Biography
Dr Yvonne Ualesi hails from the villages of Samoa (Mulivai Safata, Pu’apu’a, Saipipi, Savalalo, Lotopa), Tokelau (Fakaofo), Fiji (Ovalau). She is a lecturer at Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau (Auckland University of Technology) in Te Kura Mātauranga (School of Education) and lectures across the B.Ed Primary, B.Ed Early Child Education and B.A in Education degree programmes. A doctoral scholar, she completed her PhD at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Yvonne’s PhD research explored Culturally Responsive, Sustaining and Safe Youth Mentoring Practice in Aotearoa New Zealand – A Va Relational Approach. She developed a novel multimethod approach underpinned by indigenous knowledge systems to explore key ingredients in youth mentoring as a strategy of adolescent development. Her research interests include Pacific/Pasifika research methodologies and indigenous social psychology in education.
Her most recent scholarship as a co-editor of a special edition for the Ethnographic Edge Journal, focussed on amplifying the voices of Pacific/Pasifika and indigenous Principals and school leadership focussed on how they are shifting the system in education from an indigenous lens. Dr Ualesi is an early career researcher (ECR) forum committee member of the Royal Society of New Zealand as part of the national voice of NZ’s ECR community.
Featured Panel Presentation (2023) | No One Left Behind: Advocating for Equitable Opportunities for Success in Tertiary Education
