within the sector, it is important to note that Tapasā was not written as a comprehensive guide for leadership practices in education. Moreover, leaders and teachers are likely to need research-informed professional learning support to engage deeply with the intent of Tapasā, as is the case when implementing other important policy documents such as Te Whāriki. Fortunately, national-level support regarding Tapasā is forthcoming (e.g., Teaching Council, 2023), although there is no guarantee all leaders and teachers will access this and other initiatives to benefit Pasifika children in their settings. Another example of policy with an agenda for leadership is the Teaching Council’s Leadership Strategy for the profession (Education Council, 2018b), and its accompanying Capability Framework (Education Council, 2018a) which brings the Leadership Strategy to life. Together, these policy documents aim to provide comprehensive leadership guidance, more than what has been available at this level, for teachers with or without designated leadership roles. Importantly, the Leadership Strategy recognises the diverse multicultural communities that make up the education sector. It also refers to Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing as being relevant to developing distinctive elements of leadership, although this is only mentioned in relation to Māori and not Pasifika. Moreover, while developing leadership capability in all parts of the sector is a clear agenda of the Leadership Strategy and Capability Framework, acknowledgement that Pasifika Indigenous knowledge can enrich educational leadership for Pasifika children’s success remains under-regarded. The Project Our project was motivated by our strong belief in the value of Pasifika Indigenous knowledge for leadership and that research for Pasifika should be carried out by and with Pasifika. We invited 15 leaders and teachers from five Pasifika-led multicultural ECE settings to engage in talanoa (open talk) with us to reflect on, discuss, and articulate their understandings of leadership that can foster success for Pasifika children. Definitions and understandings of success rested with our participants. Most of our participants identified as Samoan, one had Niuean-English heritage, and one was English. To reflect Samoan as the main identity, which is also shared by the first author and PEL directors, we incorporate Samoan terms where appropriate in this article, but acknowledge that other Pasifika groups may have their own understandings and conceptual terms for the same ideas. We were also guided by the Samoan concepts of va fealoa’i (respectful relationships) and teu le va (looking after the relational space) in our approach to relationship building with participants and our guardianship of the knowledge they shared with us. In honouring the sacredness of Pasifika Indigenous knowledge, we recognised that probing for more details during talanoa was not always appropriate or desired. Summary findings were shared with participants in a written report, all-staff webinar, and more broadly in two practitioner articles that provide further details on the project (Cooper, Ah-Young et al., 2021; Cooper, Gorst et al., 2021). Le Malaga – The Journey The term “le malaga” means the journey in Samoan. This term came to us as we reflected on participants’ collective meanings of leadership that seemed to navigate the past, present, and future. Many talked about learning about leadership by observing and listening to the ways Pasifika elders led family events, church gatherings, and village life. Some talked about leadership in relation to family migration from the Pacific Islands to Aotearoa to benefit the family and the sacrifices that this involved. Hence, this alignment between leadership and a journey encouraged us to think deeply about the spiritual and cultural continuity of leadership. We realised that to ignore the geneology of leadership (Kelly et al., 2014) may diminish the value of culture, traditions, family values, sacrifice and resilience, and local/contextual Indigenous knowledge (both shared and sacred), which matter to Pasifika communities. Collective Leadership Principles for Pasifika Children’s Success Our collaborative analysis of participants’ views led to a range of themes and findings that reiterated the importance of Pasifika Indigenous knowledge to enriching educational leadership. Here, we focus on the main outcome of our interpretation of these findings, specifically, six principles of leadership that are grounded in collective Pasifika Indigenous knowledge, experience, and respect for the bicultural underpinnings of Aotearoa. These leadership principles (see Figure 1) are distinct but interrelated, and together, provide a principled framework for culturally sustaining leadership aimed at fostering success for Pasifika children in ECE in Aotearoa. The principles are presented as broad ideas to allow for nuances if and when thoughtfully considered in relation to contexts outside of the research context. Through these principles, we argue that Pasifika-led articulation of leadership and success for Pasifika children in ECE reflects distinct expressions of cultural and spiritual identity. The leadership that these principles form, honours the past, present and future and reflects culturally responsive conditions, processes, and practices. An explanation of each principle and specific examples from our study follow. The principles: Ancestral, Family, and Spiritual Teachings as Inspiration This leadership principle is about looking back at life experiences with past and present family members and bringing forward the important lessons of leadership to address contemporary challenges. It March 2023 { 19 }
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