The Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm

The Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm™ has been developed by Megan Tahere (2025) as part of the ongoing mahi to give shape and language to the philosophical foundations that guide Manawa Kōkopu and the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series™.

It reflects a commitment to articulating how kaupapa Māori ways of knowing, being, and doing can be meaningfully expressed through professional, leadership, and practice-based contexts.

This paradigm invites reflection on what it truly means to be kaupapa-aligned — offering a framework that connects thought and action, philosophy and practice, knowledge and presence — so that alignment becomes a lived expression of integrity, coherence, and contribution.

The Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm

The Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm describes an Indigenous approach to thinking, being, and doing — a paradigm grounded in Kaupapa Māori philosophy and the values, principles, and protocols that give it life.

It affirms that kaupapa is not merely a foundation of belief or a defined topic, but a living system of alignment that connects purpose, identity, and action across personal, professional, and collective contexts.

This paradigm encompasses both orientation — how we understand the world — and action — how we act within it.

To be kaupapa-aligned is to ensure that our leadership, professional practice, and collective engagement are guided by Kaupapa Māori worldviews and accountable to the relationships, contexts, and purposes we serve.

When pluralised in this context, worldviews acknowledges that Māori knowledge and being are not monolithic — they are expressed through multiple iwi, hapū, and whānau traditions, each with distinct interpretations, cosmologies, tikanga, and kawa. It honours diversity within unity — the idea that while there is a shared whakapapa of Kaupapa Māori thought, there are many lived and localised expressions of it.

To be kaupapa-aligned is to uphold ontological integrity — acting in ways consistent with Māori worldviews — and practical coherence — ensuring that what we do, how we do it, and why we do it remain accountable to Kaupapa Māori intent.

This paradigm provides the worldview and organising logic which gives meaning and structure to how kaupapa alignment is articulated through the language, frameworks, and practices of the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series and the wider services of Manawa Kōkopu — weaving knowledge, practice, and presence into coherent, living expression.

Expressions of Kaupapa Alignment

Within this paradigm, Profession, Leadership, and Practice are positioned as three core expressions of kaupapa alignment. Each represents a distinct yet connected dimension through which kaupapa is both embodied and enacted — lived through presence and expressed through practice.

1. Kaupapa-Aligned Profession — The Who

   • Identity and collective alignment

   • Centring who we are and the kaupapa we stand within. This expression focuses on professional identity, shared purpose, and collective contribution across disciplines and contexts.

2. Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership — The How

   • Direction, integrity, and influence

   • Exploring how we lead and make decisions. This expression embodies relational, values-led leadership that maintains cultural intelligence, coherence, and intergenerational responsibility.

3. Kaupapa-Aligned Practice — The What

   • Action, reflection, and implementation

   • Enacting what we know and believe. This expression focuses on how kaupapa is expressed through practice — the living application of philosophy through reflective, reflexive, and responsive action.

Together, these expressions give form to the Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm, showing how people, purpose, place, and practice remain connected across personal, professional, and collective contexts.

Kaupapa-Aligned Profession™

The Who — Identity and Collective Alignment

Kaupapa-Aligned Profession describes professional identity and collective contribution consciously shaped by Māori philosophy and responsive to the kaupapa contexts within which professionals operate.

A kaupapa-aligned profession upholds knowledge, competence standards, contextual ethics, and sector accountability as characteristics of shared expertise, direction, and interoperability — not as optional skills, but as a shared understanding of professional integrity, communities of practice, and social responsibility.

This framing recognises that professions may align with each other through shared kaupapa.

For example, midwives, nurses, and teachers may operate across distinct disciplines yet remain connected through kaupapa such as whānau ora or cultural competence.

Such alignment honours the resonance and reciprocity between professions and the kaupapa that unites their purpose and distinctive contribution within the ecosystems they inhabit.

Key Features

• Philosophical grounding — professional purpose is situated within Māori worldviews and Indigenous knowledge systems.

• Values in action — practice enacts principles consistent with tika, pono, and aroha.

• Interdisciplinary alignment — knowledge, behaviour, and action are integrated and transferable across contexts and professions.

• Contextual coherence — professional environments, systems, and relationships are attuned to the kaupapa being served.

• Intergenerational contribution — work is measured by how it enhances mauri, sustains whānau, and benefits future generations.

Kaupapa-Aligned Profession is a term used within the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series and other work undertaken by Manawa Kōkopu.

Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership™

The How — Direction, Integrity, and Influence

Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership™ is a way of leading grounded in Māori philosophy, values, principles, and protocols. It is relational, reflective, reflexive, and responsive to context, where decision-making and action remain accountable to Māori worldviews — drawing on cultural intelligence, collective wisdom, and shared experience to uplift capability and wellbeing.

A kaupapa-aligned leader cultivates leadership as a living expression of whakapapa and tikanga, integrating values as personal qualities such as manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga, kotahitanga, and rangatiratanga. These values guide how leaders think, connect, and create impact with integrity and intergenerational awareness.

For example, a kaupapa-aligned leader ensures that strategic priorities, everyday decisions, and ways of working genuinely reflect the organisation’s shared vision and values.

Such leadership brings coherence — clarifying what is tika, pono, and mana-affirming, translating kaupapa into action, aligning influence, and holding space for both opportunity and tension across systems and relationships.

Key Features

• Relational responsibility — cultivating and strengthening connections across diverse relationships.

• Values-led action — decisions are tested against kaupapa Māori principles and values.

• Shared agency — leadership is distributed and collaborative, recognising that many voices contribute, each holding their own truth and validity.

• Cultural integrity — leadership practice remains consistent with te ao Māori, upholding tikanga, te reo Māori, and mātauranga Māori.

• Collective accountability — outcomes are measured not merely by metrics, but by how well they sustain and uplift whānau Māori and the wider collective.

Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership is a term used within the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series and other work undertaken by Manawa Kōkopu.

Kaupapa-Aligned Practice™

The What — Action, Reflection, and Implementation

Kaupapa-Aligned Practice™ refers to professional, educational, therapeutic, or organisational practice that is anchored in Kaupapa Māori pedagogy and praxis and contextually aligned to the kaupapa being enacted.

It is not the act of adding Māori content to Western constructs; rather, it ensures that the philosophy, intent, and environment of practice are coherent with Māori epistemologies, ontologies, and values.

This reflects an intrinsic knowing that knowledge, existence, and practice are whakapapa-based, relational, and lived.

For example, kaupapa-aligned practice is evident when a practitioner intuitively integrates refined knowledge, vocabulary, and behaviour into their mahi — ensuring that engagements with whānau reflect professional standards and ethics while providing access to care or support that is nuanced and culturally coherent. This is the distinction between models of care and kaupapa practice — one is applied, the other is lived.

This approach embodies the movement from knowing to doing — making kaupapa visible and active in the everyday expression of elevated practice.

Key Features

• Epistemic integrity — privileging Māori ways of knowing, being, and doing rather than forcing them into non-Māori models.

• Pedagogical coherence — aligning teaching, learning, and reflection with Māori pedagogical traditions such as ako, wānanga, and whakawhiti kōrero.

• Culturally intelligent and responsive design — practices are co-designed with Māori, not imposed upon them.

• Reflexive and reflective iteration — ongoing self-awareness, feedback, and adaptation grounded in kaupapa Māori.

• Holistic outcomes — success is measured through cultural, relational, spiritual, and intergenerational dimensions alongside technical excellence.

• Reciprocity and accountability — ensuring that whānau Māori and communities of practice both benefit from and influence the direction of the work.

Kaupapa-Aligned Practice is a term used within the Kura Poutama – Poutama IQ Ascent Series and other work undertaken by Manawa Kōkopu.

Kaupapa-Aligned Poutama Quotients™

Within this paradigm, leadership unfolds through the movement between tikanga and kawa — direction and rhythm — held in dynamic balance.
This movement is expressed through the Kaupapa-Aligned Poutama Quotients: Poutama IQ (Insight Quotient) and Poutama EQ (Embodiment Quotient).

Together, they activate the relational coherence of Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership — aligning discernment with embodiment, and insight with presence, so that leadership becomes both purposeful and powerfully felt.

• Poutama IQ (Insight Quotient) centres on the ability to perceive alignment — to see patterns, meaning, and timing within complex systems of people, purpose, and potential. It cultivates strategic clarity through Ngā Rorohiko Whakaaro – The Seven Thinking Rhythms of Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership™.

• Poutama EQ (Embodiment Quotient) explores the capacity to feel, sense, and integrate insight through presence and practice. It honours the body as a vessel of knowing — a site where understanding is not just thought but lived.

Held in relational balance, these Quotients generate coherence between clarity and presence — guiding leadership that is wise in action, culturally intelligent, and grounded in kaupapa. Through this relational rhythm, the Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm affirms that wisdom is not only conceptual but lived — experienced through reflection, embodiment, and contribution. In this way, Poutama IQ and Poutama EQ do not sit outside the paradigm; they are its movement — the rhythm through which kaupapa becomes practice.

Closing Reflection

Together, these expressions embody the Kaupapa-Aligned Paradigm™ — a living system of Indigenous alignment that connects knowledge, practice, and presence, shaping how we think, lead, and act in ways that are reflective, reflexive, and accountable to Kaupapa Māori foundations.

Reflection for Leaders

• In what ways does my current leadership practice reflect alignment between kaupapa, context, and action?

• How do I ensure that my decision-making remains tika, pono, and mana-affirming — especially when navigating tension or complexity?

• What values or principles guide the relationships I cultivate, and how do they shape the culture and coherence of my team?

• How do I make kaupapa visible — not only in language, but in process, presence, and outcome?

Further Reading

Kaupapa Māori: A community approach – Mane (2009)

Image credit: Tahere, K. (2025). Used with permission.

Author: Megan Tahere. (2025).