The limits of ‘teaching and learning’: indigenous students and doctoral supervision

Abstract

When exploring the supervision of indigenous doctoral students, a focus on teaching and learning hides as much as it reveals. Explicit descriptions from students of helpful teaching and learning practices mostly highlight everyday Western academic culture in action and do not illuminate the ways in which indigenous identities impact on, or are impacted by, research supervision or doctoral education. Situated in research undertaken in the postcolonial context of Aotearoa/New Zealand, this article draws on interview data with 10 Māori doctoral students to examine the limitations of a ‘teaching and learning’ framework for supervision. In so doing, it suggests some considerations about supervision that offer deeper insight, particularly for non-indigenous supervisors, into the distinctive issues that might arise when working with indigenous doctoral students.