Accreditation of Postsecondary Education in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific: A Tribal Critical Race Theory Analysis

• In Event: 65.035 - Higher Education and the Role of Co-Option

Abstract

The history of higher education in the Pacific is a study in American and European colonialism in the 19th and 20th century (Crocombe & Meleisea, 1989). Carved up by imperialist politicians eager to gain a toehold in the region, the islands and their social institutions continue to bear the marks of that past legacy. As a result, higher education in the Pacific reflects the educational diversity of the colonial powers: islands that have a political relationship with the U.S. have developed an education system that is tightly coupled with American institutions (for example, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), while islands formerly or currently under dominion of the U.K (New Zealand, and subsequently Samoa, Fiji) have similarly developed higher education institutions that mimic the tertiary system in Great Britain. Although higher education has afforded some Pacific Islanders the opportunity to gain new skills and a position in the global economy, it has come at a very high cost. Colonization and imperialism have fragmented the vibrant network that once existed for people of the Pacific (Kaeppler, 1978), aided by academic and cultural discourse that continues to reify colonial imagery of the region and its peoples (Thompson, 2010).

This paper offers a critical analysis of higher education for U.S. affiliated Pacific Islands: the territories of American Samoa and Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the freely associated island nations of Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. I use Tribal Critical Race Theory (Tribal Crit; Brayboy, 2006) as a means to address one of the most urgent issues for higher education institutions on these islands: accreditation. Over the past decade, several institutions of higher education in the US-affiliated Pacific have been in danger of losing their accreditation by Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and the commission that administers this process to community colleges, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). Loss of accreditation is fairly critical for any institution: without accreditation, institutions are rendered ineligible for federal financial aid or funding (Alstete, 2007). In 2006, the ACCJC addressed the challenges of accreditation for Pacific institutions in a position paper (Beno, Moses, Rota, & Takeuchi, 2006). Commissioners worked with leadership from the six institutions to examine these challenges in more detail.

Using the Tribal Crit framework, I analyze this and other data sources (including accreditation reports, feedback from accrediting commissions, documents from the Pacific Postsecondary Education Council, and relevant literature) in order to take a critical view of the institution, process, and consequence of the American accreditation system as it is applied to Pacific institutions of higher education. I hope to reveal how American colonization and imperialism have, and continue to, undergird the region’s postsecondary education system. I conclude by offering initial thoughts on how higher education researchers, administrators, and policy makers can shift the discourse about postsecondary education in the Pacific region, advancing a new approach to systemic analysis.

Author

• Natasha A Saelua, Indiana University - Bloomington