DoctorTufulasi Taleni

My research interest is in the field of Pacific education and educational leadership.  Over three decades, I have been working in the Pacific education kaupapa - firstly as a classroom teacher,  a Senior educational adviser, a Kaiarahi Pasifika and now in my current role as a Senior lecturer along with my usual role as a pacific community leader.  These roles in education have inspired me to become a researcher in this important area.  While working as a researcher in Pacific education, I explored a great interest in educational leadership.  I see that leadership has a close connection with Pacific education in many ways.  Leadership has strong connection and influence on improving educational outcomes for Pacific students.  I also value my own personal leadership capability in connection with my cultural positionality - my position as a Samoa Matai (chief), my postion as a community leader, church leader and Pacific education leader - all connects and contributes to my interest in the area of educational leadership.  My research interest in Pacific education and educational leadership is motivated by the metaphorical notion that comes from my growing up in Samoa -  'ole talatalaina ole upega lavelave' - the untangling of the tangled net'.  A saying that has so much connection to the role of leaders in the untangling of 'tangled issues' that are impacting on the welbeing of the community  -  key to this is the improvement of Pacific students' educational engagement and achievement. This year, I am leading a reasearch project with three esteemed colleagues. The research project is called - Tautai Pasifika Research Project. This is an exciting piece of work which focuses on researching the impact of my Samoa Malaga (trip) education Initiative that I developed and led since 2003 to the lives of host families in the village in Samoa and also the impact of this to teachers, leaders, Initial Teacher educators, specialised teachers' pedagogical practices.  Leading this research project gives me so much satisfaction to build close connection with my research interest in Pacific education and educational leadership. Back in 2021, I also led a very important piece of research with Pacific colleagues from UC and CORE education.  The focus of this research was on transistion from Early Childhhood to School - guided by the metaphorical saying in Samoan 'e soso'o le fau ma le fau  -  connect one fibre with another'. This research was an important piece of work not only for Pacific educators, families and community but also for all non Pacific educators to understand the importance of these transistions from Eraly Childhood Education to schools for Pacific children.  The findings of this research provided such rich learning for teachers in both sectors and the community.  The findins also intrumental in providing food for thought for the Ministry to weave into policies to improve planning and implemenation of Pacific programs and strategies to strengthen the participation, engagement  and success of Pacific students across school sectors.