Exploring stories of leadership by Aboriginal leaders of schools in remote communities to foster Aboriginal leadership.
Aboriginal people researching Aboriginal leadership and Aboriginal leaders telling stories about Aboriginal school leadership is an under-explored space for understanding leadership for schooling in remote communities. With so few Aboriginal practitioners leading schools in the Northern Territory, it is important that Aboriginal perspectives on leadership inform practice for future leaders.
This basic qualitative study integrating personal story with theoretical and methodological lessons was an exploration of the Aboriginal participant-researcher’s own story of leadership together with the leadership stories of two other Aboriginal leaders. The Aboriginal leader stories foregrounded authentic themes about key qualities and elements of effective Aboriginal leadership, and explored links to Aboriginal knowledge and thinking to pinpoint what is needed for a new generation of Aboriginal leaders of remote schools to emerge.
Aboriginal leaders base their leadership on learning which is culturally contextualised and practice-based, training and development, value for local community engagement and community involvement in school decision making and learnings from Aboriginal leaders who came before have possibilities for leadership practice.