Conference 2008 > Keynote Addresses

Keynote addresses 2008

Opening address

Steve Maharey
Vice Chancellor, Massey University

Steve Maharey is the Vice-Chancellor of Massey University. Prior to this he was the fourth-ranked Minister in Government for nine years holding the positions of Minister of Education, Minister Responsible for the Education Review Office and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, Minister of Research, Science and Technology, Minister Responsible for Crown Research Institutes, Minister of Broadcasting, Minister Responsible for Television New Zealand, Chair of the Cabinet Social Development Committee and Member of Parliament for Palmerston North from 1990 until 2008.

In Government he was also Minister of Social Development and Employment, Minister of Child, Youth and Family, Associate Minister of Education (Responsible for Tertiary Education), Minister of Housing, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Minister of Youth Affairs. He had responsibility for the Families Commission, Learning Media, Foundation for Research Science and Technology, Marsden Fund, the Health Funding Authority and many other public agencies.

Mr Maharey was responsible for the reforms of the tertiary education sector that began in 2003 and oversaw the establishment of the New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission.

In Opposition he was a front bench Spokesperson on Education, Employment, Broadcasting, Communications, Labour Relations, Social Welfare and Employment as well being a member of the Education and Science, Labour, Commerce, Broadcasting, Standing Orders and Social Welfare and Employment Select Committees.

Prior to entering Parliament he was a senior lecturer in sociology. Earlier in his career he was a junior lecturer in business administration, and a lecturer in sociology. His academic interests include social policy, media, cultural studies, social change and politics.

He has served as an elected city councillor. He has extensive experience in all forms of media and is a frequently invited speaker. He is currently working on a book examining public policy responses to change in the 1980s, 90s and the 21st century.

He lists cycling (road and mountain bike), music, cooking and travel amongst his interests.

» Download keynote address: From Gamekeeper to Poacher (PDF, 148KB)

Prof Richard James
University of Melbourne, Australia

Professor Richard James is Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education and Professor in Higher Education. His research program involves both theoretical and practical investigations into contemporary higher education issues. With Dr Kerri-Lee Krause he currently holds a three year Australian Research Council Discovery Grant to examine the effects of disciplinary cultures on approaches to teaching and learning. In 2005 he led the CSHE project team that designed the Carrick Awards for Australian University Teaching, the national scheme for recognising excellence in teaching in higher education.

One of Professor James's principal research interests is equity in higher education access and participation. In 2002 he coordinated the CSHE team that completed the most extensive national review of higher education equity policy ever undertaken. He has published numerous reports, journal articles and papers on access for rural students and the effects of social class on higher education aspirations. He chairs the Melbourne Access Program Sub-Committee and provides academic leadership for the Academy of Sport, Health and Education (ASHE) in Shepparton, an initiative of the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with the Rumbalara Football Netball Club, designed to improve educational participation and outcomes for the Goulburn Valley Indigenous Community.

Professor James has co-authored numerous major research reports of national significance in the field of higher education as well as over 50 refereed articles and book chapters. He has been the project director for several important national studies and directed a major national study of student assessment in Australian higher education for the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC), which led to the creation of the Assessing Learning in Australian Universities website.

He is the co-author of the handbooks, Eleven Practices of Effective Postgraduate Supervisors and Tutoring and Demonstrating: A Guide for the University of Melbourne.

» Download keynote address: The challenge of widening participation in higher education across the lifecourse: Towards new conceptions of higher education (PDF, 568KB)

» Download slides from presentation (PDF, 748 KB)

Ann Milne
Principal, Clover Park Middle School

Ann is the principal of two decile one schools; Clover Park Middle School, (Years 7 to 10) and Te Whanau o Tupuranga (Years 7 to 13), a designated character, Maori bilingual secondary school, in Otara, Manukau City.

As a Pakeha educator, Ann is a strong advocate for different approaches to address the issues that impact on the education of Maori and Pasifika students. In 2004 she was the recipient of both the New Zealand Education Administration & Leadership Society's (NZEALS) Konica Minolta/Dame Jean Herbison Scholarship and the President's Research Award. In 2007 she was the NZEALS Visiting Scholar, speaking to audiences throughout New Zealand. Ann's Master's thesis, "They didn't care about normal kids like me." Restructuring a school to fit the kids, describes the journey of these two schools towards a learning approach that is driven by social justice, is integrated, culturally responsive, critical and based in the concept of whanau. Ann's PhD thesis (a work in progress) is about the role of school practice in the development of cultural identity.

Abstract
Dr Manulani Meyer's research in Hawaiian epistemology challenges our current priorities and what we mean by "achievement" when she says, "Everything I have learned in school, everything I have read in books, every seating arrangement and response expectation - absolutely everything - has not been shaped by a Hawaiian mind." Realisation of this fact has come slowly to indigenous Hawaiians, "dulled by the guessing game of another culture, still believing that literacy is the best indicator of intelligence," and "always at the short end of a smaller and smaller identity stick."

This presentation will raise questions about social justice in our education system. What price are we prepared to pay for improved student outcomes? In our conversations about the changing face of education will we have the courage to question which students, and which outcomes, currently really matter? How do our schools get in the way of some students' learning and perpetuate inequity? Why, and how, do Clover Park Middle School and Te Whanau o Tupuranga put cultural identity and critical practice first?

» Download keynote, "The short end of a smaller and smaller identity stick" (PDF, 388KB)