The issues I treat in this book—qualitative versus quantitative methods, facts versus values, science versus politics, subjectivity versus objectivity, postm- ernism versus pragmatism, to name a few—are at the core of a lively, sometimes divisive, conversation that has been unfolding in the theory and practice of e- cational research for some time. These issues fall squarely within the province of philosophy, and thus philosophical investigation has an especially useful contribution to mak...

Where the Waves Fall (1984) centres the stories of the Pacific Islanders and how they were affected by European explorers and colonisers in this unique account of human settlement and cultural interchange in the Pacific islands. It follows the fortunes of the seafarers who discovered island after island in the world’s largest ocean, traces the development of their civilisations and examines in depth the interaction between them and the newcomers – European explorers, traders, beac...

At the turn of the twentieth century, Edward Tregear was one of New Zealand's most prominent citizens and widely published intellectuals. He was an authority on Māori and Polynesian studies, a controversial 'socialist' and secretary of the Department of Labour, and a key player in attempts to form a united political labour movement in New Zealand. He was also a social critic, novelist and poet. This biography traces Tregear's career from his youthful days on the 1860s frontier as an anguis...