June 27, 2022
Open slate for indigenous science centre
One of the founders of the University of Otago’s new Centre of Indigenous Science says it’s a chance to develop an institution from scratch.
The centre within the university’s science division will open to students from the start of next year.
Associate Professor Anne-Marie Jackson says leading up to that she’s working on what its teaching and research aspirations will be.
She says everything’s on the table.
“What would a new curriculum look like? What ae the aspects we think are most important? What are the tikanga that underlie what we want to do? And really being able to get out, especially with Covid changing now I that people can be more face to face and we are able to spend that time in listening to our whanau, hapu and iwi around what are the components that are the most important to come into the centre within our mainstream organisation,” Dr Jackson says.
She says because of the low numbers of Māori staff in the tertiary sector, there are few opportunities for students and researchers to pursue research within a Māori framework.