Te Ara Hou—A new pathway for leading Māori success as Māori

Abstract

This article aims to document and evaluate the effectiveness of Te Ara Hou—The Māori Achievement Collaboratives (MACS). MACS is a nationwide grassroots educational leadership professional devel-opment project comprising 63 primary and intermediate school principals. These educational leaders meet at hui and wānanga sev-eral times a year to collectively engage with recent research and pro-fessional development to support their leadership practice toward achieving Māori success as Māori. In this article, MACS' progress is measured against educational and leadership frameworks including Ka Hikitia and applied critical leadership. Complementary meth-odological frameworks employed are kaupapa Māori and critical race theory. Outcomes of this evaluation indicate that MACS is a culturally situated, culturally appropriate, and Māori-centric group of Māori and non-Māori principals committed to shifting their own leadership practice and school culture from what is to what can be. Findings suggest movement in the leaders' practice from respond-ing to students' culture to making deliberate choices that result in actions and practices that positively impact upon and change school culture. There is evidence of school shifts to reflect a Māori world-view as the norm, rather than the exception, even in mainstream schools where there are relatively low numbers of Māori. MACS shows promise in terms of promoting practice that benefits Māori, all learners, schools, and their communities (e.g., whānau, hapū, iwi). Exemplars and implications are provided. In 2013, a core group of six experienced primary school principals (four Māori and two non-Māori) formed Te Ara Hou—Māori Achievement Collaboratives (MACS), a school leadership initiative for mainstream primary and intermediate school principals, in partner-ship with the New Zealand Principals Federation (NZPF), Te Akatea Māori Principals Association, and, more recently, the New Zealand Ministry of Education. MACS is a grassroots leadership-based ini-tiative committed to the goal of Māori educational success as Māori, as defined by Ka Hikitia—Accelerating Success 2013–2017 (Ministry of Education, 2013). MACS' vision of 'A Change in the Hearts and Minds of Principals' reflects an intention to foster personal and pro-fessional growth leading to changes in individual school leadership practices aimed at Māori success. The initiative's guiding principle is whānau and whanaungatanga, and its overarching values are cour-age, honesty, trust, respect, and commitment (Pearson et al., 2014). MACS principals engage in whanaungatanga to positively influence and impact their personal and professional learning in order to col-lectively identify, develop, and implement effective school leadership practices that promote and sustain positive Māori student achieve-ment and success as Māori. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to establish a critical mass of effective school leaders and leadership practices which challenge status quo strategies that have resulted in inequitable educational outcomes for Māori. These inequitable