Whither decolonisation? Indigenous scholars and the problem of inclusion in the neoliberal university

Abstract

What is the role of the indigenous critic and conscience of society in the neoliberal university? Much has been written about neoliberalism in higher education but less attention is given to how it is enacted in settler-colonial societies where intellectual labour is shaped by histories of imperialism, invasion and violence. These historical forces are reflected in a political economy of knowledge forged in the interplay of power relations between coloniality and free-market capitalism. Indigenous academics who mobilise a form of public/tribal scholarship alongside native publics and counter-publics often have an uneasy relationship with the neoliberal academy which celebrates their inclusion as diversity ‘partners’ at the same time as consigning them to the institutional margins. This article traces a cohort of Māori senior academics in New Zealand whose intellectual labour is structured around public/tribal scholarship and examines how this unsettles and challenges the problem of neoliberal inclusivity in settler-colonial institutions.

GLASS CEILINGS IN NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITIES: Inequities in Māori and Pacific promotions and earnings

“…Mäori and Pacific academics experience systemic structural disadvantage in New Zealand's higher education system. Our findings provide quantitative evidence to support previous qualitative research that Mäori and Pacific face racism in New Zealand's universities (Kidman, 2020;Kidman & Chu, 2019). The present study also supports recent quantitative studies that show a severe under-representation of Mäori and Pacific staff within universities, beginning with emerging academics (McAllister et al, 2019;Naepi, 2019;Naepi et al, 2020).…”

Internationalization, Whiteness, and Biopolitics of Higher Education

“…Driven by neoliberal economic logics, universities exploit Black students in college athletics and campus diversity ads and depend on Black faculty's labor in supporting diversity without challenging the overall systemthe relationships that Squire, Williams, and Tuitt (2018) call "plantation politics." Universities assimilate the work of their scholars of color to signify inclusivity, all the while maintaining market-driven policies and practices that disadvantage people of color (Kidman, 2020). Underlying the neoliberal reforms aimed to reduce gaps between white students and students of color, the "cultural deficit ideology" draws on the colonial premise of the superiority of white culture (Ahlquist, 2011, p. 9).…”

Disrupting the Pedagogy of Hypocrisy

“…White supremacy is the foundation upon which multicultural competence and training is built. Therefore, attempting to disentangle white supremacy from social work education as is currently situated within our neoliberal, capitalist system is messy and seemingly impossible (Kidman, 2019). As multicultural training within the mental health and social service fields attempts to build students' individual multicultural competence, the hypocrisy in this pedagogy arises, which leaves structural oppression unnamed, unacknowledged, and unchallenged.…”