University of Auckland Research Project

The Research Team

• Principal Investigator: Professor Stephen May

• Co-Investigator: Dr Mi Yung Park

• Co-Investigator: Dr Peter Keegan

• Research Fellow: Lincoln Dam

The Research Problem

The growing diversification of student and faculty profiles in higher education worldwide has led university policies to focus increasingly on equity, diversity, and inclusion issues (Berg & Venis, 2020; Wolbring & Nguyen, 2023). These policies address discrimination experienced by non-dominant students and faculty in relation to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Yet, despite these developments, linguistic discrimination, including linguistic racism, continues to be regularly overlooked as a higher education equity issue (Barrett et al., 2023; Clements & Petray, 2021; May & Caldas, 2023).

This lacuna is also evident at Waipapa Taumata Rau/University of Auckland (UoA). Like many other universities worldwide, UoA has a strong policy commitment to equity. Taumata Teitei, the university’s current strategic plan, recognizes the importance of its increasingly diverse student and faculty populations. In 2022, approximately 47% of UoA’s student body of 46,000 students identify as Asian, 32% as Pākehā/European, 9% as Pasifika, and 7% as (Indigenous) Māori. Of these, 7,113 students were international students of whom 76.4% were Chinese, 4.5% Indians, 3.8% Koreans and 3.4% Malaysians (3.4%). Meanwhile, 45% of the 13,000 faculty and professional staff identify as Pākehā/European, followed by Asian (32%), Māori (8%), and Pasifika (5%).

And yet despite this rapidly diversifying university community, UoA does not directly address issues of linguistic diversity, or experiences of linguistic discrimination in its equity and well-being policies and practices. Indeed, to our knowledge, it does not even collect data on the linguistic diversity of its staff or students. Taumata Teitei does outline a clear commitment to te reo Māori (the Indigenous Māori language), along with aligned recent developments to establish core te reo Māori content and language teaching for all students. However, it does not address the often racialized resistance to the teaching (and wider use) of te reo Māori within and beyond the university (May, 2023). Likewise, except for some recognition of te reo Māori, the university’s teaching and learning policies seem to reinforce monoglossic English-only teaching, learning, and assessment practices within the university. Thus, despite its increasing ethnic and linguistic diversity, UoA’s equity policies, and teaching, learning, and assessment practices would appear not to address, include, or support the bi/multilingual practices and identities of students, faculty, and professional staff.

The Research Aims and Questions

It is this lacuna in relation to linguistic diversity and discrimination at UoA that the proposed research project aims to address. It will do so via an examination of the linguistic profile of the university’s students, faculty, and professional staff, along with experiences of linguistic discrimination / exclusion on the one hand and linguistic affordances (if any) on the other hand, particularly for those who are bi/multilingual. The research will encompass all bi/multilingual speakers across the university, including te reo Māori, Pasifika, Asian and other language speakers.

The key research questions for the project are:

1. What are the indicative linguistic profiles of UoA student, faculty, and professional staff populations?

2. What forms of linguistic discrimination have UoA students, faculty, and professional staff experienced at the university, particularly in relation to bi/multilingual language use?

3. What linguistic affordances (if any) are there for bi/multilingual students and faculty in the current teaching and learning practices of the university?