Leadership emergence and development: Organizations shaping leading in early childhood education

Abstract

Early childhood education (ECE) effects positive outcomes for children, but outcomes depend upon the quality of the program with which children engage. Program quality is positively influenced by effective leadership; yet we do not fully understand how effective leadership emerges and develops within ECE sites. This lack of knowledge potentially compromises the development of effective leadership and, subsequently, a child’s right to high-quality ECE. This paper, therefore, contributes to the field of research on ECE leadership development by describing a qualitative Australian study that investigated leadership cultivation. The mini-ethnographic case study examined the emergence and development of leadership in three high-quality, diversely governed ECE settings. Findings of the study suggest the practice of leading is foundational for positional leadership roles and is enabled by the practice architectures of an organization. Practice architectures comprise cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements. Arrangements, found within organizations, included cultures of trust, use of professional knowledge and language, collaborative development of philosophy, democratic allocation of resources, sharing of power and openness to activism, disruption and creativity. Such arrangements play an important role in the emergence and development of leading and therefore offer organizations alternative ways to consider leadership cultivation.

Cultural diversity in the Australian early childhood education workforce: What do we know, what don’t we know and why is it important?

“…Similarly to DCA reports, Golebiowska et al (2018) state that overseas-born educators tend to stay in their jobs longer than their Australian-born counterparts. (Gibbs, 2020;Gide, 2017), the wellbeing of the educators (Cumming et al, 2021;Cumming & Wong, 2018), and workforce issues (Irvine et al, 2016;.…”

“…Having a CALD workforce may also be beneficial for CALD families. The number of CALD children and families using ECE settings is increasing every year (Productivity Commission Reports, 2013-2020. ECE settings are assessed against seven NQS.…”

“…Early Childhood Education (ECE) services where children from birth to school-age are cared for and educated are very important for the CALD background population (Rajwani et al, 2021). There are a number of research projects, reports, and policies on supporting CALD children and families in Australian ECE settings (Rajwani et al, 2021;Productivity Commission Reports, 2013-2020Sawrikar & Katz, 2008). However, there is very little research about the cultural diversity of the workforce who work with these children in ECE.…”

The risk of being researched: Re-envisioning educator research participation for high-quality early childhood education

“…Factors included the feel of the setting and educators’ view of children as capable. A study by Gibbs (2020a) identified particular leadership practices that can contribute toward high quality. Practices included many educators engaging in the act of leading, not just those in leadership positions.…”

Leading through complexity in early childhood education and care

“…Leadership is, however, enacted within Australian ECEC sites in a milieu of people, policy and practice (Alchin et al, 2019), and the profession remains hampered by multiple challenges that may make the proposition of positional leadership unpalatable. Challenges include complex workforce issues, inadequate preparation for positional leadership roles, inadequate understandings of leadership theory and conceptualisations and few opportunities for professional development for emerging leaders (Alchin, 2019;Gibbs, 2020;Waniganayake et al, 2017). These persistent challenges jeopardise the growth of effective leadership and the development of a sustainable leadership pipeline for the early childhood education profession.…”