Educational Leadership and Indigeneity: Doing Things the Same, Differently

Educational leadership, it is argued, must play a critical role in improving student outcomes, especially those of minoritized and Indigenous students. In the process of improving education and schooling for Indigenous students, Indigenous educational leadership needs to be considered alongside educational leadership more generally. This article focuses on a particular Indigenous landscape-Maori-and examines tensions relating to a project about educational leadership linked with desired student outcomes. The tensions are located in identifying generic aspects of educational leadership in relation to desired student outcomes on the one hand and ensuring that distinctive features of Maori leadership are recognized on the other. Indigeneity is identified as a space in which such ongoing tensions can be addressed and in which what is wanted from Maori educational leadership can be examined and established.