Developing Pacific leaders within a tertiary education setting through appreciative inquiry: A personal perspective

Abstract

Against a background of national policy concern with enhancing the educational success of Pacific students, this paper offers a personal perspective on the potential of appreciative inquiry (AI) as an approach to leadership mentoring in tertiary education settings. It discusses how the four phases of AI were implemented in the author’s mentoring activities and argues that AI is highly beneficial both for group and individual mentoring contexts. The paper concludes that mentoring relationships using AI, in which the mentor focuses on the protégé’s strengths, has considerable value in growing leadership potential for Pacific people.