Rewarded for excellence: Professors Linda and Graham Smith, fellows of the American Educational Research Association.
University of Waikato Pro Vice-Chancellor Māori Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith has been made a fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Her husband Professor Graham Hingangaroa Smith, CEO of Waikato’s partner institution, Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi in Whakatane has also been named a 2014 fellow.
Professor Linda Smith (Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Porou) is Professor of Education and Māori Development and Dean of the School of Māori and Pacific Development at the University of Waikato. In 2013 she was awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Māori and education.
Research achievements
The AERA award acknowledges Professor Smith’s notable and sustained research achievements. She is a member of New Zealand’s Health Research Council, Chair of the Māori Health Committee, a member of the Marsden Fund Council and Convener of the Social Sciences Assessment Panel and a member on the Council of the Royal Society of New Zealand. Professor Smith was a founding Joint Director of New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence from 2002-2007.
She is a former President of the New Zealand Association for Research in Education and most recently served as a member of the Constitutional Advisory Panel.
Contributions to indigenous study
Professor Smith has worked in the field of Māori Education and Health for many years as an educator and researcher and is well known for her work in Kaupapa Māori research. Her book Decolonising Methodologies Research and Indigenous Peoples has been an international best seller in the indigenous world since its publication in 1998.
The Smiths are the only New Zealanders on a list of 22 international scholars to be inducted into the 2014 class of AERA. Their formal induction takes place on April 4 in Philadelphia.
“It’s fantastic to receive recognition from AERA as it highlights Māori contributions to educational knowledge and New Zealand's outstanding record of education research,” says Professor Linda Smith.