Title: Reflections on teacher education in Pacific for the next millennium

Abstract: In his opening address, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific, touched on USP’s commitment to regional collaboration in the field of teacher education, some of the most important declarations on education and teacher training (the Delors Report, for example), the importance of the information revolution, the concept of education as a lifelong process, and the importance of quality.

Title: The forgotten context : culture and teacher education in Oceania

Abstract: In her keynote address, Konai Thaman, who holds the UNESCO Chair in Teacher Education and Culture, spoke on making the education environment in the Pacific more culturally democratic. She urges education policy makers to show more consideration for and tolerance of the realities of teachers and students whose cultural identities are not those that dominate the processes of formal education systems in the Pacific, which are largely based on Anglo-American and Eurocentric perceptions of learning and teaching.

Title: Teacher education and globalisation : challenge for teacher education in the Pacific during the new millenium

Abstract: In his talk, Tupeni Baba focuses on the experience of Pacific states under globalisation and its associated neo-liberal policies, highlighting some implications on education generally and more specially on teacher education. He explores some ideas for a new agenda that might contribute not only to our understanding of the major changes occurring around us but also to how we could address these.

Title: Internationalization and the status of teachers

Abstract: The author shares his thoughts, more accurately termed his “bare-footed impressions”, on the status of teachers. He discusses the changing environment within which teachers work, the demands imposed on teachers by that environment, and how we may respond to the changing environment and its demands in a manner likely to advance the status of teachers.

Title: Reform of the New Zealand education system and responses by the indigenous Maori of New Zealand

Abstract: This paper examines the development of an innovative response by the indigenous Maori of New Zealand to the dual crises of educational under-achievement on the one hand and the loss of Maori language, knowledge and culture on the other. In particular, this paper considers the critical intervention and change role played by Kaupapa Maori (Maori philosophy and practice), the significant component of which is centred on the use of traditional and contemporary notions of whanau (extended family) values, practices and structures.