Written by Te Wāhanga kairangahau Alex Barnes, this working paper focuses on how Pākehā have become involved in Māori-determined and controlled educational research, and what issues inhibit and facilitate their work.
The research offers critical insights that aim to counter ‘Pākehā paralysis’ by strengthening present and future research with Māori communities. For Māori, this inquiry offers an account of how Pākehā are working with ‘our own’ in order to advance socially and culturally just research methodologies in education. Alex examines the research work of four Pākehā researchers engaged in various Kaupapa Māori work since the early 1990s
“My qualitative inquiry seeks to unsettle taken-for-granted Eurocentric notions of research… These are important sites of learning and transformation because these experiences can help offset Pākehā paralysis in the 21st century, and create new ways to meaningfully engage with diverse Māori on critical educational issues” (p.3).