Not at the Same Time: Lalanga/weaving Indigenous, Anti-ableist and Geological Temporalities to Re-think Time in Higher Education

In this article, we consider the oft-made critique of the slow pace of
change in higher education (HE) against the fast-paced expectations of productivity.
Using talatalanoa1 as a methodology, we reflect on our experiences of being and
working in HE in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and the conflicts between pace, speed
and time (space). Understandings of time in HE often sit in tension. Espoused
meanings of time – rapid, bounded by semesterisation, linear, and focused on
timeliness – sits against actual passages of time in HE, where institutional progress
can be ponderous and glacial. How, then, do the diverse humans who make up
the University navigate these contrasting temporal modes, given that the ‘time’
that is described here accords to specific, dominant cultural understandings? By
weaving together experiences from [colonised] Indigenous and disabled scholars,
we offer our lalanga (weaving) of time conceptualisations, to help to transform
HE by making real shifts in parameters such as time. We consider our experiences
through the overlapping lenses of Indigenous knowledges, Deep Time, and Crip
Time to illustrate how different conceptualisations of time (and space) can determine
and influence how we experience HE. This approach intends to provide
other non-traditional scholars with examples of how to consider critiquing and acting
to contest and shift perspectives on temporality within their own HE settings.