A call to action: Challenging a fragmented university commitment to Pasifika equity

Abstract

Pasifika peoples are largely underserved and under-represented in higher education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Many reports and strategies have been published by the New Zealand Government through the Ministry of Education and the Tertiary Education commission to support equity provision for Pasifika students in the form of participation and achievement. However, recent critical research studies have revealed that deficit theorising is commonly applied to explain disparities and informs the motivation for governmental and institutional pursuits for equity and success. This research identifies some of the systemic barriers experienced by Pasifika students seeking to gain entry into higher education and explores the role that economic, social and political complexities play in university bridging programmes. Analysis illuminates how student’s experiences in university bridging programmes are reflective of fragmented university equity policy and practices. Talanoa (Vaioleti, 2006) was utilized for this research, drawing on a narrative inquiry developed from Pacific people’s oratory tradition to engage with eight current Pasifika students who accessed equity services and transitioned into degree level studies at the University of Auckland. Group and individual talanoa were imperative in identifying meaningful insights into student’s experiences with equity. Results reveal irreconcilable differences between Indigenous ways of being and knowing and the ideologies, policies and practices of a higher education institution informed by neo-liberal and colonial foundations. The results indicate that motivation for engaging with Pasifika students must come from a strengths-based response valuing Indigenous knowledges and honouring cultural onto-epistemology (practices of knowing-in-being). Pasifika students’ experiences in higher education highlight the urgent need for universities to overturn current systemic policies and practices that exclude Pasifika peoples and demonstrate a consolidated commitment to equity university wide.