This year’s conference is being hosted by Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, the University of Canterbury in Ōtautahi Christchurch. A small conference organising committee is being led by long-time OCIES members Dr David Small and Professor Cheryl Brown.
University of the CanterburyAfter completing a BA in Education and Political Science and working for several years for an aid and development organisation, I completed a PhD in Education on the Politics of Colonial Education in New Caledonia. I have spent my academic career teaching and researching at the University of Canterbury mostly at the intersection of Education and Politics including critical analysis of the neoliberal model of education and the role of education in the development of and challenges to the colonisation of New Zealand. In 2010 I also completed an LlB and have held a lawyer’s practising certificate ever since. I also teach a postgrad course on Education Law and have researched and published in the area of law, rights and the war on terror. I have retained an interest in New Caledonia throughout having first visited there in 1983 after attending the Fourth Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Conference in Vanuatu. I spent December 2023 in New Caledonia on the island of Ouvéa where the 1988 massacre of 19 Kanak activists occurred and in Nouméa where I attended meetings of the CCAT and the Mouvement des Océaniens Indépendantistes.
Professor Cheryl Lee Brown is a South African–New Zealand education academic who has worked in education in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. She is a full professor at the University of Canterbury, specialising in the use of technology in education, digital literacy and access to technology.Cheryl is Head of the School of Social and Cultural Studies in Education and co-Director of Te Puna Rangahau i- Ako, the Digital Education Futures Lab at the University of Canterbury. I have recently been appointed as a Commonwealth of Learning Research Chair and will be exploring (post)digital (in)equality in Tertiary Education with a particular focus on perspectives and opportunities in the Pacific region. Brown’s research focuses on the role of technology in education, including phones and laptops. She covers topics such as whether access to devices impacts students’ digital literacy, and the impact of screen time at home and school on children’s learning. Brown argues that there is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ screentime and the focus should be less on limiting the amount and more about ensuring that children are actively engaged in learning.