Postgraduate Students

David McKay joined CSAFE as a PhD candidate with Otago University’s Geography Department in 2008. He is associated with CSAFE’s project, Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai.

A significant lack of robust Māori cultural perspectives is understood or represented in New Zealand’s environmental education policy or practice (Chapman & Eammes, 2007). Through his PhD research, David seeks to identify and describe how environmental education is conceptualised and practiced among New Zealand Māori, with the objective of helping facilitate meaningful integration of indigenous understandings in environmental education policy and practices in New Zealand.

David is an experienced environmental educator and advisor, project manager, designer, builder, horticulturalist and teacher. His academic background spans Environmental Education (M.App.Sc, Lincoln University); Antarctica Studies (P.G.Cert.Ant.Stud, University of Canterbury); Wildlife Conservation Management (P.G.Dip.Res.Stud, Lincoln University); Parks and Amenity Design (Dip.P,R&T.M, Lincoln University); and Education (Dip.Teach, Christchurch College of Education).