Will Flavell
Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whatua, Ngāti Maniapoto
Head of Māori Studies, Rutherford College (Auckland) and Member, Henderson Massey Local Board Doctor of Education candidate
The flexibility of Otago's distance learning programme was a strong drawcard for Doctor of Education candidate Will Flavell.
“I'm a super busy person so the option of learning via distance allowed me to fit study around my work, sport, whānau and community commitments.“
The EdD programme is a cohort-based doctoral programme so I worked alongside other motivated educators and researchers. Manaakitanga was strongly embedded in the programme and students of the cohort were able to positively support each other. My supervisors were fantastic. They were knowledgeable and always gave constructive feedback.”
Will received a University of Otago Māori Doctoral Scholarship and says he's also had great support from the Māori postgraduate support programme. His thesis is about the motivations and learning experiences of non-Māori secondary school students learning te reo Māori.
“Māori students are motivated to learn te reo Māori because it is their culture and language, but the motivations and learning experiences of non-Māori secondary school students learning te reo Māori weren't clear, as there's no current research on it.”