Let Me Act the Part of a Man: Duality of Genders toward Critical Leadership

This chapter begins with a traditional, cultural story of indigenous leadership from a young woman of the Ngāti Awa tribe in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Some would say her acts of leadership went against the traditional gender roles in order to ensure the safety of her people. Others would say she demonstrated the cultural duality between male and female leadership roles. We consider this story within the context of the ongoing marginalization and educational disparities faced by disproportionate numbers of indigenous Māori students in New Zealand’s secondary schools. If these students are to take their rightful place as successful and valuable contributors to society then education, as it is currently constituted, must be reimagined, reled, and reformed. We explore the pathway of critical, transformative leadership being undertaken by both Māori and non-Māori; by female and male; that is currently seeking to address the aspirations of Māori students in these schools. Such a model seeks to create “critical” spaces where the “creative potential” and diverse funds of cultural knowledge that Māori students bring with them to schooling can contribute to leading to more transformative educational reform.