I recently completed my PhD in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia and am currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Dr. HsingChi von Bergmann at UBC.
I study adult and higher education policy. My area of interest is in the intersection between knowledge economy and globalization discourses, and policy development in adult and higher education. Specifically, I'm interested in how such discourses shape government, institutional and organisational policy and practice. My research thus far has examined how policy in adult and higher education is constructed, the effect it has on practice, and how ideas, individuals, government and local and international organisations shape policy processes.
My interest in the education of adults started with my exposure to the powerful ideas and writings of Paulo Freire during the first year of my B.A in Latin American studies at Auckland University, where I learned about the revolutionary potential of education to change not only individuals but also society. This took me back to Latin America and into teaching English and Spanish to adults. My Master's thesis, undertaken at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Education and Auckland, focused on adult educators in Private Training Establishments in New Zealand, and drew on Freire's ideas on the role of educators and his later writings on working within a neo-liberal state.
I'm a kiwi at heart though I have now lived about half my life outside of New Zealand: twelve years in the Americas (Argentina, US, and Canada), seven years in the UK, plus the first six months of my life in Malawi—not to mention the many, many months of backpacking/soul searching I have done.