Mentoring for Leadership in Pacific Education

Abstract

Leadership development for Pacific people is an area of attention in tertiary education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. By strengthening leadership development in tertiary education institutions, Pacific peoples' educational success can be enhanced. As a strategy, mentoring is deemed to be a way of successfully facilitating Pacific students' leadership development. Hence, this study explored mentoring for leadership of Pacific students at Victoria University of Wellington. Such a purpose ensured that mentoring experiences are explained adequately. Employing an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) research approach, the study involved four case studies - Manaaki Pihipihinga, the Hawaii group, the Pacific Students' Education Leadership Cluster and One-to-One Mentoring Relationships - of mentoring. The case studies formed the basis for rigorous reflections of the researchers' own and the mentoring stories of proteges. Using the AI's four phases of Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny, enabling factors and key principles about mentoring were drawn out from the cases. The study offers and Appreciative Mentoring (AM) Framework, based on an adaptation of the 4- Ds of AI. The AM Framework comprises of Recognise, Realise, Guide and Grow phases of mentoring, focusing on the development and growth of the relationship between mentor and proteges. The study offers clarified definitions and explanations of mentoring. As well, the study advocated for the use of AM to establish personal growth and leadership maturity in Pacific students.