This article explores the leadership journey of an Indigenous leader working within a non-Indigenous institutional context in Canada, focusing on the ongoing processes of decolonization and reconciliation. Grounded in the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, the article examines how Indigenous leadership principles are enacted in environments shaped by colonial structures and assumptions. Attention is given to the systemic, relational and personal obstacles that challenge effective leadership, including resistance to change, cultural misalignment, and the emotional labour associated with reconciliation work. The Medicine Wheel is employed as both a conceptual framework and a reflective tool, illustrating its role in guiding holistic, ethical and relational approaches to leadership and organizational transformation. By situating Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing at the centre of the analysis, this article contributes to emerging scholarship on Indigenous leadership in non-Indigenous spaces and offers insights for educators, administrators, and policymakers engaged in meaningful decolonization and reconciliation efforts.
This journal article emanates from my original Dissertation-in-Practice (DiP) focusing on the integration of Indigenous culture and academics at Riverview High School, within the Prairie Lakes School District (both names are pseudonyms) in Manitoba, Canada. The article addresses the long-standing Problem of Practice (PoP) concerning the underachievement and lack of engagement among Indigenous students as evidenced by four-year graduation data released by the Manitoba government’s Ministry of Education and Early Childhood Learning. Utilizing a collaborative, community-based approach informed by Indigenous perspectives and change management principles, this article proposes a transformative framework. Key theoretical constructs, including “Two-Eyed Seeing” (Etuaptmumk), TribalCrit, and Deming’s PDSA cycles, are employed to analyze the PoP and guide the change process. The article explores my positionality as a Red River Métis educator, the importance of voice and equity, and the alignment with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It details the problem posed, proposed solutions, communication strategies, and evaluation frameworks, culminating in a call for urgent and sustained action.
Educational leadership requires balance between urgency and patience, speaking and silence, and action and reflection. Early in my career, I received enduring advice from a veteran leader: “You have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. You should observe, listen, and speak in proportion.” This guiding idea is widely attributed to the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, whose teachings emphasize the importance of perception, disciplined attention, and intentional speech. This principle has guided my journey from substitute teacher to central office administrator and now as a professor and consultant. Drawing on the legacy of four generations of educators in my family, this article explores the power of proportionate leadership through three case studies. As principal of an elementary school, proportionate observation fostered trust and sustainable change. As a School Support Officer in an Independent School District, I provided proportionate listening and anchored leadership amid organisational instability. As a professor and consultant, proportionate speaking equips aspiring leaders to build trust and credibility. These narratives are situated within scholarship on reflective practice, trust, sustainable leadership, and multiplier leadership. The discussion emphasises implications for practice, leadership preparation, and policy, offering proportionate leadership as a framework for building trust, sustaining organisational health, and preparing leaders who act with wisdom and humility.
This paper argues that children’s perspectives are a critical omission in current considerations of leadership in early childhood educational settings. After a brief outline of themes in the existing distributed and pedagogical leadership literature, data is drawn from my PhD research to analyse leadership in an early childhood centre in Aotearoa New Zealand. Two specific leadership stories are then shared, first from the teachers’ perspective, then flipping the script to tell the same stories from the viewpoint of the children’s experiences. The differences suggest that focusing on leadership without simultaneously exploring children’s experiences results in only part of the leadership story being told, threatening the validity and usefulness of current ideas about effective leadership in early childhood settings.
In an era where schools are under immense pressure to deliver top academic results and meet performance expectations from stakeholders such as government departments, parents, and school boards, the idea of prioritising ‘fun’ over academic outcomes might appear unconventional. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, exposed the fragility of traditional schooling models and underscored the urgency of addressing students’ social and emotional well-being. This South African leadership narrative reflects on how the principal and leadership team, in the first ‘normal’ school year following the pandemic, implemented a year-long initiative known as the Fun Project. Designed to rekindle joy, connection, and emotional recovery, the project centred on fostering Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) through creative, collaborative, and academically aligned cross-curricular learning experiences. Drawing on a reflexive autoethnographic and pracademic approach, this study situates the author’s lived leadership experience within wider educational leadership theory, exploring the tensions between academic accountability and student well-being. The narrative demonstrates how integrating SEL and joy into school culture can reframe educational priorities, cultivate resilience, and model a form of leadership grounded in reflection, relational trust, and hope.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s educational landscape is complex, characterised by diverse cultural and emotional dynamics. This single case study explores how primary school leaders harness cultural intelligence (CQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) to inspire agility amid complexities. Set in a semi-rural context marked by leadership changes and restructuring, a positive school culture has been fostered, making it a school where staff feel proud to teach and eager to send their own children.
For many educational leaders, the move to an online (virtual) teaching and learning environment which requires different ways of engaging from a traditional daily in person leadership approach can be daunting. The research reported in this article explored how I, an education leader who had previously enjoyed traditional face to face leadership roles, could move into an online teaching and learning environment and maintain the relational leadership approach I had strived to enact in face-to-face settings. Through an autoethnographic framework, journaling and critical reflective process, the research data captured the personal and professional characteristics and attributes that influenced my leadership practice. These characteristics were explored through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 2005), and the philosophical framework of the Whatu metaphor (Hiha, 2015), strengthening the understanding that the personal and professional characteristics identified within my leadership practice had been shaped and influenced by my early life and formative experiences. The findings from the research offer a unique contribution to the limited research demonstrating how education leaders can enact agency of their leadership through self-awareness in an online teaching and learning environment.
This article presents the findings of a case study investigating the mentoring culture at a school in Aotearoa New Zealand. The study arose from the participation of staff in a professional learning course on effective mentoring practices attended by key school leaders, including the principal. Unlike in most schools, mentoring at this school is provided not just for beginning teachers but for all teachers, prompting an examination of the conditions, structures, benefits, and challenges associated with this approach. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, surveys, and document analysis, focusing on participants’ experiences of mentoring. Findings indicate that regular, scheduled mentoring sessions foster mutual trust and support, contributing to both personal and professional growth among staff. Participants highlighted the importance of mentor capabilities such as empathy and emotional intelligence, while also noting challenges associated with mentor selection and the balance of line management responsibilities. The study concludes that a structured mentoring programme can yield significant benefits for teacher well-being and professional development. Recommendations for schools considering similar initiatives include defining clear mentoring purposes, selecting appropriate frameworks, providing training for mentors, and ensuring regular reviews of mentoring effectiveness.
Long Bay College places a strong emphasis on effective change leadership and trust to foster a responsive and innovative teaching environment. Founded in 1975 into what was then a rural area, the College now serves approximately 1,800 students in a suburban setting. By embracing the autonomy granted by New Zealand’s 1989 Tomorrow’s Schools reform, the school has cultivated a dynamic approach to education. In 2019, the school’s Board of Trustees and staff committed to continuous professional development, leading to the creation of the “Tino Akoranga” approach to teaching and learning. This approach centres on personalised, research-informed education, cultural responsiveness, and cognitive science considerations, all within a framework that prioritises professional learning. To support exceptional teaching and learning, Long Bay College emphasises trust-based classroom observations and collaborative post observation conversations under the “Mahi Tahi” initiative. This initiative seeks to normalise peer observations and discussions, enhancing teaching practices on a foundation of trust, professional safety and collaboration.
This paper relates Indigenous Peoples’ moral philosophies to modern Western ethical thinking that is evident in leading contemporary theories of educative leadership. It introduces Indigenous ethics in general and explains the philosophical research methodology used. It then reports Celtic, Māori, North American Indian and Canadian First Nations, Australian Aboriginal and Emirati ethical frameworks in greater detail and relates them to modern Western ethics prominent in contemporary theories of transformational, instructional, distributed, and ethical leadership. It finds that Indigenous philosophies emphasise the interconnectedness of humans and nature, spirituality in ethical decision-making, and collectivism, while Western frameworks often prioritise individualism and separate the spiritual from the secular. It suggests that leaders consider incorporating Indigenous perspectives on sustainability, social responsibility, and spirituality into curricula and educational practices, promoting global citizenship and ethical awareness. This will entail recognising customary laws and traditions, supporting decolonisation efforts, and ensuring accurate representation of Indigenous knowledge. By fostering mutual respect and understanding of diverse ethical traditions, educative leaders can create more inclusive, equitable educational environments that value the contributions of both Indigenous and Western moral philosophies.
Five early childhood teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand explored a range of literature to respond to the question: What does literature tell us about Māori leadership and how are our findings relevant to leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa? The process of finding and reviewing literature sources about Māori leadership led us to think critically about how Māori values, concepts, and customs have been diminished or sustained in fields such as education and business. ECE in Aotearoa is shaped by the bicultural curriculum Te Whāriki and underpinned by obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Although education and leadership structures and processes in Aotearoa are overwhelmingly produced within Westernised perspectives, ECE curriculum and practice foregrounds Māori ways of knowing, being, and doing. Through the literature review process, we shared insights and critical discussions that enriched our perceptions of leadership by and for Māori, and of relevance to ECE leadership through shared values. The literature reviewed provided examples from education and business settings where Māori leadership grounded in values of whanaungatanga/reciprocal relationality originating in Māori traditional beliefs and societal structures has been sustained, remembered, and reclaimed through processes of navigating and negotiating present-day colonised contexts. Literature also provided examples of official programmes and policies that seek to acknowledge and enhance Māori leadership in education.
Leadership for social justice is a goal and a challenge for the National Pedagogical University (UPN) in Mexico City. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of UPN directors in the context of leadership for social justice. The focus of the study is on those who are responsible for preparation and continuous training of teachers (García, 2006; Jiménez, 2009). The research design was qualitative based on subjective interpretation from the meanings generated by the participants (Bisquerra, 2014). It describes and analyses the experiences of five directors of school units through in-depth interviews where both the person and the environment are of interest.
This policy-interested South Australian public education case study problematises how the Chief Executive (CE) and members of the Education Department’s Senior Executive Group (SEG) understood system and school improvement from 2018 to 2022. We applied Carol Bacchi’s, “What’s the Problem Represented to be?”(WPR) policy analysis framework to unearth the policy assumptions underlying the Department’s overarching policy ensemble called “World Class,” initiated across South Australia’s public primary and secondary schools. WPR reveals heightened centralised technologies of command and control directed at teacher and leader work to achieve McKinsey defined World Class status by 2028.
The purpose of this study is to examine the network effect of school principals as it relates to school improvement. Network practices of school principals are compared to an innovative practice for improving networking practices. Through descriptive statistics and chi-square goodness of fit, we illustrate the difference between what school principals do concerning their networking practices for school improvement compared to an innovative ideal approach for using network working for school improvement. Findings indicate there is a statistically significant difference between school principals’ networking practices in comparison to ideal networking practices for school improvement. There are also differences between who school principals seek out for ideas and who they seek out for feedback concerning their school improvements. Further discussion informs how the next generation of school principals can be equipped with innovative skills for tackling 21st-century school improvement issues.
A network professional learning community (PLC) is characterised by a non-hierarchical approach to professional learning. Members are supported to engage and to learn when leadership is distributed across a network PLC. The mixed methods study reported here was designed to examine how a network PLC could effectively improve visual arts pedagogy in early childhood education (ECE) settings. The design and analysis were considered through a lens of distributed leadership. The research had two main stages, a nationwide survey and an embedded case study. The case study findings demonstrated the possibilities of a network PLC approach to foster distributed leadership across PLC members, the facilitator, ECE teams and leaders; participants successfully shared and applied new learning and improved pedagogy for visual arts learning. Overall, this study suggests that leadership is a critical aspect of the network PLC approach, and that attention should be paid to distributed leadership and to the role of the positional leaders in supporting the application of learning from a network PLC to education settings.
Research into leadership in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand is in its infancy. At this early stage, distributed leadership has been identified as the most common style of leadership used in teacher-led early childhood education and care services. However, as a parent-led early childhood education service, Playcentre uses emergent leadership. Currently, professional development opportunities on leadership in early childhood education are geared towards teacher-led services. Therefore, how can a parent who has experienced emergent leadership identify the leadership skills gained that will form part of their professional practice when they return to paid work? This enquiry uses Te Whāriki as a leadership framework for reflecting on leadership skills gained through Playcentre. An autoethnographic case study method was employed to explore this framework in the context of the leadership skills that I gained while working at Playcentre over a 16–year period. The enquiry concluded that combining Te Whāriki with the early childhood education assessment for learning framework provides a matrix for examining leadership practice, as well as a way of developing insights into personal leadership practices. The use of the matrix provides scope for Playcentre leaders and other early childhood education leaders to reflect and gain insight into their leadership and for developing their own leadership framework of practice.
Abstract Informed by an adaption of the tri-level reform framework, we collaborated with a First Nation district student assessment committee, school principals, and district personnel to develop a student assessment policy. Through a series of workshops and meetings with school administrators and classroom teachers from Tsuut’ina Nation, located in southern Alberta, Canada, we created an assessment, evaluation, and reporting policy aligned to Tsuut’ina fundamental values, provincial priorities, and best practices in student assessment. Teaching practices that are aligned to the three educational pillars of learner outcomes, instruction, and assessment, as well as the Tsuut’ina fundamental values, have the potential to impact the Nation’s student educational success. We discuss implications of this work in relation to collaboration, Indigenous world view, and outcome-based reporting.
Abstract Recent data shows a continuing trend of gender disparity in leadership positions in tertiary education in New Zealand with men dominating higher levels of employment and advancing at faster rates than women. This study explored the experiences of six academic women who have advanced to leadership roles in New Zealand to examine the role that gender plays in their career progression. It found a range of gendered experiences including negative incidents of sexism and obstacles to advancing. There were also stories of positive experiences of supportive work environments and initiatives such as mentoring that have aided them to gain leadership positions. Participants recognised the complexity of gender issues acknowledging the range of factors and perceptions that influence their experiences in academia.
This qualitative study focuses on the intersectionality of race and rurality by looking at the responses of Wyoming principals and superintendents to the issues of diversity and social justice within Wyoming. The responses are presented and analyzed through a new framework called Cowboy Epistemology, and the Cultural Competency Continuum (Lindsey et al., 2009). It appears that despite double-digit increases in diversity between 2010 and 2018, some Wyoming school and district administrators continue to demonstrate actions and practices congruent with the demographic divide, cultural homophily, and Whiteness along with cultural worldviews that suggest a failure to: (1) value diversity, (2) engage political organizations and individuals in a manner that advocates for the needs of diverse students, (3) implement multicultural instruction beyond superficial means, and (4) engage the community in tolerance for others who are different from the traditional White Wyoming ranching, conservative, materials extraction, isolationist way of life. While outliers and standards for social justice and diversity exist in Wyoming among and for administrators, more needs to be done to prepare and train administrators to engage in culturally proficient and sustaining instructional leadership so that administrators can serve all students, engage in community leadership, and resist the negative influences of Cowboy Epistemology, demographic divide, cultural homophily, and Whiteness. Chief among the more needs to be done for Wyoming administrators is the adoption of culturally responsive school and culturally sustaining instructional leadership practices and training on the culturally proficient continuum.
Abstract Storying family experiences provides a means to explore and support leader identity development. The idea of recalling and reflecting on stories about and from families can surface how orientations to lead are learned early on in life. We report on students’ narratives generated during a postgraduate early childhood education leadership course to understand the significance of family storytelling in leader identity development and the awakenings this process encouraged for those involved. Using McCain and Matkin’s (2019) concept of retrospective storytelling, narrative inquiry underpinned our analysis of students’ family-oriented stories and the identification of two themes regarding their orientation to leadership: the influence of families’ hardships, work ethic and selfless actions; and the expectations associated with being the first-born in the family and the assumed responsibilities. Our findings affirm the transformative potential of selecting, telling, and reflecting on family stories to both understand the roots of leadership motivations and develop leader identities. Implications include promoting a narrative-based pedagogy for leadership development that centres on postgraduate students’ retrospective storying of family experiences.
