Bittersweet Belonging

Plain English summaryThere is evidence in the literature showing that involving patients and the public in health research can have a positive influence on quality, relevance and impact of research. However, patients and the public are not always involved in all stages of the research. There is often no explanation as to why they were only involved in some stages of the research and not others. Additionally, there is often no description of researchers’ or PPI contributor’s experiences of involvement. This also raises another issue which is a lack of recording of impact such involvement can have on the research process and the people involved in the research. In this paper, we present what PPI in a doctoral research should look like by providing a detailed description of how involvement occurred from pre-funding to dissemination stages of the research process. We provide some practical examples of how this was done and how involving patients made a difference to the research project. Finally, we present reflections from the patient and public contributors and the researcher on involvement in this project along with some recommendations for future doctoral and postdoctoral researchers considering involving public/patient contributors in their research.BackgroundPatient and Public Involvement (PPI) has received considerable attention in the last two decades and working in partnership and co-design have now become a prerequisite in health services research in the UK. However, there is a lack of evidence and consistency in recording PPI and related activities. Researchers and PPI contributors are encouraged to record and reflect on the impact of PPI on research. There is significant variation in the way PPI contributors are involved, and it is often limited to some stages of the research cycle than others, without any reflections on the decision-making process for such involvement or any transferable learning. This has resulted in failure to provide a narrative of the research journey including researchers’ and PPI contributors’ personal reflections of involvement. Therefore, this paper provides an exemplar of what PPI in a doctoral research context should look like by providing a detailed account of how PPI was embedded in a doctoral research project, the PPI contributors and researcher’s reflections and key recommendations for involving people specifically in doctoral research.MethodsA reflective approach was taken using data from PPI contributor and researcher notes, e-mail correspondence, meeting notes. Data is presented narratively to reflect on the experiences of involvement throughout the research cycle.ResultsUndertaking PPI enhanced the quality and relevance of the doctoral research, contributed to the recruitment of study participants, data analysis and dissemination. Building trust and relationships with PPI contributors was key to continued involvement throughout the life of the project and beyond. There is a need to adopt flexible approaches rather than a one-size-fits-all model when working with PPI contributors. Reflections by PPI contributors and the researcher emphasises that involvement was a rewarding experience.ConclusionsThis paper contributes to the wider literature by providing an exemplar of how PPI can be embedded in doctoral research and demonstrates the value of PPI to the research process and the individuals involved. We also present recommendations on how PPI can be incorporated by doctoral and postdoctoral researchers when planning PPI in their research project.

It is now firmly established that the overrepresentation of tamariki Māori within the Aotearoa New Zealand child protection system is largely a consequence of colonisation. However, at least as far as the Crown is concerned, the contention that decolonisation is a necessary step in reversing those trends remains a more controversial issue. Drawing on my doctoral research into this topic, this article argues that the child protection system must be decolonised, and that efforts towards reform which do not prioritise decolonisation are likely to perpetuate long-standing harms. The article has four goals. First, I examine why decolonisation provides the best framework through which to enact child protection system reform. Secondly, I identify three overarching themes within the current legal framework, but argue that the presence of these themes does not mean they are all given equal weight. Thirdly, I outline a theory of reform I have termed "kaupapa Māori legal theory", which seeks to enable legislative change based on tikanga Māori in a way which pays heed to the risks of doing so from a Māori perspective. Finally, I apply that theory to child protection law, identifying six tikanga principles which could provide the basis of a decolonised system: mana, rangatiratanga, wānanga, whānau, whakapapa and whanaungatanga.

In this essay published in 2022, April-Louise M. O. O. Pennant explores her educational experiences growing up as a Black woman in England using analytic and critical autoethnography, and interweaves this account with a broader examination of her doctoral research on the educational challenges faced by Black British women more generally. While Pennant elaborates how she was encouraged by her parents to see herself as both British and shaped by the cultures of Nigeria and Jamaica, in the academically selective schools she attended she observed a lack of diversity around her, as well as in the curriculum, where the limited discussions of Black people in history focused on slavery and civil rights in the United States, rather than on the history of Black people in the United Kingdom. However, through engaging in extracurricular activities focused on empowering and centring Black identities, Pennant was still able to preserve and cultivate her sense of self despite these curricular deficiencies. In university, Pennant was able to also study Black feminism, Black British experience, and Black Caribbean women’s experiences for the first time. From these intellectual foundations, Pennant pursued her doctoral research focused on Black British women’s educational experiences and the intersections of their gender, race, and social class identities. This article shares first-hand and second-hand experience, showcasing the importance of intersectional theory as well as the continued challenges Black people (especially Black women) face in the United Kingdom to see themselves represented positively in society, education, and curricula.

Objective: Research and PhDs are relatively rare in family medicine and primary care. To promote research, regular one-year research courses for primary care professionals with a focus on clinical epidemiology were started. This study explores the academic outcomes of the first four cohorts of research courses and surveys the participants’ perspectives on the research course. Design: An electronic survey was sent to the research course participants. All peer-reviewed scientific papers published by these students were retrieved by literature searches in PubMed. Setting: Primary care in Finland. Subjects: A total of 46 research course participants who had finished the research courses between 2007 and 2012. Results: Of the 46 participants 29 were physicians, eight nurses, three dentists, four physiotherapists, and two nutritionists. By the end of 2014, 28 of the 46 participants (61%) had published 79 papers indexed in PubMed and seven students (15%) had completed a PhD. The participants stated that the course taught them critical thinking, and provided basic research knowledge, inspiration, and fruitful networks for research. Conclusion: A one-year, multi-professional, clinical epidemiology based research course appeared to be successful in encouraging primary care research as measured by research publications and networking. Activating teaching methods, encouraging focus on own research planning, and support from peers and tutors helped the participants to embark on research projects that resulted in PhDs for 15% of the participants.Key PointsClinical research and PhDs are rare in primary care in Finland, which has consequences for the development of the discipline and for the availability of clinical lecturers at the universities.A clinical epidemiology oriented, one-year research course increased the activity in primary care research. Focus on own research planning and learning the challenges of research with peers appeared to enhance the success of a doctoral research course.A doctoral research course encouraged networking, and the course collaboration sometimes led to paper co-authoring.In the Nordic countries, the primary care health professionals are used to working in multi-professional teams. A multi-professional strategy also seems fruitful in doctoral research education.

Abstract. Mixed-method bicultural research in Aotearoa New Zealand, including the weaving of Indigenous and other knowledge, is emerging within many academic disciplines. However, mātauranga Māori (the knowledge, culture, values, and world view of the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand) and Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) is poorly represented within geomorphological investigations. Here, we review international efforts to include Indigenous knowledge in geologic and geomorphic studies and provide an overview of the current state of mātauranga Māori within research endeavours in Aotearoa New Zealand. We review three theoretical frameworks (i.e. methodologies) for including mātauranga Māori in research projects and three models (i.e. methods) for including Māori values within research. We identify direct benefits to geomorphology and discuss how these frameworks and models can be adapted for use with Indigenous knowledge systems outside of Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim of this review is to encourage geomorphologists around the world to engage with local Indigenous peoples to develop new approaches to geomorphic research. In Aotearoa New Zealand, we hope to inspire geomorphologists to embark on research journeys in genuine partnership with Māori that promote toitū te mātauranga – the enduring protection, promotion and respect of mātauranga Māori.

A PhD thesis is a project with an established goal and a deadline. As such, the tools, strategies and insight of professional project management can be used effectively to improve both research success and personal well‐being.

A heavy over-representation of Indigenous people within criminal justice and state welfare systems is a co1runon factor of first-world colonized nation-states. In Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, the US and Canada this over-representation positions Indigenous peoples as a group of key interest for criminological researchers and there is a significant body of criminological literature documenting this positioning in each country. This over-representation also positions Indigenous peoples as a disproportionately vulnerable group and highlights the criticality of ensuring that the conduct of research with Indigenous peoples meets high ethical standards. Conducting ethical research with, or about, Indigenous peoples, however requires much more than standard ethical approval from university or other institutional ethics committees. Research with Indigenous peoples, particularly the ethical aspects of this research, is not neutral territory. Not only are there unique ethical principles, guidelines and needs associated with such research, the realm is also awash with racial, cultural, social and political assumptions. The signing of a consent form, for example, taken as evidence of a participant's voluntary informed participation in the research, may neither be culturally applicable nor meaningful for Indigenous participants. The complex realm of ethical Indigenous research practice in settler states, therefore, has to be examined from both ends of the research spectrum. The ethical principles and perspectives that the Indigenous subjects of research have articulated and the ethical dimensions of worldviews and values that researchers themselves bring to their research alongside the compatibility of these with Indigenous research ethics are central concerns of ethical research practice with Indigenous peoples. The chapter begins with an overview of the shared positionality of Indigenous peoples on the hierarchy of socio-economic and cultural disadvantage and within criminal justice systems in their respective first-world colonized nation-states: Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, the US and Canada. The chapter then details Indigenous ethical perspectives, as they are conceived formally and informally, and their ramifications for criminology researchers in the practice of ethical research. For Indigenous peoples, ethical research is research that recognizes and respects Indigenous cultural values, norms, knowledges and sovereign rights. To this encl most of our example first-world settler states have developed sets of ethical guidelines to inform researchers designing and conducting culturally appropriate and collaborative research. A cross-national comparative analysis of these demonstrates both the essential similarities across cultures and nation-states as well as national variations. The chapter then addresses the ethical impact of the cultural, social and racial milieu of the researcher: the researcher's worldview. Even if the researcher is fully cognizant of Indigenous ethical dimensions, the outc01ne is not necessarily ethical research. If they do not understand their own social position and how this frames their research practice then a significant potential to do research harm remains. Researchers' worldview, and the value and belief systems that flow from this, shape and influence the research questions they regard as important, the way data are gathered, from whom, and, often most critically, the interpretation of those data. Criminological research is not purely a scholarly endeavor and those interpretations have social and public policy resonance. Far removed from researchers themselves, research findings have real life effects on Indigenous peoples and communities. An Australian research example is used to demonstrate such ethical issues.

Aotearoa New Zealand is a small island nation known for its picturesque landscapes and for ‘punching above its weight’ both socially and politically. Less well known, however, is its long and rich history of disability-led advocacy. This history undoubtedly paved the way for the significant role that Aotearoa New Zealand played in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and subsequent efforts to bring life to Article 33 of the Convention. This article can be thought of as a road map; that is, a historical overview of Aotearoa New Zealand’s disability rights journey. As well as reflecting on where we have come from, it also inquires as to where we are going, by investigating the strengths and opportunities of current efforts to monitor the progressive realisation of disability rights in Aotearoa New Zealand – in 2020, and beyond. Points of interest This article is about the history of disability rights in Aotearoa New Zealand. Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of disability-led advocacy and helped to develop the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Convention). Article 33 of the Convention says that governments must have a way to measure disability rights in their country that involves disabled people. This article looks at how Article 33 has been carried out in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is called ‘Disabled Person-Led Monitoring’. Examples of Disabled Person-Led Monitoring research projects are provided. Finally, the strengths and challenges of Disabled Person-Led Monitoring are talked about.

As autoethnography and other methods for self-as-subject research continue to increase in use across doctoral education, this guide proposes to inform the methods in this area specific to critical autoethnography for doctoral scholars desiring to conduct the many forms of social justice research. This includes indigenous research, contemporary feminist research, and arts-based research, which have also seen rise across dissertation research among many disciplines. While many works exist to describe critical autoethnography within specific contexts, few research guides examine critical autoethnography specific for use by the doctoral scholar and specific examples across research focused on societal change and/or disruption of existing power dynamics, lack of parity, or historical trauma from acculturation and/or dispossession. Thus, this chapter offers a concise research methods resource for doctoral scholars and their research supervisors to facilitate use of critical autoethnography across disciplines and among diverse research problems of inquiry.

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to indigenous entrepreneurship theory by identifying what constitutes an indigenous enterprise, focussing on Aotearoa New Zealand as a case.Design/methodology/approachThis paper combines policy (quantitative survey) and academic research (qualitative interviews) to answer the same question, what is an indigenous enterprise in Aotearoa New Zealand?FindingsThe authors found a degree of consistency as to what counts as an indigenous enterprise in the literature (e.g., identity, ownership, values), yet a consensus on a definition of Maori business remains elusive. They also found that an understanding of the indigenous economy and indigenous entrepreneurial policy are impeded because of definitional uncertainties. The authors propose a definition of Maori business which accounts for indigenous ownership, identity, values and well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation is that the literature and research use different definitions of indigenous enterprise, constraining comparative analysis. The next step is to evaluate our definition as a basis for quantifying the population of indigenous enterprises in Aotearoa New Zealand.Practical implicationsThe research assists indigenous entrepreneurs to identify, measure and account for their contribution to indigenous self-determination and sustainable development.Social implicationsThis research has the potential to reconceptualise indigenous enterprise as a distinct and legitimate alternative institutional theory of the firm.Originality/valueThe research challenges assumptions and knowledge of entrepreneurship policy and practice generally and the understanding of what is the nature and extent of an indigenous firm.

Despite Indigenous peoples’ deeply methodological and artistic ways of being in and making sense of our world, the notion of “methodology” has been captured by Western research paradigms and duly mystified. This article seeks to contribute to Indigenous scholarship that encourages researchers to look to our own artistic practices and ways of being in the world, theorizing our own methodologies for research from our knowledge systems to tell our stories and create “new” knowledge that will serve us in our current lived realities.I explain how I theorised a Māori [Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand] weaving practice as a decolonizing research methodology for my doctoral research (Smith, 2017) to explore the lived experiences of eight Māori mothers and grandmothers as they wove storied Māori cloaks. I introduce you to key theoreticians who contributed significantly to my work so as to encourage other researchers to look for, and listen to, the wisdom contained within Indigenous knowledge and then consider the methodologies most capable of telling our stories from our own world-views.

In this article I discuss my experiences as an international PhD student conducting research in New Zealand. This reflexive paper will discuss the challenges and difficulties I faced as a novice researcher and as an 'outsider' who needed to understand and embrace the uniquely Kiwi-Māori culture that permeates New Zealand society. In particular, this article will focus on my experiences during the data collection phase of my doctoral research, which examines young children's empathy towards animals in Aotearoa New Zealand. As an international student from Singapore based in New Zealand and as a vegan of seven years, I will shed light on the two challenges that I face as a researcher: firstly, my struggles as an outsider making sense of the Kiwi culture while conducting this research, and secondly, as a vegan researcher whose personal philosophy of veganism runs counter to the overarching socio-cultural beliefs and practices towards animals in New Zealand.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, as elsewhere, the evidence-based policy movement has been one of the most visible recent influences on how policies are described, discussed and debated. It is now commonly taken for granted that good policy work involves using evidence, and that it is important to increase the influence of data and research uptake during policy development. Promoting evidence-based policy has even been used as the raison d’être for the founding of a political party. However, the voices and perspectives of practitioners themselves are often missing from conversations about evidence’s role in policy work. Drawing on my doctoral research, this article presents three stances that frame how policy workers approach evidence in their practice.

In this article, I first critique neoliberal effects on the Aotearoa New Zealand tertiary education sector and then provide a close-up look at tertiary education in the Bay of Plenty region. Information is based on aspects of my doctoral research which was located across three tertiary education organisations comprising the Bay of Plenty Tertiary Education Partnership: The University of Waikato, Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology and, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi. The findings of this research examine connections across the partnership, delving into relevant aspects of universities, polytechnics and wānanga. I evaluate the historical, geographical, political and socio-cultural context of all three institutions. Lastly, I discuss campus connections between the partnership organisations. The emerging picture reveals an old story of expansion and growth with a new voice of tension between collaboration and competition in the face of a neoliberal education context. This article offers timely implications for contemporary and future University of Waikato campus connections and may appeal to academics, graduate students, policymakers and the general public.

This article provides a brief overview of the Fijian research methodology Veivosaki Yaga. Veivosaki yaga, developed by Isimeli Tagicakiverata, literally means ‘worthwhile discussion’. When engaging in veivosaki yaga, a conversation like a focus group discussion, participants have a communal dialogue that requires thoughtful consideration as well as response. Veivosaki yaga is currently being used in doctoral research with Pacific lead maternity care (LMC) midwives and their families. This research explores the nature of LMC work on well-being, and sustainability challenges for Pacific midwives working within this model of care in Aotearoa New Zealand.