Sonja Davies, Kai Tahu, 1923-2005, was dedicated to social justice in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa) across various arenas such as the peace movement, politics and early childhood education. She was a member of Parliament from 1987 to 1993 and she received the Queen’s Service award for outstanding service to the Crown and the people of Aotearoa in 1987. This presentation, drawn from kaupapa Māori, narrative research, gives an overview of Sonja’s life with a focus on her upbringing, family, and contributions to early childhood. Sonja’s story, compiled from autobiographies, interview and document sources, was analysed thematically to explore the origins of her leadership.

Sonja led and achieved significant progress in early childhood education. The organisation she founded in 1963, called the New Zealand Association of Childcare Centres, then renamed Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa and now Te Rito Maioha, Early Childhood New Zealand, still exists nearly sixty years after its inception. Sonja’s story was compiled from archival and other sources as well as from an interview with a colleague. The interview focused on information missing from other sources about the origins and orientation of Sonja’s social justice leadership. Reflexive journalling was used by the researcher to help understand how the researchers assumptions and values influenced the research process and outcomes. Once the story was assembled Nvivo12 qualitative research software was used to code the data and identify themes.

The analysis revealed that the origins of Sonja’s leadership are found in role models, personal struggles, mana wahine and social norms. Her leadership had a cost and was influenced by gender and generational contexts. Sonja’s leadership skills, combined with the social, economic, and cultural context that existed for her generation, enabled her to address inequities and to achieve change in the social justice sphere. Sonja’s story is important due to its place in time and history and because female leaders are underrepresented in the leadership literature. Drawing on Sonja’s story and the literature this presentation argues that the origins of Sonja’s leadership offer insights for the development of current and future leaders in early childhood education and beyond.

This narrative, kauapapa Māori research reflects the epistemological perspective that indigenous knowledge can be developed from a close examination of people’s stories (Lee, 2009). Sonja’s story was compiled from archival sources as well as from an interview with an ex-colleague of Sonja’s. The archival sources included audiotaped and videotaped interviews with Sonja and other items such as letters, photos, newspaper articles, magazine publications and speech notes. These sources were housed in the Alexander Turnbull Library (the national library), and Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga (the national archives). The researcher interviewed Graham Kelly, an ex-colleague of Sonja’s during her parliamentary and union careers. The interview involved semi-structured questions related to Sonja’s leadership and was undertaken by telephone. The interview recording was transcribed by an independent transcriber and was sent to Graham to read and edit as he wished. Once the story was compiled the narrative was analysed thematically with NVivo 12 qualitative research software to explore the origins of Sonja’s leadership. This presenter draws on all the data sources used in this research. Ethical approval to undertake this research was gained from the Educational Research Human Ethics Committee, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Aotearoa. The researcher is employed by the organisation Sonja founded therefore she was an insider as part of this research. Tuhiwai Smith (2021) notes that “the critical issue with insider research is the constant need for reflexivity. At a general level insider researchers have to have ways of thinking about their processes, their relationships, and the quality and richness of their data and analysis” (p.157). The researcher practiced the principles of reflexive practice such as having a dialogue with herself and “keeping a track of questions” (Butler-Kisber, 2018, p. 24) by using a reflexive journal. Her reflexive journal outlines how she was sometimes challenged with aspects of the research such as discovering contradictory information across various sources. The reflexive journal was used to guide the research process.

For people leading across the education arena this article provides some insight regarding leadership and the importance of understanding the origins of leadership. There are some learnings for everyone involved in the early childhood sector and social justice focused organisations from an analysis of the narrative of Sonja Davies. We are living in a different era to the time when Sonja founded the NZ Childcare Association however the need for strong leadership and the beneficial effect of this leadership on others remains today. The findings from the research reported on in this article add to the existing body of work from Māori scholars such as Durie (2001), Tuhiwai Smith (2021) and Pere (1997) who have emphasised identity as an important aspect of leader development. Themes that became apparent from analysis of the Sonja’s story highlighted the way in which Sonja’s leadership emerged from her childhood and first-hand experience of injustice combined with the unique social, cultural and historical context. There were gender and social norms at play in the development of Sonja’s leadership. She juggled domestic responsibilities with her leadership commitments. Initiatives for developing women’s leadership for social justice in the current context need to reflect the complexity and nuances that this research has revealed. The benefit of this research is that it gives voice to women’s leadership for social justice particularly in the early childhood arena and it has the potential to contribute meaningfully to the leadership literature.

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