Professional leadership contributes significantly to children’s learning by enabling effective teaching that supports all children.

The phrase 'leadership for learning' encompasses a broad definition of leadership that involves shared collective responsibility. This means that all kaiako need to have clear focus on how they lead learning for all children, lead the learning of other kaiako, and, by implication, whānau too. This is also known as 'distributed' or 'shared leadership.'

The role of leaders in any learning context is too big for one person alone. Leadership for learning is a shared effort. Leaders are essential but they need to have strong teams with them, supporting the kaupapa of a service. This is about the concepts of whanaungatanga (kinship, sense of whānau connection) and kotahitanga. While distributed leadership can be fostered and promoted, somebody, somewhere still needs to lead and be responsible for monitoring the quality of education and care provided for children in a service.

In this section you will find resources about leadership for learning and resources about for kaiako in a leadership role in their service.