Topics of Effective Leadership in Early Childhood Education

Essay

Table of Contents
TOPIC .............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
Effective leadership in childhood education...............................................................................2
Practices which characterized the early childhood educational contexts....................................4
Evaluating qualities of leadership and management to provide educational quality..................7
Dimension of leadership in ECE setting.....................................................................................7
Challenges faced by children's centre leaders...........................................................................10
Role of effective leaders in addressing the challenges..............................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

TOPIC
Defining ‘leading well’ in the Early Years and critically justifying the personal resources
such as principles, values, qualities, knowledge and skills that an individual requires to lead
well”.
INTRODUCTION
Leadership refers to a sociocultural construct that underpinned by belief or values of a
society (Lunneblad and Garvis, 2019). Within early childhood., “leading well” can be defined as
a way of aligning culture to vision, strategy and purpose, that strengthen the leadership as well as
raise vitality at organisation. As Children's centres are continuously making the significant
difference for lives as well as life chances of children and their peers in every nation. So, in early
childhood education (ECE) settings concept of leadership has shifted the focus into a more
collective approach i.e. distributed leadership, from one designated leader. With this assistance,
in setting up early childhood, attention is also directed at management and administrative
leadership, by leading with consistency. As per requirement of National Quality Framework, it is
essential to have a designated leader within areas of development as well as implementation of
curriculum and pedagogy (Page, 2018). Hereby, the main role of such leader is to provide
guidance to other educators, in context with planning the course and shaping application of
educational theory into teaching practice. Such type of vital role is also depended upon
contextual setting, but leaders need to be educationally and socially responsible.
Since it is believed that children co-construct the knowledge that they gain during early
childhood, so it is the biggest responsibility of educational providers to teach them in better way
(DeMatthews and Izquierdo, 2018). The present assignment addresses the issue of leadership and
how the same is applied to lead an “early years' organisation, including its role in leading and
learning at early childhood. For this purpose, various theories are being analysed on the basis of
– implication of move of childcare, early education of children from home to institution,
significance of bad leadership and its effect on leadership etc. Hereby, how leaders help in
making sense of quality as well as improving quality in early years is also being discussed. For
purpose of this discussion, quality which effects the settings and on outcomes of children is
recognised as per OFSTED inspection reports, to improve pedagogical leadership. Along with
this, given research also appropriately addresses the leadership towards children, by recognising
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the complex role which leaders' experience via reflecting their work along with discussion about
what is valued for them, including leadership behaviour that makes a sustained and real
difference, in ECE setting. Furthermore, the report also discusses what challenges leaders face in
early setting, with strategies to resolve the same are highlighted under this essay, with some
relevant illustrations.
MAIN BODY
Effective leadership in childhood education
Leaders in general education play the main role in supervising the professionals in
delivering effective education. While in context of early childhood education, they focus more
on setting a professional environment with a profound love of children as well as work towards
their growth and nurturing (Law and Liang, 2019). For this purpose, leaders possess experience
and effective key skills like patience, leading with consistency and flexibility. They are also
concerned with embracing diversity and communicating effectively with children and their
parents, professionals and the community members. Therefore, the requirement for effective
leadership in the field of early education setting, is always given a priority, for better outcomes.
Along with this, effective leadership in early years is considered as a highly effective approach
that enables practitioners or leaders to understand, explore, develop and rate their expertise for
leading the personal and professional development of children well. In this regard, traits of
effective leadership –are mentioned as follows.
Working with children at their early age consider as a rewarding job, where leaders
mainly focus on implementation of positive changes. They work as an inspiring role model
which includes educators and delegated activities, for ensuring that every team member is
involved and empowered (Haslip and Gullo, 2018). They also motivate team to work at their
best, because every individual in their lifetime remember a person who always inspired them to
do better. A strong leader always motivates team, which demonstrates the good practices in
leading a role. Similarly, as a good communicator, leaders also ensure that other educators must
know in what manner they have to work. For this purpose, by sharing expertise and knowledge,
leaders can discuss, advise and supervise them to give proper care to students at early age.
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