Exploring Decolonization Efforts in Aotearoa: The Role of Critical Reflection in a Doctoral Study Abroad Program

Exposure to dynamics and cultures that reveal and challenge students' settler-colonial mindset is essential-not only for disrupting dominant narratives but also for interrogating foundational assumptions about how concepts like power and leadership operate. To cultivate this awareness, encountering other ways of being, particularly those rooted in cultures that enact shared leadership as lived praxis, requires sustained reflection on the self, the institution, and society. This article examines the impact of a doctoral study abroad course in New Zealand that explored the concepts of decolonization and leadership through students' narratives.