Pip Bruce Ferguson
Dr. Pip Bruce Ferguson is an independent educational consultant and researcher practising in New Zealand.Her PhD thesis, published in 1999, used the action research approach advocated by Jack Whitehead and Jean McNiff in the U.K., to help to develop a research culture in the polytechnic where she worked.
Pip has always been an advocate for equity and social justice.As Research Manager at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (her last ‘institutional’ job) she was active with other staff in encouraging Māori researchers to present their non-traditional work for credit in a new government funding scheme. As a result, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (translation: University of New Zealand) gained 16th equal funding despite competing with traditional universities that had received privileged funding for decades longer than TWoA.
In recent years Pip has been active in online forums such as BERA, in encouraging researchers to open up their standards so that research presented in non-traditional (but equally valid and relevant) ways can be ‘counted’ internationally.