Rate My Professor Kalika Kastein

Dr. Kalika Kastein serves as Assistant Research Fellow in the Educational Assessment Research Unit (EARU) of the University of Otago College of Education. In this role, she contributes to the Curriculum Insights project, a collaboration between the University of Otago and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research on contract to the Ministry of Education. This large-scale study monitors trends in student achievement across English-medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand, assessing over 6,000 students annually in Years 3, 6, and 8 in reading, writing, mathematics, and rotating learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum. The project provides national data through dashboard reports, interactive data windows, teacher insights, exemplars, and technical reports to inform policy, teaching, and system improvements.

Kastein earned her PhD from the University of Otago National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in 2024, with a thesis titled 'Positioning Silence in Peace and Conflict Studies,' funded by the University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship and supervised by SungYong Lee. Her doctoral research explored forms of silence among teaching staff in higher education using corpus-based analysis and qualitative content analysis of peace and conflict studies journals. She holds an MA in Peace Studies from International Christian University, Japan, funded by the Rotary Peace Fellowship; an MScEd from Johns Hopkins University, qualifying her as a certified teacher in Hawai'i; and a BA (Hons) from Point Loma Nazarene University. Her career includes service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon (2011-2013), Teach for America corps member, communications assistant in the Division for Prosperity at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in Hiroshima, founder of the student-run peace association and journal Ad Pacem at Otago, Girl Guides leader in Dunedin, and volunteer in education-based peace initiatives in Hawai'i. Key publications include 'Positioning Silence in Peace and Conflict Studies: Corpus-based Research and Qualitative Content Analysis of Peace and Conflict Studies Journals' (2024), chapter 'Beyond Binaries through Queer Readings of Texts on Silence' (2023), contributions to 'Decolonising Peace and Conflict Studies through Indigenous Perspectives' (2022), and an entry on the evolution of peace education in The Sage Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies (2025). Awards encompass best speaker at the 2019 Jean-Pictet International Humanitarian Law Competition, semi-finalist at the 2018 ICRC National Moot Competition in Japan, and nomination as Duke University Humanitarian Action Fellow. Her writing has appeared in the Kaselehlie Press and St. Gallen Symposium selected essays.