept o...
Higher Education Research & Development, 2021
Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response... more Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response to the under-representation of Pacific/Pasifika academics in universities across Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing from Indigenous concepts and frameworks foregrounds Pacific language and ideas as being central to our worldviews and validates the lived realities of Pacific peoples in higher education. We, the authors, collectively respond to Naepi et al.’s call by sharing our stories, experiences, and efforts to wayfind academia and provide a possible solution that is transformative in supporting early career Pacific academics. This led to the development of the Mentoring Oceanic Academics Navigating Academia in education (MOANA ed.) network at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work as a way to mobilise, collectivise, mentor, nurture, and empower our next generation of Pacific/Pasifika academics. In this article, we utilise ‘talanoa’ as a methodological framework ...
Higher Education Research & Development
Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response... more Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response to the under-representation of Pacific/Pasifika academics in universities across Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing from Indigenous concepts and frameworks foregrounds Pacific language and ideas as being central to our worldviews and validates the lived realities of Pacific peoples in higher education. We, the authors, collectively respond to Naepi et al.’s call by sharing our stories, experiences, and efforts to wayfind academia and provide a possible solution that is transformative in supporting early career Pacific academics. This led to the development of the Mentoring Oceanic Academics Navigating Academia in education (MOANA ed.) network at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work as a way to mobilise, collectivise, mentor, nurture, and empower our next generation of Pacific/Pasifika academics. In this article, we utilise ‘talanoa’ as a methodological framework that privileges the worldviews and stories associated with academic mobilities and pathways for Pacific/Pasifika researchers based in Aotearoa New Zealand. At the pragmatic level, we employ talanoa as a method of gathering and analysing the stories. As part of talanoa as a dialogical process and to honour the stories shared, the authors agreed to (re)present and capture the nuances in our stories through vignettes.
Leadership for justice
Leadership is about all of us, but dominant frames of leadership serve only a few. In this commen... more Leadership is about all of us, but dominant frames of leadership serve only a few. In this commentary, we challenge the dominance of Western notions of leadership as linear influence relationships in order to shift Pasifika engagement from the margins. For us, ta’ita’i (Pasifika leadership) is centred on serving, not the self, but the collective spirit. It is expansive, holistic, and grounded in reciprocal relationships between people, nature, the cosmos and those of the past, present, and future. Looking back to the teachings of our families and ancestors can guide us in leading communities with strength, unity, and connection. Rather than deny the legitimate place of Western notions of leadership or romanticise ideas of Pasifika leadership, through talanoa (open talk), we mobilise tofā sa’ili (a search for wisdom and meaning) by engaging with traditional Pasifika cultural values and philosophies that hold significance for leadership in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zea...
The lack of leadership research in Pasifika early childhood education requires attention, as poli... more The lack of leadership research in Pasifika early childhood education requires attention, as policies for improved outcomes targeting Pasifika learners remain an interest for Governing bodies. One such target includes the increased participation of Pasifika children enrolled in early childhood services (Ministry of Education, 2014). Current literature draws attention to strengthening culturally responsive practices, particularly in the critique of curriculum and pedagogy. However, the gaps in research to support sustainable leadership in our Pasifika early childhood settings continue to widen and includes a lack of research that investigates the impact of leadership upon teacher pedagogy. The need for further research within Pasifika early childhood settings is essential to understand how leadership influences and engages Pasifika children within culturally relevant pedagogy. This article will discuss the importance of cultural values, family and community contribution to sustaining...
Policy Futures in Education, 2020
This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood educati... more This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood education scholars. Calling on both Samoan and Tongan indigenous understandings that breathe life into a Moana subjectivity is inclusive of ways of knowing, relating and becoming. We turn our attention to the importance of talanoa (stories/storying) in reconstituting olaga 2 and tangata kakato 3 in the act of decolonising Pacific 4 personhood in New Zealand early childhood education. Moana, the waters that bind Pacific peoples through genealogy, relationality and cosmogony, generate intersubjectivity; a folding of past-present-futures. It is in the spirit of Moana that we bring attention to the interconnectedness of subjects in the context of early childhood education in New Zealand. By way of movement in and with Moana, the currents, depth and flows, we problematise politics of early childhood education and professional teacher identity. Such tensions require navigation and as Hawaiian scholar...
What then can the body of Arts – Research – Education do? What can arts based educational researc... more What then can the body of Arts – Research – Education do? What can arts based educational research produce (hereafter ABER)? As emerging researchers in this field, we begin this chapter in the middle of a reflective conversation about many assemblages and about our journey into arts based education research, and what life was emergent in a recent project we were involved with known as Move-Act-Play-Sing hereafter as MAPS (Lines, Naughton, Roder, Matapo, Whyte & Liao, 2014).
Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children, Jul 12, 2019
Educational Philosophy and Theory
"...members of the Editorial Development Group explore the nature of digital spaces, alo... more "...members of the Editorial Development Group explore the nature of digital spaces, along with the philosophical advantages and drawbacks that those spaces offer. We are also fortunate to have two highly interesting open reviews that reflect and expand on some of themes. Overall, our aim is not so much to draw a line through digital spaces but underneath them - to underscore their vulnerabilities as well as their potential conviviality with certain areas of philosophical thought."
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2021
This article begins by accepting that strategic ignorance, or agnotology, underpins academic prac... more This article begins by accepting that strategic ignorance, or agnotology, underpins academic practice and perpetuates the systemic disadvantage experienced on a global level by non-White and Indigenous academics and university students. Agnotology is a post-millennial word, coined by Robert Proctor (2008) for the concept and study of ‘managed ignorance’ that many commentators see exploding, along with the availability of information in the post-digital age, since, as the saying goes, ‘the more you know, the more you don’t know.’ Before ‘agnotology,’ the phrase ‘passion for ignorance’ (originally attributed to French psychoanalyst Lacan) was applied by Alison Jones (2001) to explain the reactions of New Zealand European university students, who resisted the idea that there could be limits to their (Western) knowledge.
Journal of Global Indigeneity (JGI), Feb 10, 2021
The Covid-19 global phenomenon has significantly disrupted economic, political and social systems... more The Covid-19 global phenomenon has significantly disrupted economic, political and social systems at all levels. For Pasifika 1 peoples, the impact of Covid-19 has exacerbated inequities that have long existed within the order of capitalist and neo-liberal ideologies. Higher education has been a home for such discourse, privileging western knowledge systems that inform the nature of teaching and learning, and the so-called image of the 'individual' student or academic. This pandemic has shown how Pasifika people are not merely 'individual' but are interrelational beings, permanently entangled with broader collective entities such as aiga (family), lotu (church), and fanua (land/place). This article emerged from an online talanoa between Pasifika academics during the time of national social distancing. From the talanoa process, we interrogated issues arising from our current experiences of research and teaching during the global pandemic. Covid-19 discourse presents unpropitious assumptions about the 'crisis' from an anthropocentric notion of humanity. As Indigenous academics, we reject such assumptions.
Teaching in Higher Education, 2021
For Pacific early career academics (PECA) in Aotearoa, there is a tension between the Indigenous ... more For Pacific early career academics (PECA) in Aotearoa, there is a tension between the Indigenous knowledges inherited from our Pacific ancestors and those we have been taught within the western edu...
Waikato Journal of Education, 2021
This article proposes a Samoan indigenous philosophical position to reconceptualise the dialogic ... more This article proposes a Samoan indigenous philosophical position to reconceptualise the dialogic spaces of talanoa; particularly how talanoa is applied methodologically to research practice. Talanoa within New Zealand Pacific research scholarship is problematised, raising particular tensions of the universal and humanistic ideologies that are entrenched within institutional ethics and research protocols. The dialogic relational space which is embedded throughout talanoa methodology is called into question, evoking alternative ways of knowing and being within the talanoa research assemblage[1] (including the material-world). Samoan epistemology reveals that nature is constituted within personhood (Vaai & Nabobo-Baba, 2017) and that nature is co-agentic with human in an ecology of knowing. We call for a shift in thinking material-ethics that opens talanoa to a materialist process ontology, where knowledge generation emerges through human and non-human encounters. [1] The concept o...
Higher Education Research & Development, 2021
Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response... more Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response to the under-representation of Pacific/Pasifika academics in universities across Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing from Indigenous concepts and frameworks foregrounds Pacific language and ideas as being central to our worldviews and validates the lived realities of Pacific peoples in higher education. We, the authors, collectively respond to Naepi et al.’s call by sharing our stories, experiences, and efforts to wayfind academia and provide a possible solution that is transformative in supporting early career Pacific academics. This led to the development of the Mentoring Oceanic Academics Navigating Academia in education (MOANA ed.) network at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work as a way to mobilise, collectivise, mentor, nurture, and empower our next generation of Pacific/Pasifika academics. In this article, we utilise ‘talanoa’ as a methodological framework ...
Higher Education Research & Development
Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response... more Recent provocations by Māori and Pacific/Pasifika academics have called for a collective response to the under-representation of Pacific/Pasifika academics in universities across Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing from Indigenous concepts and frameworks foregrounds Pacific language and ideas as being central to our worldviews and validates the lived realities of Pacific peoples in higher education. We, the authors, collectively respond to Naepi et al.’s call by sharing our stories, experiences, and efforts to wayfind academia and provide a possible solution that is transformative in supporting early career Pacific academics. This led to the development of the Mentoring Oceanic Academics Navigating Academia in education (MOANA ed.) network at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work as a way to mobilise, collectivise, mentor, nurture, and empower our next generation of Pacific/Pasifika academics. In this article, we utilise ‘talanoa’ as a methodological framework that privileges the worldviews and stories associated with academic mobilities and pathways for Pacific/Pasifika researchers based in Aotearoa New Zealand. At the pragmatic level, we employ talanoa as a method of gathering and analysing the stories. As part of talanoa as a dialogical process and to honour the stories shared, the authors agreed to (re)present and capture the nuances in our stories through vignettes.
Leadership for justice
Leadership is about all of us, but dominant frames of leadership serve only a few. In this commen... more Leadership is about all of us, but dominant frames of leadership serve only a few. In this commentary, we challenge the dominance of Western notions of leadership as linear influence relationships in order to shift Pasifika engagement from the margins. For us, ta’ita’i (Pasifika leadership) is centred on serving, not the self, but the collective spirit. It is expansive, holistic, and grounded in reciprocal relationships between people, nature, the cosmos and those of the past, present, and future. Looking back to the teachings of our families and ancestors can guide us in leading communities with strength, unity, and connection. Rather than deny the legitimate place of Western notions of leadership or romanticise ideas of Pasifika leadership, through talanoa (open talk), we mobilise tofā sa’ili (a search for wisdom and meaning) by engaging with traditional Pasifika cultural values and philosophies that hold significance for leadership in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zea...
The lack of leadership research in Pasifika early childhood education requires attention, as poli... more The lack of leadership research in Pasifika early childhood education requires attention, as policies for improved outcomes targeting Pasifika learners remain an interest for Governing bodies. One such target includes the increased participation of Pasifika children enrolled in early childhood services (Ministry of Education, 2014). Current literature draws attention to strengthening culturally responsive practices, particularly in the critique of curriculum and pedagogy. However, the gaps in research to support sustainable leadership in our Pasifika early childhood settings continue to widen and includes a lack of research that investigates the impact of leadership upon teacher pedagogy. The need for further research within Pasifika early childhood settings is essential to understand how leadership influences and engages Pasifika children within culturally relevant pedagogy. This article will discuss the importance of cultural values, family and community contribution to sustaining...
Policy Futures in Education, 2020
This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood educati... more This article presents a transnational Moana talanoa 1 between two Pacific early childhood education scholars. Calling on both Samoan and Tongan indigenous understandings that breathe life into a Moana subjectivity is inclusive of ways of knowing, relating and becoming. We turn our attention to the importance of talanoa (stories/storying) in reconstituting olaga 2 and tangata kakato 3 in the act of decolonising Pacific 4 personhood in New Zealand early childhood education. Moana, the waters that bind Pacific peoples through genealogy, relationality and cosmogony, generate intersubjectivity; a folding of past-present-futures. It is in the spirit of Moana that we bring attention to the interconnectedness of subjects in the context of early childhood education in New Zealand. By way of movement in and with Moana, the currents, depth and flows, we problematise politics of early childhood education and professional teacher identity. Such tensions require navigation and as Hawaiian scholar...
What then can the body of Arts – Research – Education do? What can arts based educational researc... more What then can the body of Arts – Research – Education do? What can arts based educational research produce (hereafter ABER)? As emerging researchers in this field, we begin this chapter in the middle of a reflective conversation about many assemblages and about our journey into arts based education research, and what life was emergent in a recent project we were involved with known as Move-Act-Play-Sing hereafter as MAPS (Lines, Naughton, Roder, Matapo, Whyte & Liao, 2014).