Te Whāriki as a Model for Leadership

Dr Jane Ewens

As leaders in early childhood education, we often turn to Te Whāriki to guide our thinking about children. But what if Te Whāriki offers us something more? What if it is also one of the most powerful leadership frameworks available to us?

 

For many years, I have used Te Whāriki as a touchstone for leadership. Whether a team is thriving or navigating challenges, I find myself returning to its principles, strands, goals and learning outcomes to guide my practice with my team. What continues to strike me is that the conditions we intentionally create for children are remarkably similar to the conditions adults need in order to grow, contribute and flourish. 


Te Whāriki positions children as competent and confident learners, rich in potential. As leaders, we should ask ourselves whether we lead adults the same way?

While Te Whāriki was written as New Zealand's early childhood curriculum, it is fundamentally a framework for creating environments where learning, wellbeing, participation and growth occur – for both children and kaiako. The curriculum describes a whāriki, a woven mat, created collaboratively and strong enough for all to stand on. That "all" includes kaiako.

Great leadership is not about directing people. It is about weaving together relationships, aspirations, culture and practice to create the conditions where others can succeed. Just as kaiako are responsible for creating environments that enable tamariki to thrive, leaders are responsible for creating environments that enable kaiako to thrive.

The Principles Through a Leadership Lens

Whakamana: Empowerment Through a leadership lens, whakamana challenges us to move beyond compliance and focus on kaiako agency.
Rather than asking "How do I get my team to do what I want?", we might instead ask:
  • How do I build decision-making capability?
  • How do I strengthen the mana of others?
  • How do I grow leadership throughout the team?

Empowering leaders recognise strengths, share decision-making, invite contribution and create opportunities for others to lead. Are your team waiting for your decisions, or are they developing the confidence to make their own?

Kotahitanga: Holistic Development
Kotahitanga reminds us that we do not just lead kaiako. We lead whole people. While most leadership frameworks focus just on performance, Te Whāriki reminds us that wellbeing, learning and performance are inseparable. Effective leaders consider kaiako wellbeing, workload, professional and cultural identity and their emotional resilience. When challenges arise, it is tempting to focus on the ‘symptoms’ rather than the underlying cause. Kotahitanga encourages us to look at the whole picture and understand the person behind.

Whānau Tangata: Family and Community
Leadership is fundamentally relational, not positional. People do not work in isolation, and centres do not operate in isolation. We are all influenced by our communities, experiences, whānau and relationships.
This principle invites leaders to:
  • Listen before leading
  • Consult authentically
  • Build genuine partnerships with kaiako
  • Understand the communities represented in their teams, where their kaiako come from and what they bring with them.

When people feel known and understood, trust and commitment follow.

Ngā Hononga: Relationships
If there is one leadership principle that sits at the heart of Te Whāriki, it may well be ngā hononga. Simply put, trust is the curriculum of leadership. Before improvement comes relationship. Before accountability comes connection. Leaders who embrace ngā hononga focus on creating psychological safety through coaching conversations, respectful communication, honest feedback and genuine curiosity. Do your team experience your leadership as reciprocal or hierarchical? It is important as a leader to reflect on which principle is strongest in your practice and where you may need to focus more attention.

The Strands: The Leadership Culture We Create

If the principles describe how we lead, the strands help us understand what healthy leadership cultures create. The strands and associated child’s questions provide us with more concrete prompts to run through our minds while thinking about individual kaiako.

Wellbeing | Mana Atua - Can I trust you?
The health and wellbeing of kaiako are protected and nurtured.
Leaders create environments where emotional wellbeing is protected and nurtured. Psychological safety is not a luxury; it is a prerequisite for learning and growth. What do you do to recognise and support the health and wellbeing of your team? How do you check in with each of them to get a sense of how well they are doing?

Belonging | Mana Whenua - Do you know me?
Kaiako feel a sense of belonging.
Humans have a deep need to belong. Small moments matter. Learning someone's name, making eye contact and giving them your full attention all communicate a simple message You matter here. What can you put in place that fosters your team’s belonging and ensure that they know they have a valued place in your team?

Contribution | Mana Tangata - Is this place fair for us? Opportunities are equitable and the contribution of each kaiako is valued. 
It is important to ensure that people have a sense of autonomy in their work, within the routines and boundaries of the day. Every kaiako needs the opportunity to bring their strengths, passions and experiences to their work. Effective leaders create opportunities for everyone to contribute meaningfully and equitably. How do you tap into kaiako strengths and passions and give them a chance to shine?

Communication | Mana Reo - Do you hear me?
The languages and symbols of kaiako cultures are promoted and protected.
In many teams, the loudest voices are heard most often. Leadership requires us to create processes that ensure all voices are genuinely listened to and considered – a culture where listening is not simply waiting for our turn to speak. By ensuring all voices are heard and represented, you are creating space for collective wisdom to emerge.

Exploration | Mana Aotūroa - Do you let me fly?
Kaiako learn through active exploration.
Most people enter teaching because they love learning. If kaiako feel as if they are doing the same thing day in, day out, they may need to engage in learning that ‘fills their bucket’. Leaders have a responsibility to keep curiosity alive by supporting innovation, inquiry and professional growth. When adults stop learning, growth stagnates. When adults are encouraged to explore, creativity flourishes. How can you make sure everyone in your team is learning continuously, actively exploring ideas and concepts which excite and inspire them?

The Goals: Creating the Environment 

The goals in Te Whāriki are written for kaiako, not children. They describe the environments and experiences adults are responsible for creating in order for children’s learning to occur. When viewed through a leadership lens, the goals become a guide for the conditions leaders should create for their teams.

Imagine if every kaiako experienced an environment where: 
  • Their emotional wellbeing was nurtured
  • They knew they had a place
  • They felt comfortable with the routines, customs and expectations of the centre
  • They were affirmed as individuals
  • They were encouraged to learn with and alongside others
  • Their culture and identity were recognised and valued
  • They could be creative and expressive
  • They were supported to think critically, solve problems and explore new ideas


These goals sound just as relevant for adults as they do for children.
As leaders, we know how to intentionally create these conditions for tamariki. The challenge is applying the same thinking to our teams. When a kaiako is struggling, perhaps the question is not, "What is wrong with them?" but rather, "What might be missing from the environment?"

When a team is thriving, we can often trace that success back to the conditions that have been intentionally woven around them. Leadership, then, becomes the practice of designing environments where people can succeed socially, emotionally, culturally and professionally.

The Seven Conversations: Bringing the Goals to Life

Linda Hutchings' Seven Conversations model provides a practical way of creating these conditions.

Context and expectation conversations help people understand where they fit and what success looks like. They support the goals of helping kaiako know they have a place and feel comfortable with the routines and customs of the organisation.

Strengths and attention conversations affirm people as individuals. They communicate that kaiako are seen, known and valued.

Appreciation conversations nurture emotional wellbeing. Small acts of recognition often have a significant impact on morale and engagement.

Growth conversations encourage kaiako to learn with and alongside others, while coaching and feedback create opportunities for creativity, reflection and professional growth.

Even nudge conversations, when handled respectfully, help people strengthen their thinking, reasoning and problem-solving capabilities.

These conversations create the conditions where kaiako know they have a place, feel valued, understand expectations, develop confidence and continue growing. Importantly, they remind us that leadership is not a single event. It is an ongoing series of interactions that affirm, challenge and support people over time.

The result is a leadership approach that intentionally supports the growth and development of every individual in the team.

The Learning Outcomes: A Powerful Reminder for Leaders

Perhaps the most compelling evidence that Te Whāriki can be used as a leadership framework lies in its learning outcomes. Unlike many workplace performance frameworks, Te Whāriki learning outcomes do not describe a fixed endpoint. There is no finish line. Instead, children are described as becoming "increasingly capable" over time and with guidance and encouragement.

What if leaders viewed adult development in exactly the same way? Rather than expecting perfection, we would focus on growth.
We would recognise that kaiako are continually becoming more capable of:
  • Managing themselves and expressing their needs
  • Taking responsibility for their environment and community
  • Understanding systems and adapting to change
  • Showing respect for shared values and expectations
  • Recognising their ability to learn and grow
  • Communicating ideas confidently
  • Playing with possibilities, imagining, inventing and experimenting
  • Problem-solving, reasoning and thinking critically 


These outcomes could easily describe the capabilities we hope to see in effective educators and emerging leaders.
They also provide a useful self-reflection tool for kaiako and leaders alike.
We might ask ourselves:
  • How capable am I of adapting to change?
  • How effectively do I express my ideas?
  • How comfortable am I with experimentation and innovation?
  • How well do I recognise my own capacity to learn?


In this way, Te Whāriki becomes not only a framework for leading others, but also a framework for leading ourselves.

Weaving a Leadership Whāriki

Te Whāriki reminds us that growth does not happen because of targets, directives or compliance.
Growth occurs when the conditions are right.

“Ka kitea i tēnei whakataukī te mātauranga nui o ngā tūpuna ki te taiao, inā hoki ki te rākau tītoki, tēnā ka puāwai anake i te wā ka pai katoa te āhuarangi"
Like the Tītoki tree which blooms only under the right conditions, kaiako flourish when leaders intentionally create cultures of trust, belonging, contribution, communication and exploration.
Our role is not to manufacture success for others. Our role is to weave the conditions in which success becomes possible.

When we view leadership through the principles, strands, goals and learning outcomes of Te Whāriki,
leadership becomes less about managing people and more about nurturing potential. After all, Te
Whāriki's aspiration for children is that they become "competent and confident learners and
communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the
knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society." Surely that is also the aspiration we should
hold for our kaiako.

And perhaps that is the greatest lesson Te Whāriki teaches us about leadership is that great leaders do
not simply guide performance. They weave the conditions that enable people to flourish. Every
interaction, every conversation and every decision contributes to the whāriki we are creating within our teams.

So perhaps the most important leadership question is not What am I leading? but rather What am I
weaving?