Rate My Professor Mawera Karetai

Dr Mawera Karetai serves as a Senior Teaching Fellow, Ethical Approval Adviser, and Human Ethics Advisor (Māori) in the Department of Management within the University of Otago's Otago Business School. She coordinates distance learning for MANT447 Contemporary Issues in Sustainable Business and teaches in the Masters of Sustainable Business programme. Karetai joined the department nearly two years ago, starting with the Āmiomio Aotearoa transdisciplinary research project funded by MBIE, before expanding into teaching, supervision, and ethics advisory roles. As a latecomer to academia, she completed her Doctor of Professional Practice at Otago Polytechnic in 2021, coinciding with her 50th birthday. Her doctoral thesis, "The evolution of an identity activist: an indigenous autoethnographic journey," supervised by Martin Andrew and Samuel Mann, explores the transformation from social justice advocate to identity activist. Employing kaupapa Māori bricolage methodologies, her work introduces unconditional positive regard as a foundation for professional practice across diverse fields, developing tools like the Kohioawa Impact Model for mapping practice impacts and the Identity Activism Model for maintaining person-centred relationships.

Karetai's research specializations encompass decolonising computer science education, Māori pedagogical practices, sustainable business, and indigenous education. Key publications include "Decolonising Computer Science Education - A Global Perspective" (with Samuel Mann, Dhammika Dave Guruge, Sherlock Licorish, and Alison Clear; Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, 2023), "Educational Design Fictions: Imagining Learning Futures" (with Samuel Mann et al., 2022), "Bricolage as a Method in Professional Practice" (with Martin Andrew; Scope: Contemporary Research Topics (Work-Based Learning) 3, 2022), "Social Dreaming Together - Envisioning Decolonised Computer Science Education" (2022), "Pākeha Facilitators Explore Journeys Into Māori Pedagogical Practices" (Scope: Contemporary Research Topics (Learning and Teaching) 13, 2024), and the book chapter "F You I Won't Do What You Tell Me" (2024). She co-hosts the Blowing Bubbles podcast on sustainability topics, edits the Te Maea newsletter for Māori and Indigenous Economy and Enterprise, and extends her influence through community-engaged scholarship in media, blogging, and public discourse. Karetai is affiliated with Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi as a Research Fellow and traces her heritage to Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, and Waitaha.