ABSTRACT
This chapter, originally developed in collaboration with Rangimaria (a pseudonym), uses political philosophy to question the quality of the professionalization policy and provisions for newly appointed primary (elementary) school principals in New Zealand/Aotearoa. It also questions how wisely the Ministry of Education is using its power in a liberal democracy to determine such professional development structure. It does this by describing a typical setting for novice leadership, giving voice to a newly appointed female and Maori principal, evaluating the purposes and scale of funded professionalization and then pointing to aberrant outcomes enabled by the ambiguous distribution and misuse of power in the school system.
