Leadership in Early Childhood Settings (original) (raw)
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Thinking and learning about leadership in early childhood: an orientation
2015
Leadership in early childhood is a hot topic, particularly given the complex agendas for reform in policy and practice occurring in many countries. Today, early childhood professionals everywhere are expected to address and implement a range of policy changes, government initiatives and professional expectations. Competent leadership of such challenges is acknowledged as fundamental and integral to improving the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) staffing and provision. This research monograph offers a multi-national, contextualised perspective on the research foci of established and esteemed early childhood researchers and practitioners from Australia, Finland and Norway. The aim of this chapter is twofold: firstly, it provides an orientation to thinking and learning about leadership in early childhood through research including an explanation of the intended readership and assumed knowledge; and secondly, it explains how this book came about, and guides the reade...
Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis
Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood
In this conceptual article, the authors examine the context of early childhood education and care in England and the underpinning predominant ideologies to explore how these impact on the framing of leadership. The English context entails several contradictions (antinomies) at ontological, epistemological and axiological levels, and is heavily influenced by an ideological struggle concerning the value of play within the sector as opposed to a climate of child performativity. Moreover, the predominately female workforce (a factor itself) has faced relentless changes in terms of qualifications and curriculum reforms in recent years. With the introduction of the graduate leader qualification (Early Years Teacher Status), a vast body of research has been seeking to conceptualise what leadership means for early childhood education and care. In this article, the authors argue that these attempts are helpful and contribute to this discourse of leadership, but it needs to be thought of not ...
Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 2019
Effective leadership within early childhood settings is aligned with the perceived successful implementation of high quality care and education programmes (Thornton, Tamati, Clarkin-Philips, Aitken & Wansbrough, 2009). With growing attention on the role early childhood education (ECE) plays in preparing children to be successful in their lives, it is not surprising that there is increased focus on the work and impact of educational leaders in this endeavour. An expanding body of research specifically exploring leadership within ECE settings illustrates how much of the educational leadership theory corpus lacks contextual relevance and fails to recognise the complexities and realities of leading in early years contexts (Rodd, 2013). The qualitative research reported on in this article examines the leadership understandings and perceptions of five qualified, registered early childhood leaders. The findings illustrated that whilst participants were cognisant of the role effective leade...
Early Childhood Education, 2014
In Australia, educational leadership studies emerged as a core area of study within early childhood bachelor degree courses during the 1990s. This inclusion was supported by findings from newly emerging research on leadership involving early childhood educators. A handful of Australian and Finnish scholars joined researchers based in the USA to actively research leadership focusing on the early childhood sector. In this paper, reflections on what has been achieved over the past two decades in promoting leadership studies in the early childhood sector is analysed as a starting point to evaluate learning and stimulate further discussion on additional work necessary in preparing future leaders. This analysis will be based on exploring key assumptions about distributed leadership models being favoured by policy planners and practitioners. In identifying gaps in our knowledge base, possibilities for further research are presented by drawing on developments in Australia and elsewhere as appropriate.
How Leadership Should Be Exercised in Early Childhood Education?
This research article gathers the perceptions about how directors and pedagogical teams understand and experience leadership within five Junji preschools in Chile. Data were collected for from five semi-structured interviews and a participant observation. Findings suggest three forms of exercising leadership: pedagogical, supervisory, and administrative. In all cases, there are the same threats to leadership. The study uncovers some personal skills and characteristics common to the ways of leading. The article also highlights the context as a key element to the exercise of leadership, and the importance of modeling collaborative cultures, which consider the centrality of children's learning in preschool education.
Leadership in Early Education in Times of Change. Research from five continents
2020
The collection brings together the latest work of researchers from Australia, Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe focusing on early childhood leadership matters. It covers different aspects of leadership in early education: professional education and development, identity and leadership strategies as well as governance and leadership under different frame conditions. (DIPF/Verlag)
Dimensions of pedagogical leadership in early childhood education and care
2013
The purpose of the research was to clarify the phenomena of pedagogical leadership and to investigate the implementation of pedagogical leadership by childcare centre directors. The research was connected with the University of Tampere's Development Project on pedagogical leadership carried out in seven municipalities in Finland. The project reflected an inclusive and participatory action research study. The ontological premise of the research is narrative where knowledge is seen as a socially constructed process. The study was based on the contextual leadership theory by Nivala (1998) which emphasises the importance of the core task of early childhood organisations. The data collection methods comprised questionnaires, development plans drawn up by the childcare centre directors and teachers, and narratives written by the directors. The main story reflected a shared understanding about the phenomena of pedagogical leadership. It can be seen that in Finnish childcare centres, pedagogical leadership is understood as a contextual and a cultural phenomenon.
Early childhood education teachers and leaders becoming the leadership(s)
Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 2016
Leadership research in early childhood education (ECE), and in education generally, has been burdened with the notion of effectiveness and how this effectiveness relates to the individual leader. Whereas in this paper, the author attempts thinking and becoming leadership assemblage by drawing on Mazzei (2013) use of Deleuze and Guattari's concept of Body/Voice without Organs. As this conceptualization is closely connected to the notions of becoming and temporality, these aspects will also be discussed in this paper. Thinking together with these theoretical concepts, the author has worked with ECE teacher interviews and ECE leader discussions. This conceptualization can offer new understandings of temporality and becoming in educational leadership.
With the increasing acknowledgement of the benefits of early childhood education, there is a need to ask critical questions about whether ample leadership exists for guiding ambitious systemic change in the field. This review of leadership in early childhood educational contexts between 1995 and 2015 examines the epistemological assumptions embedded in the literature (and those advantaged and marginalized as a result), the expressed purposes of leadership work and specifically, whether, and to what extent, considerations of social justice and equity have been included in leadership theorizing. Eighty-one publications were identified through a search of major electronic databases and analysed using an analytic review template that includes definitions of leadership, modern and postmodern epistemologies underlying these texts, and considerations of social justice. Findings suggest that while traditional hierarchical conceptions are common, there is a shift towards more distributed and relational understandings of leadership. More recently, leadership is being described as a socially constructed, situated, culturally informed and dynamic process. There has also been an increase in the number of scholars emphasizing postmodern thinking in discussions of leadership over modernist conceptions. Still, there is less explicit discussion of postmodern intersectional identities in leadership. In addition, most literature does not include explicit discussion of social justice in theorizing about leadership, or the expressed purposes of leadership. This suggests the importance of critically examining the epistemological assumptions represented in leadership discourse and of more intentional links between leadership and goals that address social injustices for children, families and the early childhood workforce.