Women Educators as Change Agents in Rural Fiji

• In Event: For the Public Good: Women in Educational Leadership Across the Continents

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to understand how rural women Fijian schoolteachers navigate the complexities between modernity and traditionalism in their curriculum as the nation rapidly modernizes. This study is situated in a postcolonial framework that recognizes the Western world’s history of conquest, domination, and colonization (Said, 1978; Bhabha, 1984; and Spivak, 1988). This research project was conducted using the lens of postcolonial theory while applying the concepts of decolonization (Smith, 2012). This study is also contextualized using modernization theory. There is a fundamental gap in the literature on rural iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) teaching experiences.

Emergent Framework. The researcher used arts-based research (Leavy, 2015), specifically narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1986, 1990, 2000) framed with culturally responsive methodology (Berryman et al., 2013). Without first learning about and showing respect the participants’ culture, ways of knowing, rituals, life experiences, and values, the researcher risked further advancing a heartbreaking trend of Western domination in research. Through employing an arts based culturally responsive methodology, the researcher strove to decolonize the study by waiting to be invited to conduct research, sharing power and knowledge, and co-constructing both the research question and the research study.

Methods and Modes of Inquiry. Data collection took place in Fiji in July 2017. Each teacher was interviewed a minimum of three times, and each interview lasted as long as the participant wished. The interviews typically lasted in the range from 45 minutes to 2 hours in duration. Upon the completion of data collection, the interviews were coded using the coding cycles as outlined in Saldaña (2016) that focused on creating and analyzing narratives (Farrelly & Nababo-Baba, 2014) from the participant interviews.

Data Sources. Data included participant narratives that were then analyzed using Saldaña’s (2016) coding methods. Additionally, the data included the researcher’s field note journal. The data analysis revealed four main findings including themes including resilience, courage, loyalty, and agency.

Results and Significance. This session focuses primarily on the finding of culturally embedded agency as a vehicle preserve indigenous values in schools. iTaukei scholar Meo-Sewabu (2016) explained that “culturally embedded agency calls for social policy that incorporates full participation of women in society, which is inclusive of indigeneity goals, cultural wellbeing, and fairness” (p. 96). The agency the participants exhibit acknowledges their place and time, and fits within the context of what is acceptable and permissible given society’s constraints and expectations. The participant narratives reveal how they employ agentic strategies in ways that are culturally appropriate and meaningful. The participants embodied agency as they straddle the delicate line of showing respect for curricular rules and expectations while quietly modifying them so they can best serve their students. Their agency is quiet and yet powerful; silence plays a significant role (Nabobo-Baba, 2006) as they actively resist the neoliberal agenda. While the participants in this study are preserving indigenous values through culturally embedded agency, there is a need for curricular and policy changes to in order to more broadly preserve indigenous culture in Fijian schools.

Author

• Elizabeth Yomantas, Pepperdine University