highlights the importance of maintaining strong connections between the past, present, and future and staying open and connected to the teachings of the ancestors so that they live on. Examples were when participants spoke about how they had learned to lead by looking back to their aiga (family) and nu’u (village) for leadership inspiration and drawing lessons from these treasured memories for their current practice. Valuable lessons for leadership included working together like a family; seeing leadership in the migration stories, sacrifices, tautua (service) and alofa (love) of their families; looking to the family lotu (church) and spirituality for guidance; and embracing parents’ and grandparents’ visions, values, and wisdom. Shared Visions, Aspirational Goals, and High Expectations of Success This leadership principle refers to having shared visions and aspirational goals for Pasifika children in ECE: to know who they are in relation to their cultures, languages, identities; and to develop confidence, abilities, leadership, and learning. These ideas represented participants’ understandings of success. This principle also involves acknowledging and supporting Pasifika families’ high expectations that their children will grow strong in their languages, cultures, and values. Alongside these shared visions and aspirational goals, it is equally important to acknowledge and address the challenges that may hold Pasifika children back from achieving their best and to understand that ECE must support both children and their families for Pasifika children to enjoy success as Pasifika. Cultures of Respect, Inclusion, Learning, and Connection This leadership principle refers to creating cultures in ECE settings that are based on: respecting and appreciating all things Māori; that support multiculturalism, plurilingualism, a culturally inclusive philosophy; and that make meaningful contributions to Pasifika children’s experiences. It also involves engaging with Pasifika families in a range of ways to support their children’s success. Examples were when participants shared ways they acknowledged and celebrated all cultures in their centres, included families and community members, and maintained strong connections to and fostered Te Ao Māori (te reo and tikanga Māori) learning as well as Pasifika language and culture learning. Tautua/Service: Educating Children as a Shared Commitment This leadership principle refers to serving others before the self and embracing this way of being to ensure the education of children is a shared commitment, not something that one person can and should do alone. In the study, many participants did not question the importance of tautua (service) in their personal and professional lives. Rather, they emphasised tautua as an expected way of life, including in relation to being a good leader, as an underpinning value of Fa’a Samoa (the Samoan way), and in working together to benefit the family and community. Pasifika-Centred Ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing For this leadership principle, Pasifika-centred “ways of knowing” refer to understandings of the world that have been embedded in Pasifika traditions and cultural practices over the generations. One dominant way of knowing valued by our participants was the use of creative expressions such as metaphors, imagery, and proverbs to give life and meaning to leadership. Examples of Samoan proverbial expressions related to leadership were: “O le ala i le pule o le tautua - the road to leadership is through service” and “E lē sua se lolo i se popo e tasi - it takes a lot of coconuts to produce enough copra to make a small bit of oil.” Pasifika-centred “ways of being” refer to how Pasifika peoples are in and approach the world, influenced by their ways of knowing. Examples of their ways of being a leader included looking to cultural traditions and the legacies of elders for wisdom, acting with cultural humility, having a love of learning, and being strong-minded and confident. In addition, Pasifika-centred “ways of doing” refer to the practices and happenings in the world that reflect Pasifika ways of knowing and being. Common ways of doing were: tautua, leaders listening and creating space for talanoa to talk openly for deep meaning, and leaders supporting the collective, that is, colleagues, families, and communities. Values that Sustain Pasifika Cultures, Languages, Identities, and Relationality This leadership principle refers to establishing and nurturing values that ground Pasifika culturally, relationally, and spiritually and are transferred from one generation to the next. As most of the participants identified as Samoan, three values that were emphasised throughout the study were: alofa (love), tautua (service), and fa’aaloalo (respect). Another strong value expressed was maintaining va fealoa’i (respectful relationships), which was often mentioned with the Māori value of whakawhanaungatanga (building relationships). Leadership as Traces of the Past For us, what ties these six principles together is the idea of looking to the past, specifically families and ancestors, as Figure 1: Le Malaga: Collective Leadership Principles for Pasifika Children’s Success March 2023 { 20 }
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