This thesis examines the narratives that have hindered and/or supported a group of wāhine Māori secondary school senior leaders in their journey in educational leadership. The main purpose of this thesis was to provide a platform for the telling of wāhine Māori experiences of educational leadership spaces in secondary schools in Aotearoa. It also identifies how these narratives can be changed to support additional wāhine Māori to take up these leadership roles. Using a qualitative Kaupapa Māori and Pūrākau methodology, Te Awa Mārohirohi framework has been developed to analyse the experiences of four wāhine Māori senior leaders alongside available literature and quantitative data. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The wāhine were selected based on holding a current senior leadership (Principal, Deputy or Assistant Principal) position in an English medium secondary school in the Bay of Plenty/Waiariki district.
From the findings it is suggested that wāhine Māori have had to face constant racism and sexism from the dominant Western Eurocentric systems, processes and people. These wāhine Māori have used a range of strategic skills to navigate their leadership journeys to provide learning spaces and opportunities that will continue to grow Māori students, whānau, hapū and iwi. The Te Awa Mārohirohi framework has identified four key elements that have supported wāhine Māori leadership growth and development. This thesis is clearly a single drop into a 100L bucket of water. It is evident that additional research focused on wāhine Māori in educational leadership is needed in order to make more determined conclusions.