In an earlier issue of Swings+Roundabouts (Cooper et al., 2021), we wrote about ‘“Initiating” a return to wisdom’ to introduce our research project (in progress), which explores collective notions of educational leadership with teachers and leaders in Pasifika-led, multicultural early childhood education (ECE) centres in New Zealand (NZ). Instigated by the first author and co-designed with Pasifika Early Learning (PEL) (AoKids), our project was set up to generate knowledge on the topic of Pasifika Indigenous leadership in education, one that is hardly reflected in the literature, and yet, so important to the self-determining futures of Pasifika communities and their children’s success in Pasifika and mainstream ECE and beyond. The research question guiding the study is: How might relevant Pasifika Indigenous knowledge be used to frame and guide collective meanings and enactment of leadership in ECE services serving Pasifika children and communities in Aotearoa NZ? Before moving on, we briefly position ourselves to make explicit the perspectives we brought to the project and to this article. Maria is Samoan-European and has ancestral ties to her mother’s village in Lufilufi, Upolu, Samoa and her father’s family town of Dovalovo, Slovakia. Louise is of NZ-European descent whose Grandparents migrated to NZ from England and Ireland. We both teach/research on ECE and educational leadership at the University of Auckland, and embrace opportunities to explore ideas from diverse viewpoints. Our approach and participants Prioritising respectful relationships in the project was important to us from the beginning. After several months of navigating the uncertainty of COVID and respecting the time and space PEL centres needed to prioritise what mattered to them, we were finally able to come together for an online research talanoa (open conversation) with PEL directors, centre leaders and head teachers. This ‘coming together’ enabled us to establish connections by reducing the distance between us as the researchers and potential participants (Vaioleti, 2006). We were also able to explain the project in real-time and to answer any questions that arose. At that point, we had already been researching with one of their teaching teams in Wellington but were keen to research with more. In total, we secured 15 participants from across five PEL centres in Auckland and Wellington. These willing participants included three directors, two senior leaders, seven qualified teachers — six with a designated leader role, two kaiako (unqualified adults), and one mama with a long-standing history with the organisation. Although we had planned to include centre families in the project, the COVID situation proved too strong a headwind for us to fight against, so we had to modify our initial plan. To acknowledge the unique identity of each Pasifika nation (Seiuli, 2016) reflected in our participant group, we clarify their cultural identity as follows: 13 of the 15 participants identify as Samoan — either Samoan-born or NZ-born, one kaiako is of Niuean heritage (NZ-born), and another kaiako is from England. “Journeying” a return to wisdom: initial impressions and reflections on leadership in Pasifika-led, multicultural ECE settings Maria Cooper, Louise Gorst, with Pasifika Early Learning (AoKids) December 2021 { 18 }
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