“Everyone Can Be a Leader”: Early Childhood Education Leadership in a Center Serving Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Families

Practicum - A space for leadership and mentoring

“…The nature and context of ECE makes it difficult to conceptualise and generalise definitions of leadership from other contexts (Thornton, 2009). There is however agreement about the importance of leadership in relation to quality educational outcomes (Halpern et al, 2021;Klevering & McNae, 2018). Research suggests a reluctance of ECE teachers to identify as leaders as "many early childhood teachers fear or avoid discussions about leadership due to misconceptions about what leadership entails.…”

“…Another feature that complicates the ways in which ECE teachers might conceptualise leadership is that teachers and leaders often work collaboratively in ECE (Halpern et al, 2021;Thornton et al, 2009;Thornton & Cherrington, 2014). Leadership approaches in collaborative settings tend to be shared or distributed among teachers (Halpern et al, 2021).…”

“…Another feature that complicates the ways in which ECE teachers might conceptualise leadership is that teachers and leaders often work collaboratively in ECE (Halpern et al, 2021;Thornton et al, 2009;Thornton & Cherrington, 2014). Leadership approaches in collaborative settings tend to be shared or distributed among teachers (Halpern et al, 2021). Lovett (2018) along with Pankake and Abrego (2017) promote a type of leadership that involves teachers working together and leading according to context or task, which is termed teacher leadership.…”

“…Reluctance to take on leadership roles is multifaceted, but traditional discourses of ECE leadership continue to influence the way leadership is theorised in ECE ( Thornton et al, 2009). This article is positioned within current research that highlights effective leadership as a critical element of quality educational provision, programmes and outcomes (Halpern et al, 2021;Stamopoulos, 2012). We argue that through mentoring student teachers, practicum offers ATs opportunities to identify with, and to further develop and model the role, skills and benefits of leadership.…”

The role and influence of educational leaders in centres rated as providing high quality early childhood educational programs

“…International studies from the United States (Halpern et al, 2020), Europe (Fonsén & Ukkonen-Mikkola, 2019; Heikka et al, 2021), United Kingdom (Male & Palaiologou, 2015) and Asia-Pacific (Carroll-Lind et al, 2016) have shown strong links between effective pedagogical leadership and the development of teaching practices; educators’ commitment to guiding pedagogy; and educators’ awareness of and reflection on the quality of their practice (Heikka et al, 2021). Pedagogical leadership is commonly exercised in conjunction with other service and human resources management leadership responsibilities.…”