Rate My Professor Jacquelyn Elkington

Dr Jacquelyn Elkington serves in the Kōhatu – Centre for Hauora Māori within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago, part of the Division of Health Sciences. Ko Ngāti Porou, ko Tararaa, ko Ngāti Maru ōku iwi. Her educational background encompasses psychology, human development, and indigenous studies. Her professional practice experience includes counselling and social work. She holds qualifications including a BSocSci, MCouns, DipAdultEd, and registration as a social worker.

Elkington completed her Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Otago in 2013. The title of her doctoral thesis is 'Kaupapa Māori Supervision in Social Services and the Implications of Culture for Wholistic Well-being.' This work conceptualizes and implements a framework for Kaupapa Māori supervision in social services, affirming an indigenous perspective for Māori practitioners and highlighting the role of culture in holistic well-being. She has developed the Pūrākau states of human development framework, which outlines progressive states from atuatanga-i-mua to atuatanga-a-muri. This model applies layered pūrākau narratives to stages of human development across age ranges, providing a culturally grounded tool for social services practice.

In 2014, she published 'A Kaupapa Māori supervision context – cultural and professional' in the Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work Review (volume 26, issue 1, pages 65-73). This article examines cultural and professional elements essential to Kaupapa Māori supervision. Previously, Dr Elkington lectured in the Bachelor of Applied Social Work program at Manukau Institute of Technology, with primary interests in Kaupapa Māori supervision. She presented 'Cultural supervision for the social work profession' with M. Te Ahuahu at the Toiora Whanau conference in 2015. Her contributions focus on advancing culturally responsive supervision models and Māori hauora frameworks within health sciences and social services.