Jacoba Matapo
Biographic Data
| ID | 1706925 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jacoba Matapo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jacoba |
| FAMILY NAME | Matapo |
| SIGNATURE | MATAPO J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4615-0509 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 29 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The experiences of Indigenous academics in the diaspora
As Indigenous outward migration expands, some diaspora groups are larger than their population back home which is the case for many in the Pacific diaspora. Research with Indigenous peoples is largely conducted in their homelands, with minimal research on their experiences in other countries. As Pacific Indigenous academics, we employed a dimension of talanoa in the written form to provide insights into our academic journeys. The direction of the…
Indigenising research
Growing interest in Pacific issue's has meant a surge in Pacific research across the globe. Sadly, some research on Pacific people has been done without Pacific knowledge, wisdom and culture. As Pacific researchers, we understand the importance of outputs that interweave our ancestral and cultural wisdom, whilst centring and privileging our people's narratives. Through the birth of our Moanaroa Pacific Research group, we explore the importance of…
Experiences of Indigenous (Māori/Pasifika) early career academics
This article presents narratives from 13 Indigenous early career academics (ECAs) at one university in Auckland, New Zealand. These experiences are likely to represent those of Indigenous Māori and Pasifika ECAs nationally, given the small, centralised nature of the national academy of Aotearoa New Zealand. The narratives contain testimony, fictionalised vignettes of experience, and poetic expressions. Meeting the demands of an academic role in o…
Critical Theory in the Glocal South
Towards a vā knowledge ecology
This article applies the concept of vā to reconceptualise and critique the tensions in higher education for Pasifika in Aotearoa New Zealand. We assert that a radical shift is needed within higher education to confront the neoliberal ideals of a knowledge economy that have permeated all levels of the institution, from the politics of academic roles to philosophy and pedagogy. The notion of academic success prescribes a particular subjectivity of …
Reimagining teacher subjectivity in Pacific early childhood education in New Zealand
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 …
‘Pillars of the colonial institution are like a knowledge prison
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 education system. As Pacific educators teaching an increasingly Pacific student-body, we have sought to define our own spaces within the lecture theatre where we can prioritize our knowledges and counter standard didactic western pedagogical practices. Thi…
Responding to the call
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.…
Negotiating the relational vā in the University
The Covid-19 global phenomenon has significantly disrupted economic, political and social systems at all levels. For Pasifika 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’…
Surviving academic Whiteness
Philosophy of education in a new key
What is the future of Philosophy of education? Or as many of scholars and thinkers in this final ‘future-focused’ collective piece from the Philosophy of Education in a New Key Series put it, what are the futures—plural and multiple—of the intersections of ‘philosophy’ and ‘education?’ What is ‘Philosophy’; and what is ‘Education’, and what role may ‘enquiry’ play? Is the future of education and philosophy embracing—or at least taking seriously—a…
The art of wayfinding Pasifika success
The notion of "success" for Pasifika students in higher education remains contested given the sociopolitical agendas of education in New Zealand targeting Pasifika engagement. The motivation to increase academic achievement for Pasifika peoples stems from "tail-end" outcomes, in which Pasifika populations are compared with other demographic populations in the attainment of higher qualifications. Many institutional "success" strategies are initiat…
The Digital Vā
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the world to stop. It has halted societal modes of being and operating, and collective responsibility is now premised on a discourse of prevention or fear. These tensions are also relevant to higher education. In this situation report we aim to elucidate such tensions through Pacific Indigenous philosophy that affirms collective and relational ontologies by way of transnational Pasifika engagement in the universit…
Situating decolonization
Being Indigenous and operating in an institution such as a university places us in a complex position. The premise of decolonizing history, literature, curriculum, and thought in general creates a tenuous space for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to confront a shared colonial condition. What does decolonization mean for Indigenous peoples? Is decolonization an implied promise to squash the tropes of coloniality? Or is it a way for non-Indig…
What is indigenous research in philosophy of education? And what is Pesa, from an indigenous perspective
Carl and Georgina: Often, indigenous research mimics its mainstream counterpart by focusing on data collection. Method is extremely important in discussions about philosophy, because method is imme
Philosophy of education in a new key
What is the future of Philosophy of education? Or as many of scholars and thinkers in this final ‘future-focused’ collective piece from the Philosophy of Education in a New Key Series put it, what are the futures—plural and multiple—of the intersections of ‘philosophy’ and ‘education?’ What is ‘Philosophy’; and what is ‘Education’, and what role may ‘enquiry’ play? Is the future of education and philosophy embracing—or at least taking seriously—a…
Situating decolonization
Being Indigenous and operating in an institution such as a university places us in a complex position. The premise of decolonizing history, literature, curriculum, and thought in general creates a tenuous space for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to confront a shared colonial condition. What does decolonization mean for Indigenous peoples? Is decolonization an implied promise to squash the tropes of coloniality? Or is it a way for non-Indig…
Experiences of Indigenous (Māori/Pasifika) early career academics
This article presents narratives from 13 Indigenous early career academics (ECAs) at one university in Auckland, New Zealand. These experiences are likely to represent those of Indigenous Māori and Pasifika ECAs nationally, given the small, centralised nature of the national academy of Aotearoa New Zealand. The narratives contain testimony, fictionalised vignettes of experience, and poetic expressions. Meeting the demands of an academic role in o…
Indigenising research
Growing interest in Pacific issue's has meant a surge in Pacific research across the globe. Sadly, some research on Pacific people has been done without Pacific knowledge, wisdom and culture. As Pacific researchers, we understand the importance of outputs that interweave our ancestral and cultural wisdom, whilst centring and privileging our people's narratives. Through the birth of our Moanaroa Pacific Research group, we explore the importance of…
Towards a vā knowledge ecology
This article applies the concept of vā to reconceptualise and critique the tensions in higher education for Pasifika in Aotearoa New Zealand. We assert that a radical shift is needed within higher education to confront the neoliberal ideals of a knowledge economy that have permeated all levels of the institution, from the politics of academic roles to philosophy and pedagogy. The notion of academic success prescribes a particular subjectivity of …
The experiences of Indigenous academics in the diaspora
As Indigenous outward migration expands, some diaspora groups are larger than their population back home which is the case for many in the Pacific diaspora. Research with Indigenous peoples is largely conducted in their homelands, with minimal research on their experiences in other countries. As Pacific Indigenous academics, we employed a dimension of talanoa in the written form to provide insights into our academic journeys. The direction of the…
What is indigenous research in philosophy of education? And what is Pesa, from an indigenous perspective
Carl and Georgina: Often, indigenous research mimics its mainstream counterpart by focusing on data collection. Method is extremely important in discussions about philosophy, because method is imme
Situating decolonization
Being Indigenous and operating in an institution such as a university places us in a complex position. The premise of decolonizing history, literature, curriculum, and thought in general creates a tenuous space for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to confront a shared colonial condition. What does decolonization mean for Indigenous peoples? Is decolonization an implied promise to squash the tropes of coloniality? Or is it a way for non-Indig…
The art of wayfinding Pasifika success
The notion of "success" for Pasifika students in higher education remains contested given the sociopolitical agendas of education in New Zealand targeting Pasifika engagement. The motivation to increase academic achievement for Pasifika peoples stems from "tail-end" outcomes, in which Pasifika populations are compared with other demographic populations in the attainment of higher qualifications. Many institutional "success" strategies are initiat…
The Digital Vā
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the world to stop. It has halted societal modes of being and operating, and collective responsibility is now premised on a discourse of prevention or fear. These tensions are also relevant to higher education. In this situation report we aim to elucidate such tensions through Pacific Indigenous philosophy that affirms collective and relational ontologies by way of transnational Pasifika engagement in the universit…
Reimagining teacher subjectivity in Pacific early childhood education in New Zealand
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 …
‘Pillars of the colonial institution are like a knowledge prison
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 education system. As Pacific educators teaching an increasingly Pacific student-body, we have sought to define our own spaces within the lecture theatre where we can prioritize our knowledges and counter standard didactic western pedagogical practices. Thi…
Responding to the call
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.…
Negotiating the relational vā in the University
The Covid-19 global phenomenon has significantly disrupted economic, political and social systems at all levels. For Pasifika 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’…
Surviving academic Whiteness
Philosophy of education in a new key
What is the future of Philosophy of education? Or as many of scholars and thinkers in this final ‘future-focused’ collective piece from the Philosophy of Education in a New Key Series put it, what are the futures—plural and multiple—of the intersections of ‘philosophy’ and ‘education?’ What is ‘Philosophy’; and what is ‘Education’, and what role may ‘enquiry’ play? Is the future of education and philosophy embracing—or at least taking seriously—a…
Critical Theory in the Glocal South
Towards a vā knowledge ecology
This article applies the concept of vā to reconceptualise and critique the tensions in higher education for Pasifika in Aotearoa New Zealand. We assert that a radical shift is needed within higher education to confront the neoliberal ideals of a knowledge economy that have permeated all levels of the institution, from the politics of academic roles to philosophy and pedagogy. The notion of academic success prescribes a particular subjectivity of …
Experiences of Indigenous (Māori/Pasifika) early career academics
This article presents narratives from 13 Indigenous early career academics (ECAs) at one university in Auckland, New Zealand. These experiences are likely to represent those of Indigenous Māori and Pasifika ECAs nationally, given the small, centralised nature of the national academy of Aotearoa New Zealand. The narratives contain testimony, fictionalised vignettes of experience, and poetic expressions. Meeting the demands of an academic role in o…
Indigenising research
Growing interest in Pacific issue's has meant a surge in Pacific research across the globe. Sadly, some research on Pacific people has been done without Pacific knowledge, wisdom and culture. As Pacific researchers, we understand the importance of outputs that interweave our ancestral and cultural wisdom, whilst centring and privileging our people's narratives. Through the birth of our Moanaroa Pacific Research group, we explore the importance of…
The experiences of Indigenous academics in the diaspora
As Indigenous outward migration expands, some diaspora groups are larger than their population back home which is the case for many in the Pacific diaspora. Research with Indigenous peoples is largely conducted in their homelands, with minimal research on their experiences in other countries. As Pacific Indigenous academics, we employed a dimension of talanoa in the written form to provide insights into our academic journeys. The direction of the…
Sociology (14 works) · Political science (11 works) · Indigenous (9 works) · Anthropology (8 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Pacific islanders (7 works) · Pedagogy (7 works) · Ethnic group (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works)