Shifting boundaries and education development discourses: Implications for comparative and international education in Oceania

This chapter examines the usefulness of the field of comparative and international education in reference to supporting and informing the development of education in the Pacific Islands (Oceania) region. Accordingly, it reconsiders the conceptualisation and practice of the field by unpacking understandings of comparative and international education with specific reference to the Pacific Islands. I argue that advancing the field in Oceania entails critical examination of context, of persisting colonial legacies in education and the broader social, economic and political landscape. Considerations of these discourses will identify some of the tensions, contradictions and ambivalences that eventuate as ‘education for national development’ is reconciled with indigenous knowledges and the intellectual traditions that sustain Pacific island communities. Adopting a postcolonial perspective, this chapter explores recent educational initiatives in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Solomon Islands. These initiatives reveal the complexities and multi-faceted dynamics that underpin the context of Pacific Islands systems of education. They also reflect how Pacific educational leaders negotiate global imperatives for education while observing indigenous knowledge systems and cultural values. The lessons drawn from these case studies suggest that comparative education scholars need to rethink partnerships with colleagues and neighbours in consideration of Pacific and indigenous (including Australia and New Zealand) cultural protocols of engagement by honouring respect and reciprocity, mutual benefit and empowerment. Such conceptual and practical reconsiderations may facilitate an assessment of the impact of western intellectual contributions on systems of education in Oceania