Abstract
What does a physics-educated scholar bring to a field such as Māori Studies? How does a physicist “become Māori”? To discuss this, I examine my experiences as a researcher and teacher in physics and Māori studies. I comment upon the different worldviews and languages used in each discipline, and the difference in outlook this produces among students. I present examples of my teaching and research that draws upon the two knowledge systems. I interrogate my experience of negotiating disciplinary boundaries by assessing the degree of hazard involved in the “border crossings” (Aikenhead and Jegede 1999) and speculate throughout on the identity-ladenness of this endeavour.
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Notes
- 1.
This is according to the Australian Research Council’s ERA Journal Ranking 2010.
- 2.
I didn’t solicit formal feedback on my teaching, so aside from the buzz of having a captive audience I had little in the way of positive feedback to encourage me, and have little to present here as objective evidence of student responses to my teaching. Personal vindication came 5 years later when one of my students came up to me at a party and said “I remember you! TECH102! You were a good lecturer.”
- 3.
I can recall one in a class of 120.
- 4.
It is worth noting however, the Laby building, where physics is housed, does happen to be topographically about 10 m higher above sea level than Māori studies!
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Victoria University of Wellington chapter of MANU-Ao (the Māori Academic Network of Universities across Aotearoa-New Zealand) for supporting the writing of this chapter through its Write on Site meetings. I acknowledge my colleagues in both physics and Māori studies whose inscriptions have caused me to reflect on my identity. I also thank this volume’s editors, who by inviting this contribution – which I recast as a teaching portfolio – contributed to me winning two Teaching Excellence Awards.
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Mercier, O.R. (2014). At the Faultline of Disciplinary Boundaries: Emigrating from Physics to Māori Studies. In: Mason, C., Rawlings-Sanaei, F. (eds) Academic Migration, Discipline Knowledge and Pedagogical Practice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-88-8_6
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