| Name - |
Professor Patricia Maringi G. Johnston |
| Iwi - |
Ngai Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pukenga, Waitaha , Ngāti Pikiao. |
| Qualification(s) - |
PhD, University of Auckland 1999 |
| Role / Position – |
Head of School of Indigenous Graduate Studies |
| Phone – |
(07) 307 1467 ext 7288 |
| Email – |
trish.johnston@wananga.ac.nz |
About Professor Johnston
Most of my academic work has been around Māori education, about challenging and contesting the ways by which policy limits, frames and constrains us, about either creating and developing alternative pathways or navigating and mapping ways through the dominant mainstream ones. My discipline is education, which broadly incorporates research interests in indigenous education, policy, history, social policy, schooling and leadership. One of my passions is anti-racist education and research. I am familiar with most aspects of the tertiary sector from policy to implementation.
In my current position, I am developing unique and specific ways of supporting Māori students through Graduate Studies programmes. The highlight of my year is watching students graduate. My PhD thesis title is He Ao Rerekē. Education Policy and Māori Underachievement: Mechanisms of Power and Difference. It examines policy processes in New Zealand Education and identifies why and how it is that Māori interests and desires for Māori education are marginalised through those policy processes. The thesis also interrogates the ‘Politics of Difference’ and ‘Power’ as a means to understand and explain how such processes are legitimated.
Most of my academic career has been in the area of Graduate Studies, in building viable and sustainable graduate programmes. At Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi, this focus and commitment