Effective Leadership - What is Brought Up from Childhood

Leadership in early childhood education is viewed as a complex, varied and contextual subject and there is no definitive way to describe and explain leadership because there is much diversity in ECE. Studies explain that quality leadership within early childhood settings is crucial to children’s learning and is linked to improved and consistent outcomes for children.

Leadership and management in early childhood education is a subtle and dynamic phenomenon and is deeply embedded in values, knowledge, understanding, experience and context. Early childhood is a complex field involving many different types of services and management bodies. Leadership in Early Childhood is complex, multi-layered, multi-dimensional and holistic. It difficult to capture its essence in practice due to the complex needs of children. Likewise, staff and families have varying expectations, compliant with policies, Resilient to continuous reforms

Effective leaders know when to use professional judgement, when to support, when to push and when to give others opportunities to lead. They help move individuals, the group and the organisation forward by being reflective and sharing with others what they have learned. Effective leadership is related to: improved educational outcomes for children, improved health, social outcomes and well-being, shared vision of practices, pedagogy and curriculum, minimal staff turnover.

Rodd  argues that there must be collective responsibility to be involved, committed and to act ethically in the best interests of children and their families. Due to the rapidly changing policy environment and frequency of making decisions in early childhood education leaders must appreciate the complexities of their working environments. Jones & Pound describes collective commitment in early years as that leadership needs to be reflective in their act as distributed leadership. Collaborative ethical and professional practices in leading quality ECE. Engagement with children, building partnership with families and community.

According to Weiz-Koves autocratic leadership is the approach to leadership where one person makes all decisions and centralizes all the powers. These leaders impose their will on others and enjoy privilege of making decisions regardless of the junior staff academic qualifications and leadership experience. The application of this style of leadership does not apply to all situations but works best in a situation where a leader has exclusive knowledge and expertise in certain area under consideration.

I found that it is important for early childhood teachers to understand the theories of leadership. The contingency theory of leadership explains that leadership is situational and to apply situational leadership approach a leader considers various factors that includes the personality of the leader and the composition of the people he or she leads.

In Situational leadership four leadership behaviours are important namely telling, selling, participating and delegating. A successful leader will incorporate different techniques for different situations. It can be Authoritative, Coaching and Pace setting leadership style according to the situation.

The transformational leadership theory states that a transformational leader is required in early childhood education to transform staff members and children. According to this theory, “Leaders use their enthusiasm, energy, drive, ethics, and commitment to generating trust and willingness to follow.”. These transformational leaders seek new ways and approaches to improve the childhood experiences in their institutions. The individual characteristics or traits such as self-confidence, courage, curiosity, enthusiasm, consistency, flexibility, fairness, empathy underlie practice.

During my previous placement, I witnessed distributed leadership concept which according to me is a perfect fit for the early childhood sector. According to Heikka and Hujala, in distributed leadership the focus is more on leadership itself rather than the duties and tasks. It incorporates collective vision, collaboration, building relationships, commitment, accountability and other shared leadership practices with the theoretical focus on behavioural approach. The ways leaders approach their work, problems & maintaining the group and social aspects. The coordination among all teachers in early childhood institution acts as an opportunity for bringing change and building capacity for growth and development. It emphasizes on a sense of autonomy to contribute to a shared vision. This was evident within the setting as the centre director ensured that all the participating team members are active and productive and foster level of engagement required for all early childhood teachers working together in teams. This helped them to focus on children needs and achieving the centre’s vision. A leader should be trustworthy, transparent and mutually respectable for the success of this democratic approach and this is a more participative and ethical form of leadership.

Another study explains that leadership as an outcome of social construction and develops from social interactions such as communication and cognitive experiences. The study focus on socio cultural context in early childhood settings.

I found that communication, conflict resolution and smooth relationship are key aspects in the leadership practices. It is mandatory for early childhood professionals to understand the roles of leadership and various approaches as one approach of leadership cannot be applied to different circumstances and utilizing both idealistic and pragmatic approaches to leadership. I personally think that as a leader I would like to adapt my leadership style to match the needs of the individuals I will be working with. I believe that in order to have adaptability, I need to learn to see problems from different angles and emotional intelligence capabilities such as empathy, social awareness.

The major determinant of the success of any leader is the Resilience Resourcefulness Reflectiveness Reciprocity. Effective leader is willing and able to learn in different ways, strategically, and alone as well as with others. He is always ready and turns followers into change-oriented people to achieve the common purpose. The management in early childhood deals with the planning, organizing, managing coordinating, as well as controlling the whole process of child development. However, Leadership consists of direction, inspiration along with role modelling.

In conclusion, the traditional concept of the leader is an inaccurate reflection of true leadership. The leaders focus is on future, communicating vision, inspiring collaboration but managers focus on present and day-to-day activities. The Quality Area 7 refers to ‘leadership and service management’ and explains the difference. Both dimensions of management and leadership can be successfully included in the same role and individual. The three key areas such as the person (leaders), the position (an authority on decision making), as well the place (application setting) are pivotal in early childhood leadership.