This chapter navigates and curates real-time, voiced stories from a time of uncertainty and crisis from Aotearoa/New Zealand into a narrative of its own that captures a snapshot of the era. The small island nation bore the weight of a double barrel crisis occasioned as much by unprecedented reform in higher and vocational education as by COVID-19. These twin towers of crises forced education leaders to shift uneasily from pivot to pivot, particularly in the Polytechnic sector where a single national body to be named Te Pūkenga ('being skilled or proficient') was implemented to absorb 16 autonomous but sometimes dysfunctional polytechnic institutions. Grounded by practitioner experiences of national governance and public-sector leadership in the time of COVID-19, the chapter recounts the effects and consequences of this unforeseen concatenation of adverse circumstances. The chapter moves beyond the rise of the pragmatic yet ideal visionary leader as represented by Dame Jacinda Ardern, to explore practitioners' shifts in thinking and ways of working whilst outlining lessons learned for the future. Considering, too, the sector's resolved application of the principles of the national foundation document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi, the chapter considers successful leadership traits required for the enduring pandemic era in Aotearoa/New Zealand's imagined future. Dominant amongst these traits is the ability and willingness to communicate decisions, humility to draw on collective expertise, and authentic, not merely mandated, application of aroha (empathy, compassion). The chapter ultimately embodies a narrative case study of unsuccessful reform during a pandemic when strategic crisis leadership traits are missing in action. © The Author(s), 2024. All rights reserved.
Author Keywords
Index Keywords
