Leading with self-awareness: The antecedent to relational leadership

Abstract For many educational leaders, the move to an online (virtual) teaching and learning environment which requires different ways of engaging from a traditional daily in person leadership approach can be daunting. The research reported in this article explored how I, an education leader who had previously enjoyed traditional face to face leadership roles, could move into an online teaching and learning environment and maintain the relational leadership approach I had strived to enact in face-to-face settings. Through an autoethnographic framework, journaling and critical reflective process, the research data captured the personal and professional characteristics and attributes that influenced my leadership practice. These characteristics were explored through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; 2005), and the philosophical framework of the Whatu metaphor (Hiha, 2015), strengthening the understanding that the personal and professional characteristics identified within my leadership practice had been shaped and influenced by my early life and formative experiences. The findings from the research offer a unique contribution to the limited research demonstrating how education leaders can enact agency of their leadership through self-awareness in an online teaching and learning environment.