Pacific postgraduate research in education done at the University of the South Pacific: another site for rethinking Pacific education

Most Pacific postgraduate students in education are experienced mid to late career teachers and administrators who know their education communities intimately and after study return to contribute often in more influential ways. This paper examines the flow of new educational thinking back into Pacific communities over several decades to the present as a result of postgraduate research done by students at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji. Some comparison with Pacific students completing MAs and PhDs in New Zealand’s universities are also made. The paper reports on analyses of the USP library’s thesis collection and also draws on postgraduate research in education listed in the Bibliographic Index of Pacific Postgraduate Research from NZ’s tertiary sector. Basic trends such as what aspects of education are being researched and where in the region new thinking about Pacific education is going are identified. More importantly, however, the paper identifies trends in how Pacific education is being theorised by returning educators, that is, Guba & Lincoln’s (1998) “matters of faith” about how the Pacific world should be. It is educational research thinking at this fundamental level that impacts most on Pacific education systems once postgraduate students return to their respective workplaces