Title: Economic curricula in South Pacific high schools : what should they include?

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Towards a culture-sensitive model of curriculum development for Pacific Island countries

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Education crisis in the South Seas

Abstract: [ Abstract not available ]

Title: Re-placing Oceania roots in our teacher education programmes : a critical appraisal of the roles of indigenous educational ideas

Abstract: The majority of our teacher education programmes in Oceania are based largely on western models. However, teachers who graduate from these training institutions inevitably find themselves teaching in situations where indigenous forms and notions of education exist. Moreover, these teachers were products of primary and secondary education systems that disregarded indigenous forms of education, thereby compounding the problem. Focussing on indigenous thought processes rather than bodies of knowledge, this paper discusses the constraints and the prospects pertaining to the study of indigenous education in Oceania. It is argued that teacher education programmes must include systematic studies of indigenous philosophies and processes of education. A thorough grounding in this and exogenous philosophies of education would provide a stronger and more realistic foundation for teachers to practise their profession more effectively in the future in complementary ways that are firmly grounded in local realities.

Title: Pacific cultures in the teacher education curriculum project : a report

Abstract: The author reports on a survey conducted to investigate the extent to which teacher training institutions in the Pacific incorporate elements of the local cultures in the content, methodology and assessment of their courses. Sad to say, there was found to be a general lack of Pacific cultural representation in the courses. Teacher educators need to be aware of the importance of the local context and how it can improve the quality of teacher education.

Title: The role of research : a personal perspective

Abstract: Dr Taufe’ulungaki, herself a researcher of renown in the Pacific, interrogates the way that Pacific research has been largely undertaken by westerners, using western methodology, and underpinned by western belief systems and epistemologies. She argues that Pacific research should be undertaken by Pacific Islanders who interpret their cultures and experiences through Pacific ‘lenses’, and it should have as its primary purpose the reclamation of Pacific values and knowledge for Pacific peoples. If development plans are to be more successful than hitherto, they must be grounded in a Pacific worldview.

Title: Cultural democracy for whom? : a view from the Pacific Islands

Abstract: Cultural democracy is a philosophical precept which recognises that the way a person communicates, relates to others, seeks support and recognition from his/her environment (incentive motivation), thinks and learns (cognition) is a product of the value system of his/her community. Furthermore, an educational environment or policy that does not recognise the individual’s right to remain identified with the culture and language of his/her group is said to be culturally undemocratic (Ramirez and Castaneda, 1974: 23). In the author’s view, cultural democracy, for most Pacific island societies, has to do with the right and the opportunity to study and learn important elements of their own cultures in schools and universities, an opportunity denied them since schools first began in the early part of the last century, because most schools were set up to transmit a foreign culture in a foreign language. She therefore wishes to make a case not only for understanding Pacific cultures, but also for including important aspects of them in the curriculum of formal education, including university, as a first step towards intercultural education and a true cultural democracy for all.

Title: The forgotten context : culture and teacher education in Oceania

Abstract: In her keynote address, Konai Thaman, who holds the UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education and Culture, spoke on making the education environment in the Pacific more culturally democratic. She urges education policy makers to show more consideration for and tolerance of the realities of teachers and students whose cultural identities are not those that dominate the processes of formal education systems in the Pacific, which are largely based on Anglo-American and Eurocentric perceptions of learning and teaching.