Leadership in Early Education

This article discusses the importance of leadership in early childhood education and highlights the key skills of leadership that become very useful even in early education. It also discusses the role of the teacher in early childhood education and how effective leadership skills combined with teaching strategies can provide an early education provider with an array of resources that they can use for engaging the class and ensuring that a quality education is provided to the students.

Running head: LEADERSHIP IN EARLY EDUCATION
LEADERSHIP IN EARLY EDUCATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
The most effective learning happens in a human when they are young. That is why
early childhood education is of paramount importance. Just like any other organizational or
institutional workspace, in an early childhood education centre, all the children and the
teacher/ teaching assistants work collaboratively in a give-and-take manner to ensure a
developmentally wholesome experience for the primary education of the children. Since in
the developmental phase, children do not have a large attention and concentration span, the
teachers have to constantly keep reinforcing the objectives and activities as well as constantly
changing the way the lesson is delivered in order to keep the students engaged in the task.
Key skills of leadership becomes very useful even in early education. This article discusses
leadership in the context of early education and attempts to establish its importance in
providing early childhood literacy.
Discussion
Leadership is defined as a set of physical attributes and practical skills that helps an
individual guide or lead another individual, a group or even an entire organization towards a
wholesome development. Good leadership skills find extensive admiration and use in
business organizations and organizations that deal with team oriented projects. Some key
leadership skills include:
i. Good communication.
ii. Motivational ability
iii. Positivity and friendliness.
iv. Conflict management ability and authoritativeness
v. Creativity and diligence
vi. Trustworthiness.

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In the field of early childhood education, a lot of significant factors play an important
role. One of the most crucial factor is the teacher. An effective teacher has a lot of similarities
and parallels with an effective leader and can significantly influence the way children
undergo the whole learning process (Rodd, 2012). As mentioned above, children in early
childhood education face a lot of challenges that they are too young to overcome by
themselves. Their inability to understand the concept of time, importance of a goal, complete
educational and skill development task on their own and their short attention span are the
primary factors that can prove detrimental to their educational experience (Cook, Klein &
Chen, 2015). Moreover, children in the early phases of their life also get significantly
influenced by the kind of treatment they get from adults, based on which they form
attachments with the person (Madigan et al., 2013). They also tend to imitate adult behaviour
(Britto et al., 2017). Thus if the behaviour of the teacher in class is of good overall conduct,
has a strong personality profile and demonstrates the significant leadership skills and abilities
as mentioned above, children can benefit from that as well (Heikka, Waniganayake & Hujala,
2013).
A key aspect of leadership in an early educational classroom is the ability to organize
the students well (Fonsén, 2013). Let’s take a look at a few pictures from an early childhood
classroom.

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From these pictures as well as the video we saw, we can bring out a few clear points.
1. The video illustrates that children in this particular age group can be hard to manage
in a big classroom. The teacher uses the approach of imaginative thinking to engage
the children in the process of imagining a scenario in their head that they can find

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relatable. Even though most of the Children were engaged in the task, we did find a
few restless children who were clearly defocussed. We also notice that the lack of
engagement is higher in those children who are not in close physical proximity with
the teacher. This tells us that the teacher has successfully established herself as the
dominant authority in the classroom, while at the same time displaying good
organizational and management ability (Hard, 2004).
2. The factors elucidated in the previous point can be backed by the pictures displayed
above. Children engaged in activities like meditation or those involving use of
modern technology displays that the teacher has successfully been able to organise
and engage the children using positive psycho-social traits as well as emerging
technology, which has been identified to be a common attractor for most
contemporary children (Blackwell, Lauricella & Wartella, 2014).
3. The third picture shows that the teacher has been able to establish the importance of
organisation using a perfectly symmetrical geometrical shape as a framework.
Children are also perceptive of shapes and tactile objects and using them in early
education can prove beneficial (Britto et al., 2017).
Environment also plays an important role as a third teacher in early learning and
development. A learning environment is usually defined as the space where the learners
gather their knowledge and can range from a variety of locations including lecture halls and
laboratories to outdoor locations on a field trip. When pedagogical leadership is considered,
one key aspect of leadership that can be identified in this context is engagement (Andrew,
2009). Teacher – student engagement ensures a steady development of the learners backed by
significant support and supervision from the teachers (Andrew, 2009). In the context of early
childhood education, apart from the physical educational resources, the teachers have to
resort to a lot of other supporting materials for teaching because children tend to lose their

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attraction towards one particular resource if it is used for a long time. This is where the
learning environment becomes useful as they accommodate a lot of supporting resources as
well. For example, colourful charts that display animals or birds, food items, numbers and
alphabets can be helpful to assist the children in learning from a source that is different from
the traditional. Similarly, colourful balloons can be used to teach colours and reward charts
can help reinforce the concept that rewards entail hard work. The teacher has to do minimal
work in this case as most children get used to the environment quickly and can learn a lot
from there onwards.
When promoting children’s learning and development in a quality physical
environment, the roles that an effective leader plays is determined by the leader’s ability to
learn about the environment and how it can be adapted for early childhood education. At the
same time, the understanding is also backed by the prerequisite of knowledge about the type
of children coming to the class (Fonsén, 2013). So one important aspect of good leadership in
early childhood education is the background study that determines the types of students in an
early childhood setting. For instance, a child coming from a background of family violence
can develop weak attachment and display derogatory traits for the classroom environment,
like exclusion, aggression, disrespect and disregard for rules etc. (English, Marshall & Stuart,
2003). The leader is expected to account for these factors and develop an environment that
would be all inclusive and accommodate all students in the classroom for a wholesome
learning experience (Allen & Cowdery, 2014).
For an effective leader in an early education it is mandatory to set certain objectives
and predict certain outcomes (Male & Palaiologou, 2015). Some of the significant outcomes
expected in this type of approach are:
1. Successful designing and implementation of an inclusive, play based early education
curriculum fit for all children.

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2. Maintenance of an inclusive early learning environment.
3. Successful utilisation of a variety of engaging educational tools fit for children.
4. Proper documentation and use of electronic media for assessment of the children’s
progress
Even though effective leadership in early education can promote a positive overall
development for the children, there are certain hurdles that can hinder the effectiveness of a
leader (Heikka, Waniganayake & Hujala, 2013). The first one being classroom conflict. It is
easy for children in this particular age group to engage in fights and conflicts with their peers.
If not handled effectively, such actions can negatively impact the learning process of the
children in the classroom. Secondly, quick organisation of the classroom should be
prioritised, otherwise lack of time can become a hurdle. Thirdly, it is difficult to enforce rules
and regulations on children. They should be made aware of the rules and regulations through
repeated practice and rearticulation. Finally, the safety concerns of the students also prove to
be a hurdle for effective leadership (Andrew, 2009). Young children are prone to injuries and
their parents are protective of them which entails that the safety of the children in a classroom
should be given paramount importance.
In my experience at an early childhood education centre, one of the tasks that I was
attempting to accomplish was organising the students for a small theatre practice. The task
was proving to be tiresome until I noticed that the floor was tiled and each square tile was big
enough to accommodate one child. So I asked the children to sit in alternate squares of each
row and imagine that each square was their castle. The result was a chessboard alignment
where each child was sitting diagonal to each other. They followed this sitting practice as
long as I was at the centre and it proved to be a very effective organisational tool. The
alignment also made reaching individual children more feasible. Moreover, since no child

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was in close physical proximity with another, it also overruled the possibility of physical
contact and conflict.
Conclusion
A good and skilled leader can influence the workspace positively by motivating the
workers, providing positive psychological and emotional support, take initiatives and
successfully accomplish the goals. In conclusion, effective leadership skills in pedagogy
combined with teaching strategies can provide an early education provider with an array of
resources that they can use for engaging the class and ensuring that a quality education is
provided to the students. At the same time, it becomes important to properly study and
analyse the student demographic in the class. Accounting for students’ individual factors as
well as their learning styles can be significantly helpful in developing and deploying tailored
learning resources to the class that account for an overall development of the student.

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References
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