From the ground up: Weaving a tok Stori of quality education

Authors

  • Dominique Mahuri University of the South Pacific
  • Vilive Cagivinaka Fiji National University
  • Sereima Baleisomi Fiji National University
  • Onelau Faamoemoe Soti National University of Samoa
  • Martyn Reynolds Victoria University of Wellington https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5742-1074

Abstract

Quality education is an often-heard term that has no single meaning. In this paper, we use the metaphor of mat weaving to structure an exploration of various elements that inform quality education. To form the mat, a warp of literature-derived threads is woven with the weft of practitioners’ ideas of quality education. These local perspectives were gifted through tok stori, a Melanesian oral form, through a session held at the OCIES 2022 Conference at the Fiji National University. The session brought together frontline educators from diverse Pacific settings to explore the dynamics of quality across contexts ‘from the ground up’, a seldom investigated direction. The woven discussion includes explorations of tensions between colonial pasts and the present, and points to hopeful expectations about the not-yet-here. The resultant mat balances prevalent notions of quality that flow from distant places into Pacific settings with locally derived positional understandings, and in so doing offers contextual flesh and currency to some of the key concepts valued by regional initiatives.

Author Biographies

  • Dominique Mahuri, University of the South Pacific

    Dominique Mahuri, from Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, has been a teacher for fifteen years. He is currently working as a school Principal under the Vanuatu Ministry of Education and Training.

  • Vilive Cagivinaka, Fiji National University

    Vilive Cagivinaka is from Fiji. He has been an academic and a teacher educator for 24 years and works for the Fiji National University. His expertise is in teacher education, higher education administration, programme development and review.

  • Sereima Baleisomi, Fiji National University

    Sereima Baleisomi is from Macuata, Fiji. She is a lecturer in primary education at the Fiji National University.

  • Onelau Faamoemoe Soti, National University of Samoa

    Onelau Faamoemoe Hakai Soti is from Samoa. She has 15 years’ experience at the Curriculum Division, Ministry of Education. Moe has also been an academic and a teacher educator for the same period and currently works for the National University of Samoa.

  • Martyn Reynolds, Victoria University of Wellington

    Pacific Research Post Doctoral Fellow,  Victoria University of Wellington Teaching Fellow, USP

Downloads

Published

2023-11-16

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 2 (2023): Special Issue: OCIES Conference 2022

Section

General Refereed Papers

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Dominique Mahuri, Vilive Cagivinaka, Sereima Baleisomi, Onelau Faamoemoe Soti, Martyn Reynolds

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives is the official journal of the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society. The IEJ, (ISSN 1443-1475), publishes a general volume bi-annually in July and December and also publishes Special Editions occasionally. It is a free, open-access scholarly journal, managed by volunteers. There are no article processing charges, or any charges to authors.

In relation to intellectual property, as of 2020, the IEJ: CP claims only first publication rights; copyright of all work published in the journal remains with the authors under Creative Commons copyright license CC-BY-ND (4.0). Author(s) retain all rights to their works, ensuring that reference to the International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives is clearly stated on any copies made or distribution. Submissions must not involve third parties with a claim to copyright, and be the sole work of the author(s). It is the responsibility of the author(s) to secure permission to reproduce photographs, illustrations, figures or tables. Single images, tables or figures can be re-used . If more than a single image or table are to be re-used authors must attribute first publication to IEJ: CP notify the IEJ: CP Editor. Authors may also make derivative works which are subject to these limitations.

See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ for more detail.

Re-distributed or used material must be referenced to the International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives.