Sandra Lee Morrison – Citation for Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards 2011

Last updated by: ako_admin (Ako Administrator) on 18 January 2012 - 2:31pm

Teaching excellence citation for Sandra Lee Morrison, recipient of a 2011 Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching in a Kaupapa Māori Context.
 

Sandra Lee Morrison

(Te Arawa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngati Rārua)

Senior Lecturer/Associate Dean
School of Māori and Pacific Development
University of Waikato

Learning with the heart

Sandra’s teaching style honours where learners have come from and supports their individual learning styles.

Sandra’s defining moment was the birth of her first mokopuna and the realisation that 'every generation has a role to play in their people’s and nation’s development'.

Her teaching focus is 'learning with the heart as well as with the mind'. Over the last 15 years she has taught here and abroad in a range of subjects, at the heart of which is indigeneity. Sandra sees the learner not as an individual but connected to a wider network of whānau, hapū and iwi. Her teaching allows space for all to belong and feel safe so they can claim where they position their turangawaewae.

Sandra holds a number of esteemed leadership roles including international educator and trainer and Co-Director of the Basic Leadership Development Course for the Asia South Pacific Association for Adult and Basic Education.

She is currently Associate Dean in the Māori Department and describes her teaching with a quote from Elvis Presley: 'Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s the same, but you leave them all over everything you do'.

Tēnā koe, he wahine toa, he wahine humarie.

Comments from Sandra’s learners:

  • Every class moved from being much more than that of a standard class of students and their teacher, to that of a small whānau group that nurtured all of the people within it, regardless of who they were and where they were from.
  • If I could describe Sandy in one word it would be 'Rangatira' (chief/leader).
  • As a direct result of Sandy’s ability, I now have a better understanding of Māori and Pākehā worldviews and an enhanced awareness concerning Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

---

Read more about Sandra Morrison's teaching in English or Te Reo Māori.

Read about other recipients of Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards in 2011.

Find out more about the Awards.