PCU Communities Research Framework

Communities are at the heart of Pasifika Communities University’s name and vision. The Communities Research Framework (CRF) is a guide to help PCU scholars navigate the processes and practices of ethical, relational, and non-extractive research carried out with and for Pasifika communities. Rooted in an eco-relational research philosophy, the CRF provides guidelines and best practices for methodologies, methods, and research pathways through which PCU researchers can respectfully engage with communities – recognising them as the rightful custodians of their own place-based knowledge systems.

The CRF aligns with and complements other key PCU documents. While each serves a different purpose, they share one central value: rethinking and reprioritising research and learning around communities.

  • For ethical communities engagement practices that prioritise communities’ control over their knowledge, including Indigenous Climate Knowledge (CIK), see ICIK’s Communities Engagement Framework (ICEF) and Policy, and the Reweaving the Ecological Mat (REM) Framework.
  • For a structured approach to student participation in communities-based research and learning, refer to RILED’s Communities Learning and Engagement (CLE) model, which emphasises relational learning at PCU.
  • For guidance and PCU policy on the use of Pasifika languages in research and academic writing, consult the Pasifika Language Framework (PLF) and Policy.

PCU’s Communities Research Culture is Committed to:

 Ethical Principles for Communities Research

  • Communities’ leadership and ownership: Communities are custodians of their knowledge, guiding the research process from design to dissemination in alignment with their values, priorities, and self-determination.
  • Consent: Free, prior, and informed consent is an ongoing process grounded in culturally appropriate practices, dialogue, and trust.
  • Respect for protocols: Respects both traditional and academic structures, including communities’ ceremonies, cultural practices, and permissions.
  • Dual accountability: Researchers are accountable to both PCU and the communities, upholding ethical standards and relational trust.
  • Epistemic humility: Researchers approach communities as learners, not experts, recognising knowledge as a communal trust to be shared, not mastered.
  • Reverence: Research is a sacred practice requiring spiritual awareness and respect for the interconnectedness of people, land, and cosmos.

Pasifika Eco-Relational Philosophical Foundations

  • Eco-relational philosophy: Communities research is all about the interconnectedness of people, land, sea, and cosmos – honouring balance, mutual care, and spiritual harmony within a dynamic relational whole.
  • Ways of Being: Life, being, and belonging are interwoven with land, sea, ancestors, and cosmos, reflecting sacredness and harmony in all forms of existence.
  • Ways of Knowing: Relational knowledge arises from lived experience, reason, authority, and spirituality, challenging rigid separations between empirical, spiritual, and communal sources of wisdom.
  • Ways of Doing: Guided by relational accountability, communities research embodies ethics rooted in respect, reciprocity, relevance, restraint, reverence, and representation, upholding the well-being of people, nature, and the cosmos.

Communities Research Design and Process

  • Collaborative research: Co-created design ensures questions, processes, and outcomes are led by and accountable to communities.
  • Diverse methodological approaches: Draws from communities-based, Indigenous, and Pasifika frameworks for culturally authentic, relationally accountable research.
  • Language and metaphor in research design: Pasifika languages and metaphors are central to how knowledge is carried, shared, and understood, allowing research to remain relational, spiritual, and culturally grounded.
  • Pasifika communities-based methods: Uses methods that are relational, participatory, and aligned with communities’ protocols and values.
  • Responsive and emergent design: Communities research is flexible, adapting to local needs and contexts throughout the research journey.

Communities’ Knowledge and Data Sovereignty

  • Respecting elders and knowledge holders: The ‘living libraries’ of communities who generously share place-based and intergenerational knowledge must be respected and properly attributed.
  • Orality, textuality, materiality: Honours oral, embodied, and material knowledge alongside written sources, recognising them as vital and complementary.
  • Data sovereignty: Ensures communities retain custodianship of knowledge, guiding how it is collected, stored, interpreted, and shared.
  • Verifying analysis and findings with communities: Interpretation is collaborative and iterative, ensuring cultural integrity and trust before any dissemination.

Communities Research Goals and Outcomes

  • Capacity building: Supports the training and empowerment of communities-based researchers, especially emerging generations, to uphold knowledge systems and support self-determination.
  • Long-term relationships: Builds lasting, non-extractive partnerships based on ongoing trust, care, and collaboration.
  • Transformative vision: Research aims to be life-giving, promoting cultural resurgence, ecological harmony, and communities’ empowerment.
  • Research as ceremony and sacred practice: Research becomes a transformative and healing journey that honours communities, ancestors, and future generations.
  • Reciprocity and celebration: Research gives back through resources, advocacy, and knowledge-sharing through communal meals, gift-giving, ceremonies, and creative presentations that honour contributions and deepen relational accountability.