Developing and Supporting Early Childhood Teacher Leaders: A Leadership Project Connecting University, Community and Public School Resources (original) (raw)
Related papers
Crossing the Boundaries: The Need to Integrate School Leadership and Early Childhood Education
Mid-Western educational researcher, 2012
Recent Illinois legislation requires school principals in the state to be qualified to provide school leadership for children from preschool to grade twelve instead of kindergarten to grade twelve. Illinois is the first state to make such a change and may well serve as a model for change in school leadership preparation on a national level. The inclusion of the requirement for school leaders to provide leadership to preschool children is a welcome one. However, this legislation leaves open how such leadership should be conducted and how it should be developed in principal preparation programs. The silence of the legislation on these issues is a cause for concern because leadership preparation faculty and their candidates often lack substantive training in early education. The legislation should be strengthened—in law, in practice, or both—by drawing on three principles of high-quality early childhood education that emerge from educational research: (1) Early education influences lat...
The role of early childhood pedagogical leaders in schools: Leading change for ongoing improvement
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood
Early childhood pedagogical practice in primary schools is often challenged by academic demands, debate about best practice and ongoing change through new policy initiatives. This paper reports an investigation of how early childhood pedagogical leaders assist early years teachers in schools to embrace change and embed early childhood pedagogy. Framed within a constructivist epistemology, this paper reports on findings from three case studies drawn from a larger mixed-methods study from Perth, Western Australia. Data collected through shadowing pedagogical leaders, undertaking contextual interviews and analysing school documents revealed that pedagogical change was promoted, encouraged and sustained through a number of strategies. These included utilising early childhood champions, developing relational trust with staff, establishing communities of practice and empowering teachers as decision-makers. This paper highlights the critical role early childhood pedagogical leadership can ...
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.
Building Leadership Capacity in Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers
2016
Abstract: Building leadership capacity has emerged as a key concern within the early childhood profession in Australia as the sector responds to recent national reforms focusing on raising standards and improving quality provision of services. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion around these reforms and to make a case for changes needed in tertiary training to provide opportunities to build early childhood leadership capacity in school settings. Eight experienced early childhood teachers enrolled in a post graduate leadership unit participated in a small scale, exploratory study. Data were drawn from the participants’ research plans, reflective journals and a post unit survey. The findings indicated that the participants found it difficult to perceive themselves as leading families and community. Two key challenges emerged; the importance of developing home/school partnerships and difficulties with infrastructure. In order to prepare teachers for the changin...
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.
Early childhood education teachers’ professional development towards pedagogical leadership
Educational Research, 2019
Background In recent years, early childhood education (ECE) has faced many reforms that have led to new requirements for pedagogy. Due to this evolution, there is, in turn, an increasing need to enhance the professional competence of ECE teachers through further training. Purpose This article examines ECE teachers' interpretations of the changes in their pedagogical thinking during a further training course for ECE teachers in Finland. The aim of this qualitative research was to investigate the professional development that can be related to the further training. The context of the study was an 18-month long ECE teachers' further training course called 'Pedagogy of Early Childhood Education during Changing Practices'. Sample The study involved 32 ECE teachers participating in the further training course. The data consisted of the written responses of the further training participants in respect of their interpretation of pedagogy. Design and methods The research was carried out using a participatory action approach. The written data were collected from the teacher participants. Thematic analysis was firstly conducted inductively from the data. In the second phase, content analysis was applied using abductive reasoning. The theory-based content analysis was conducted using pedagogical leadership aspects of the theory of human capital. Results The features of professional development that were identified were explored through the lens of pedagogical leadership and grouped into four: dimensions: increased knowledge, awareness of the quality of previously implemented pedagogy, developmental skills, and ability to make the case for ECE pedagogy. Conclusions The research identified connections and relationships between the further training and professional development in pedagogical leadership. The significance of and demand for a participatory action research approach to further training for ECE teachers are discussed.
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 ...
2011
Support for this fellowship/project/report has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd., an initiative of the Australian Government. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council or the Australian Government. This work is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia Licence. Under this Licence you are free to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and to make derivative works. Attribution: You must attribute the work to the original authors and include the following statement: Support for the original work was provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.