Unknown and/or Misunderstood: Higher Education Institutions in Compact of Free Association Pacific Island Nations

• In Event: 35.072 - Reflecting on the P in REAPA: Education Research on (and for) Pacific Islanders

Abstract

The islands in Micronesia represent a geographically, ethnically and culturally diverse group of islands with varying political statuses: independent, commonwealth, unincorporated territory of the United States (U.S) and constitutional government in free association with the U.S. (Heine, 2002, p. 2). This paper will focus on the former Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) that have signed a Compact Agreement of Free Association with the U.S. These Free Associated States (FAS) include the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the Republic of Palau (ROP). Through the compact each island has an arrangement with the U.S. for economic, political and strategic provisions (Heine, 2002). In exchange for this support, the U.S. has authority over the seas and privilege to use land and water resources for their military (Pobutsky, Buenconsejo-Lum, Chow, Palafox & Maskarinec, 2005).
The agreement has included infrastructure and fiscal support for each of the nations’ higher education institutions including the College of Micronesia-FSM, the College of Marshall Islands, and Palau Community College. Each of these colleges, started as stations and occupational centers with either a technical and/or career focused mission. The centers became community colleges, an American invention, in the 1990s. There is limited research and documentation regarding these COFA institutions. However, it is very clear from the literature that there is significant American influence on the early and continued development of these colleges. Therefore this paper seeks to illuminate the complex relationship between the COFA colleges and the United States. More specifically the following questions will be addressed:

a. What is the nature of higher education in the CoFA Nations?
b. How is the higher education system influenced by American influence and interest?
The paper engages in a critical analysis of literature about the early development of the COFA colleges. This includes problematic conversations regarding western ideas of instruction. It also assesses the impact of the U.S Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Land Grant) and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Continued influence and support from these governmental and accrediting bodies represent the balancing act for these new nations. Moreover the COFA nations are asserting their presence as independent nations politically, however they are still economically dependent (Wright & Balutski, 2013).
The paper brings to light three community colleges that have been overlooked and encourages researchers to contend with the power and influence of colonization and imperialism on the (higher) education system of the COFA nations. The paper also provides avenues of future research that seeks to understand indigenous ways of knowing within the academy.

Author

• Joy Hannibal, Michigan State University