Promoting Pacific Indigenous Research Perspectives And Pedagogy Within Postgraduate Health Research Course Development

Abstract

Models of health currently provide physical and biological understandings of how human beings behave in terms of, and succumb to, illness or disease. Well-documented Pacific health models have extended such definitions to include holistic considerations such as spirituality, culture and social wellbeing. Within health research, similar shifts have occurred that signal a move away from traditional approaches, e.g., positivist or interpretivist descriptive designs, to approaches that are centred in Pacific worldviews and paradigms. This paper presents the experiences and perspectives of Pacific researchers in the health sector and the impact of these experiences on the delivery of a Pacific health research and design course in a tertiary institution in Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper provides a Pacific-centred health research lens through the discussion of research practices and methods undertaken in health research and the challenges and opportunities for growth. The experiences also highlight opportunities for curriculum development within health faculties in tertiary institutions that move away from traditional Eurocentric models of health to Indigenous Pacific-centric paradigms. The paper provides insight into the challenging spaces that such a move entails and its impact on the delivery of health research education and posits the researcher’s positionality as the catalyst for a shift in approach. The paper focuses on the pedagogical approaches used by Pacific health lecturers and researchers within course development and delivery. These include Talanoa ‘Pacific oral communication’, veiwekani ‘relationship’ and faikava ‘kava circles’ cultural practices within the vā ‘learning space’.