Shifting the System: Battling uncertainties and activating agentic school leadership practices

Abstract

Pacific greetingsWelcome to the special issue of The Ethnographic Edge, titled, Shifting the system: Battling uncertainties and activating agentic school leadership practices. We, the editors of this special issue, hail from a range of islands in Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa (the Pacific). We are children of the Moana (Oceania) and, as such, we include our ancestral ties to the Moana in our affiliations at the beginning of this editorial and the articles within the special issue. Tongan scholar Tevita O Kaʻili (2017) articulates in his book, Marking Indigeneity: The Tongan Art of Sociospatial Relations, the sharing of ancestral kin ties allows us to bring to the forefront the various kinship branches or relations we carry. This is important as it allows us to reflect on who we are, our position, and the ancestral stories we carry with us. It also provides a means of connecting with one another and with you, the reader, through our critical and creative educational articulations. As we walk with our ancestors daily, we welcome you to this special issue and its opening editorial.