Leadership responses to giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi for Māori learners: Learning from the stories of leadership navigating the policy to praxis divide to enact Ka Hikitia and realise Māori potential

Abstract

Despite research on educational leadership, a pressing question remains - to what extent does the interface between policy and praxis, impact the leadership of tumuaki (principal) and kaiako (teacher) Māori (indigenous New Zealander), to effectively create opportunities in education that see Māori advantaged and positioned to reach their potential? This research focuses on understanding how the interface between policy and praxis impacts the leadership of two tumuaki and three kaiako Māori. It seeks to determine how their leadership can effectively implement Ka Hikitia - Ka Hāpaitia, to advantage Māori in kura-auraki (mainstream schools) settings.

This small-scale research, grounded in culturally responsive methodology, establishes reflexivity which promotes power sharing relationships to weave together both indigenous and western ways of thinking. By gathering the voices of non-Māori (Pākehā first settlers/and or tauiwi later immigrants) tumuaki, kaiako Māori, ākonga Māori (Māori students), and their whānau (family) in semi-structured interviews as individuals or focus groups, the complexities and intricacies at the interface between policy and praxis begin to be revealed. Their experiences reveal deliberate acts of leadership that encompass multiple leadership positions, differentiated by their varying commitment to mahi tahi (work together through relationships of shared endeavour) and cultural recognition of spaces where mana-motuhake (self-determination) can be enacted.

The need for ākonga Māori success to be at the forefront of intention, action and policy in Aotearoa (New Zealand) underscores these findings - particularly if we are to see change that respects innate capabilities, cultural potential and mutually beneficial relationships that allow spaces for mana-motuhake. This research aims to influence educational leaders with better understandings of how to sustain and embed the values of Ka Hikitia - Ka Hāpaitia into their kura so that Māori potential is realised. With these understandings, leaders can re-position themselves to more effectively influence and shape the interface between policy, practice and leadership whether they lead in kura-auraki or not.