Leadership in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings

This report discusses the complexities of leading practices in early childhood education and care settings, including relevant legislations and theories. It explores the impact of leadership styles on the success of early childhood settings.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
Early Childhood Studies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
The requirement for leadership in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings
has and always will be a priority due to the link between high-calibre leadership as well as better
outcomes for young children. Due to the increasing buzz in educational circle about instructional
leadership and pressure on the management of early childhood schools for improving academic
performance, an overemphasis on leadership is being provided by the government on the context
of early childhood. Effective leadership is highly crucial when it comes to success in education
and care settings. According to Lee et al. (2015), it will be highly difficult to create as well as
sustain high quality learning environment without committed and skilled leaders who helps
organization to shape the learning processes of the children.
In this report, I will discuss about the complexities of leading practices in early
childhood. The chief complexities that I will be discussing about will include relevant
legislations and theories. In UK, a good number of rules and legislations are associated with the
early childhood setting in order to ensure the safety of the children along with providing the
same with high quality education (McLeod et al. 2017). Some of the major theories that possess
the potential to clearly explain the complexities of early childhood settings are Freud's
Psychosexual Developmental Theory, Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory and
Behavioral Child Development Theories (Longman, Hawes and Kohlhoff 2016). Along with
this, analysis of the process leadership on the early childhood setting has also been performed in
the essay. As per my opinion, the success of early childhood setting is directly proportional to the
leadership styles carried by the educator and institutional leader.
The early childhood setting I have been working for is nursery setting. When it comes to my
early childhood settings, being an educator I teach 20 students of age range 4 years to 6 years. Te
leadership structure followed by me is transformational leadership style In order to understand

2EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
the issues faced by my students, I always ensure to act friendly with them in order to eradicate
any kind of hesitation and lack of comfort. When it comes to my leadership style as an educator,
I practice collaborative leadership in my workplace. According to Jillian (2006), leadership in
the context of early childhood can be defined as the capacity, ability as well as a set of strategies
to lead. Every childhood practitioner possesses the ability to develop the skill of leadership by
selecting skills in areas of his or her particular interest. Effective communication and time
management are two crucial skills that need to be developed by every educator to establish an
efficient leadership. As per my opinion collaborative leadership style is most attractive to the
early childhood practitioners, who consider diversity as their major strength for responding to the
demands that are constantly changing. Effective communication helps the educator to understand
the issues faced by the students as well as their colleagues. This skill helps the educators to
understand the specific requirements of the students as well as maintain effective relationship
with their cooworkers.
Considering the fact that in the discussion portion, I will use examples from my work, I will
keep the name of my colleagues as well as students confidential. Secondly, I have already taken
permission from my institution so that I can use information associated with the organization in
this assignment.
In this paragraph, I will discuss about the legislation associated with my early childhood
setting. There are ten overarching Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements within the EYFS.
The chief requirements includes child protection, appropriate recruitment of staff, appropriate
staff qualification, training, staff and child ratios and managing behaviours (Barton, Fuller and
Schnitz 2016). The chief aim of all the requirements is to ensure the safety of the children
associated with early childhood programs. In the organization I work for, children’s rights and

3EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
entitlements policies has been implemented after high student attrition from the institution.
Initially, children with diverse cultural background were discriminate by some of my colleagues.
The YMCA Thames policy has been implemented that ensures promotion of children’ rights to
be strong, resilient and listened to by encouraging children for developing a sense of autonomy
and independence.
The second policy that has been implemented by the institution I worked in is the
safeguarding Children and Child Protection policies (Long et al. 2016). The chief aim of the
mentioned policy is to ensure that each and every child is capable to practice the right of being
treated with respect, be helped to thrive and to be safe from any kind of abuse. As an educator, I
personally take care of the fact that none of my students are suffering from any kinds of physical
or psychological issues. One of the staff members who are designated for co-coordinating child
protects issues (Sims et al. 2015). During his absence, another member is given the charge to
look after the specific post. In order to ensure that all the staffs are aware of the policy and
practice the same, effective training as well as education on safety policy is provided too all the
faculties of the organization.
In this paragraph I will discuss about the impact of theories on the development of the early
childhood settings. As per my opinion, the behavioral child development theory helps an
educator to understand the psychology of a child and how they should be treated. According to
the perspective of the mentioned theory, the behavior of all human can be described in terms of
environmental influences (Masten and Monn 2015). Instead of focusing on internal thoughts and
feelings, this theory focuses on the experiences that shape the personality of the child. Another
theory that is associated with my early childhood setting includes Piaget's Cognitive
Developmental Theory (Lee et al. 2015). The cognitive theory includes the development of the

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thought process of an individual. Along with this the theory also emphasizes at how these
thought processes influence our understanding of interaction with the world.
This paragraph contains discussion about how leadership has been carried out in the setting
between management and staff. In the organization worked in to effective training and education
is provided to all the staff members in order to ensure enhancement of leadership skills (Barton
and Smith 2015). Along with this, educators are provided with periodic training about handing
different kinds of adverse situation. Non- teaching staffs are educated about the safety policies
and procedures so that they can effectively perform their tasks. In order to maintain effective
interpersonal relationship between the staff members, a good number of ice breaking sessions are
held.
From the above discussion, it can be clearly understood that in our organization, the
management is effectively working on ensure child safety and promotion of high quality
provision. The chief policies that are being practiced to ensure the safety of the children by the
organization includes children’s Rights and Entitlement policy and the Safeguarding Children
and Child Protection policy. The theories that helps me to understand the psychology of my
students and provide them with effective education includes the the behavioral child
development theory and the Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory.

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Reference List
Barton, E.E. and Smith, B.J., 2015. Advancing high-quality preschool inclusion: A discussion
and recommendations for the field. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 35(2), pp.69-
78.
Barton, E.E., Fuller, E.A. and Schnitz, A., 2016. The use of email to coach preservice early
childhood teachers. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 36(2), pp.78-90.
Lee, F.L.M., Yeung, A.S., Tracey, D. and Barker, K., 2015. Inclusion of children with special
needs in early childhood education: What teacher characteristics matter. Topics in Early
Childhood Special Education, 35(2), pp.79-88.
Long, S., Souto-Manning, M. and Vasquez, V. eds., 2016. Courageous leadership in early
childhood education: Taking a stand for social justice. Teachers College Press.
Longman, T., Hawes, D.J. and Kohlhoff, J., 2016. Callous–unemotional traits as markers for
conduct problem severity in early childhood: A meta-analysis. Child Psychiatry & Human
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Masten, A.S. and Monn, A.R., 2015. Child and family resilience: A call for integrated science,
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McLeod, B.D., Sutherland, K.S., Martinez, R.G., Conroy, M.A., Snyder, P.A. and Southam-
Gerow, M.A., 2017. Identifying common practice elements to improve social, emotional, and
behavioral outcomes of young children in early childhood classrooms. Prevention Science, 18(2),
pp.204-213.

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Sims, M., Forrest, R., Semann, A. and Slattery, C., 2015. Conceptions of early childhood
leadership: Driving new professionalism?. International Journal of Leadership in
Education, 18(2), pp.149-166.
Jillian, R., 2006. Unpicking Leadership in the Early Childhood Context. Open University Press,
pp. 9-29