During May, Ako Aotearoa is running a series of three workshops designed to explore the transformative power of tautua, how it can help educators support and engage their learners, and how it can instill a deep sense of purpose in their personal and professional lives.
- Pacific leadership principles | Serving to serve: The heart of tautua
- Pacific leadership principles | Serving to lead: Leadership through service
- Pacific leadership principles | Leading to serve: Oriented leadership
The notion of ‘tautua’ is deeply rooted in Samoan culture and represents the concept of service to one's family, community, leaders, God and country. Tautua is reflected in the Samoan proverb, ‘O le ala i le pule o le tautua’ (the pathway to leadership is through service).
The ‘Tautua lifecycle model’ identifies three intergenerational spheres of service in the journey of tautua:
- Tautua ia tautua - Serving to serve
- Tautua ia pule - Serving to lead
- Pule ia tutua - Leading to serve
The cultural principles of tautua are evident and practised in all the Pacific Island ethnic groups and can help us reflect on our journey as leaders, inspiring us to teach and lead with service at the heart. Pale Sauni, the Pacific Priorities and Cultural Leader for Ako Aotearoa recently commented on the effectiveness of tautua and servant leadership:
"When we understand servant leadership, we can engage meaningfully with Pacific learners and their ethnic specific communities, enabling teaching and learning to be appropriate and safe."
Participants can register for these workshops individually or take advantage of a special rate when registering for all three sessions.
Coming up next month: In June our spotlight will be on Workplace Language, Literacy and Numeracy. Registrations are now open for early bookings.
