CLeaR Fellows 2020 – Dr Analosa Veukiso-Ulugia
Enhancing Pacific Success – Lalaga 2.0
Analosa is a Sāmoan lecturer in the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work at the University of Auckland. A health professional specialising in Pacific youth health, Analosa is committed to the empowerment of Pacific communities, in the area of sexual health and wellbeing. Analosa draws on over 15 years of clinical, community, research and management experience.
Analosa has worked as a social worker with Oranga Tamariki, and as an adolescent health social worker at the Centre for Youth Health (CfYH) a specialist Counties Manukau District Health youth service. Analosa has provided intensive case management support to Pacific youth and their families experiencing chronic and complex health issues.
She provides Pacific research consultancy services and was also the National Pacific Liaison and Recruitment Adviser for Massey University.
Analosa completed her PhD in 2017 on the Sexual Health Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour of Samoan Youth in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Enhancing Pacific Success – Lalaga 2.0 Imagine if the University of Auckland was ranked number one in Australasia for having a 90 percent pass rate for its Māori and Pacific students. How can this become a reality?
Ensuring teaching and learning practices are responsive to Māori and Pacific learners is a central objective for the University of Auckland, featuring in its strategic plans and initiatives (i.e. Strategic Plan 2013-2020, Faculty of Education and Social Work Annual Plan). A responsive environment requires careful attention to the design of teaching, learning and assessment activities.
A responsive environment requires careful attention to the design of teaching, learning and assessment activities. Engaging Pacific learners in classroom learning has received considerable government and nationwide research attention. The consistent theme arising from this work is that in order to engage Pacific learners in class discussion and course content, Pacific knowledge, values and practices need to be incorporated in all strands of the curriculum. Talanoa sessions with Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) staff revealed their desire to incorporate such knowledge, however, many do not know where to begin. While there is a plethora of evidence regarding Pacific mediums such as case studies, stories, role play, metaphors and group work, there is little evidence in how to translate this across all subject fields and assessment.
‘Designing for Learning – Enhancing Pacific Success – Lalaga 2.0’ expanded on my work developed in a 2018 SEED project that explored strategies to increase the achievement outcomes of Pacific students in the BSW programme that attracts a relatively large proportion of Pacific students. While three overarching interwoven approaches that foster success was identified in the original project, this fellowship specifically focuses on ‘integrating culture into curriculum’, with specific attention on ‘learning for assessment’.