Throughout my journey in Early Childhood, I have been very blessed with meeting amazing people who have supported me and opened doorways to opportunities that I never could have dreamed of.

As I came to the end of my teaching degree in 2013, I applied for a teaching position within kōhanga reo. Having limited te reo Māori, this was quite an intimidating experience. However, my passion for the te reo was what got me my first full time teaching position, and to add that extra challenge it was a full immersion Māori setting.

The first 6 months, was challenging, and although I was a new graduate. I relearnt many of my teaching tools all over again, in te reo Māori. It was like flying to another country everyday, and living in two very different worlds. However, with a supportive team, and supportive whānau; I began to grasp more of the language and merge these two worlds into one.

My te reo Māori, knowledge of the Māori culture and tikanga grew; and my passion for the language thrived. Two years into my journey, I applied for a leadership role; however, was unsuccessful, and was told my language needed to be strengthened more to take on a leadership role. It was at this time, I decided I needed to spread my wings a little more, and moved to a predominantly te Māori centre (80/20 split).

During my time here, I completed my full teacher registration, became a leader of our rūma pēpi. In 2016 our centre was approached by Professor Jayne White to become participants in the International Infant Transition Project (IITP), my manager put me forward for the teacher-researcher role. It was during these meetings, that Jayne approached and encouraged me to complete my Masters of Education , alongside our project.

During my first year of the project, I observed our focus infant and participated using our mixed methodology. However, the research project also introduced me to the wider world of research and academia. I supported the Pedagogies if Educational Transition Programme (POET) in hosting a cohort of Scottish, Icelandic, and Swedish researchers who were visiting the region. I attended and presented, for my first time, at the 2017 NZARE (New Zealand Academy of Educational Research) conference, and shared our initial findings as part of the Australasian team. During the duration of this conference I was nominated, and won the role, as a co-convenor for the ECE SIG (Special Interest Group). Our first co-authored article has recently been published in The First Years Journal, Ngā Tau Tuatahi 2018 (Volume 20, Issue 2). Where I contributed my knowledge, indigenous pedagogical views and expertise in data gathering, putting together our presentation and the writing of our article. 

Alongside my research career, my teaching career also made momentous growth. In 2018 I was approached by a family member who was a Centre Manager for BestStart, who had heard about my beautiful teaching practice, and invited me to come and see her for an interview and a look around the centre. Although I was hesitant to move back in to mainstream, after being immersed in te reo Māori for so long. I was successful with my position, and knew I needed to make the move for my own growth. With a little apprehension, and a little self doubt I began my journey with BestStart on May 7th 2018. And I have not looked back since. By September 2018 I was successful in gaining a head teachers role. My leadership journey has been fostered by my centre manager, business manager, performance service manager and many others in our BestStart Waikato whānau. In June 2019 I began BestStart’s in house leadership course ‘Future Leaders’, and I was also successful in gaining another head teachers role to support a larger team.

June was a very busy month for me. Alongside my teacher responsibilities, my research duties took me to Melbourne; where I attended the Association for Visual Pedagogies conference and a Australasian meeting for the IITP. It was during this trip, that I was asked to represent our New Zealand team in Sao Paulo among our international team to look at data analysis, and planning forward now that we have funding to follow our pēpi through to their school transitions. I look forward to joining out international team in September this year.

I am very blessed to have had these opportunities, both as a teacher and as a researcher. I am excited about my journey ahead as I complete one more paper of my Masters, before begin work on my thesis next year; whilst motivating, inspiring, teaching and leading as a teacher and a leader. Thank you BestStart for your seeing potential, growing it; supporting and uplifting me.

Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro, nōna te

ngahere. Ēngari, ko te manu e kai ana i te

mātauranga, nōna te ao.

The one who partakes of the flora and fauna, that will be their domain.

The one who engages in education, opportunities are boundless.