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CLeaR Fellows 2018 – Abigail McClutchie

Leadership through learning and teaching innovations

Abigail McClutchieAbigail McClutchie (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Porou) Learning Adviser: Te Fale Pouāwhina, Te Tumu Herenga – Libraries and Learning Services , PhD Candidate Management and International Business. Abigail works at Te Fale Pouāwhina, working with Māori and Pasifika students in the Te Wheke Postgraduate Programme, Leadership through Learning and Leadership through Action programmes, developing students’ academic literacy and leadership capabilities. Her research is interested in Māori entrepreneurship and seeks to understand the cultural values and beliefs underpinning kaupapa driven entrepreneurial pursuits.

“Leadership through learning and teaching innovations”

‘Leadership through Learning’ is a programme delivered by Te Fale Pouāwhina, Te Tumu Herenga built around three key ideas: lead, empower and transform. Māori and Pasifika students enrol in this 12 week semester-based programme as an extra-curricular activity. The four cornerstones of the programme are developed around: learning and teaching pedagogy and practices; capabilities and competencies of the facilitator; the boundary-stretching curriculum; and the engagements and story-telling of the participants. It is a research-informed programme that utilises a pedagogy based on aroha and caring for the students in a relationship-based empowering environment. Culturally-centred learning and teaching practices help students develop leadership capabilities and academic literacy skills. As a result of being in the programme, students experience personal growth, strengthened identity and cultural validation. Students in ‘Leadership through Learning’ mark the programme as successful and valuable to their university and life journeys. Yet programme leaders and facilitators have only hunches about how and why this is the case. As a qualitative study, I will utilise Kaupapa Māori and Pacific Research theoretical and methodological approaches in the research design. The overarching research question asks:

How and why does the ‘Leadership through Learning’ programme deliver learning and teaching innovations and impact students’ leadership, empowerment and transformation?