Introduction

Associate Professor Elizabeth Rata is Deputy Head of School (Research) in Critical Studies in Education. She is a sociologist of education specialising in the relationship between education and society. Dr Rata is Editor of Pacific-Asian Education, Leader of the Knowledge and Education Research Group, a member of a European Union International Research Staff Exchange Scheme, and a former Fulbright Senior Scholar to Georgetown University, Washington D.C.

Educational history

• Dr Rata completed her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Education, and Doctorate of Philosophy at The University of Auckland.
• Her doctoral thesis is ‘The Emergence of Tribal Capitalism’ (1996).

Area of expertise

The political economy of ethnic and national regulation.

Research and professional interests

Education and Society, Education Policy, Maori Education, New Zealand Culture and Identity, Neotribal Capitalism, Higher Education, Indigenous Education, Knowledge and the Curriculum, Ethnic Politics.
 

Current teaching

• EDPROFST 776 Education, Culture and Identity
• EDPROFST 754 Critical Research Methodologies
• MEd / MA / PhD / EdD Supervision
• EDUC 118 History and Society in New Zealand Education
   

Current/Past Supervision

Current

• Daniel Couch – MEd - The ‘New Education’ in New Zealand during the 1930 and 1940s
• Bishard Mutepfa – MEd - The Experience of Zimbabwean Families in New Zealand
• Mallika Bandara - PhD - The Feminisation of global migration: Sri Lankan professional women in New Zealand
• Leon Benade – EdD - From Technicians to Teachers: The NZ Curriculum
• Tauwehe Hemahema-Tamati – PhD - Language teaching in Maori-medium educational contexts
• Saba Kiani – PhD - The English Academic Purposes (EAP) Programme in Iranian Universities: Factors Influencing its Success
• Megan Lourie – PhD - The experience of non Maori students learning Te Reo Maori in mainstream secondary schooling
• Graham McPhail – EdD - Influences on Students’ Commitment to Musical Involvement After Schooling
• Alexis Siteine – PhD - The Affirmation of Identity in New Zealand Primary Schools

Past

• Mallika Bandara - MEd - Cultural Identity and Change: The Experience of Migrant Women in New Zealand
• Jill Burgess - MEd - Beliefs and Practice: teacher Responses to the Bicultural Requirements in Current New Zealand Early Education Discourse
• Ta Taoro - MEd - Students’ Explanations of their Truancy Behaviour
• Linda Cheeseman - MEd - Intentions Versus Implementation In the Numeracy Development Projects
• Andrew Stierman – MEd - Research Study, the Virtual Colombo Plan
• Pamela Young – MA - Where Ta Meets Va, Pacific Island Peoples’ Access to the Creative Industries of New Zealand
• Kevin Kannan – EdD - Spiritual Intelligence and Imagination in New Zealand Students
  

Recent publications

Books

Rata, E. and Openshaw, R. (eds.) The Politics of Conformity in New Zealand. Auckland: Pearson Education. 2009.

ISBN 9781442510173, NZ$39.99.

The Politics of Conformity in New Zealand provides a critical examination of what happens to a society when a rigid conformity to cultural politics and other orthodoxies replace progressive ideas. The book consists of 12 chapters on a range of topics written by academic experts drawn from universities throughout New Zealand. The topics include cultural politics, biculturalism, historical revisionism, Maori mental health, literacy education, science and research, gender policy, culturalist development programmes for teachers, and the debate over child discipline.

Aimed primarily at academics, graduate students and the critical general reader, this book provides a powerful and disturbing account of the consequences of cultural politics for New Zealand society.

Rata, E., Sullivan, R. (eds.) An Introduction to the History of New Zealand Education. Pearson. 2009

An Introduction to the History of New Zealand Education (editors Elizabeth Rata and Ros Sullivan) is an overview of the New Zealand education system from its establishment in 1877 to the present, illustrating how major issues in education that cause disagreement today have always been disputed.

These include debates about who should pay for education, what teacher education should be like, the uneasy relationship between secularism and religion in schools, the effects of poverty on achievement, debates about gender differences, outdoor education and safety, disability and human rights, the effects of migration on the education system, and the current disputes about Māori education.
 

Rata, E. and Openshaw, R. (eds.) Public Policy and Ethnicity, The Politics of Ethnic Boundary-Making. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. Nov 2006 publication.

H/B ISBN 0-230-00338-9, NZ$79.95 (November 2006) Palgrave Macmillan Publishers UK Limited

Public Policy and Ethnicity is a response to the growing concern in many democracies that ethnicity has become institutionalised as a political category. The book draws on a number of international studies, including New Zealand, to show that this process of public policymaking creates permanent divisions and boundaries. These artificial boundaries are fundamentally at odds with the social fluidity of modern societies and actually undermine the conditions required to promote social justice.

Rata, E. A Political Economy of Neotribal Capitalism, Lanham, Md and Oxford: Lexington Books. 2000.

Book Reviews

• Rata, E. Review of Karl Maton and Rob Moore (edited) 2010. Social Realism, Knowledge and the Sociology of Education, Coalitions of the Mind. Continuum. In International Studies in Sociology of Education, 2010. 20(2): 171-178. Rata, E. Socio-economic class and Maori education, In Rata, E., Sullivan, R. (eds.) An Introduction to the History of New Zealand Education (pp101-119) Pearson. 2009
   

Chapters in books

• Rata, E. & Openshaw, R., Introduction: The Politics of Conformity. In The Politics of Conformity in New Zealand Editors: Openshaw R., Rata, E. (eds) (pp 1-13) Pearson. 2009
• Rata, E. & Zubaran, C. When Criticism is Silent: New Zealand Mental Health. In The Politics of Conformity in New Zealand Editors: Openshaw R., Rata, E. (eds) (pp 89-114) Pearson. 2009
• Rata, E. Equality in Education, In. Carpenter, V., Jesson, J., Roberts, P. & M. Stephenson (eds.) Nga kaupapa Here, Macro Influences on Education, (pp, 36-45). Melbourne: Cengage. 2008.
• Rata, E. Educating for Citizenship in a Bicultural Society. In St.George, A., Brown, S., & O’Neill, J. (eds.) Facing the big questions in teaching: Purpose, power and learning. Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning. 2008.
• Rata, E. and Openshaw, R. Introduction: Of Mohammad, Murals, and Maori Ceremony. In Rata, E. and Openshaw, R. (eds.) Public Policy and Ethnicity, The Politics of Ethnic Boundary-Making. (pp. 1 - 24). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006.
• Rata, E. The Political Strategies of Ethnic and Indigenous Elites. In Rata, E. and Openshaw, R. (eds.) Public Policy and Ethnicity, The Politics of Ethnic Boundary-Making. (pp. 40 - 53). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006.
• Rata, E. Maori Language Revival and New Zealand Education. In Schuster, K. and Witkosky, D. (eds.) Language of the Land: Histories of Language and Nationalism Within Educational Settings. Vol. 2. Information Age Publishing. 2007.
• Rata, E. Kaupapa Maori Education in New Zealand. In Demaine, J. (ed.) Citizenship and Political Education Today. (pp. 80-103). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. 2004.
• Rata, E. The Indigenisation of Ethnicity. In Prazniak, R. and Dirlik, A. (eds.) Place and Politics in the Age of Global Capitalism. (pp. 167- 192). New York: Rowman and Littlefield. 2001.

Journal Articles

• Rata, E. (2011) The Politics of Knowledge in Education, British Educational Research Journal. Available online 26 September 2011
• Rata, E. (2011) Encircling the Commons: Neotribal Capitalism in New Zealand Since 2000, Anthropological Theory. 11(3): 327-353.
• Rata, E. (2011) Discursive Strategies of the Maori Tribal Elite, Critique of Anthropology, 31.4. Available online November.
• Rata, E. (2011) Theoretical Claims and Empirical Evidence in Maori Education Discourse, Educational Philosophy and Theory. Available online 25 May.
• Rata, E. (2010) Localising Neoliberalism: Indigenist Brokerage in the New Zealand University, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8(4): 523-538. doi:10.1080/14767724.2010.537951