Leadership in Early Childhood Education

Running head: LEADERSHIP
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Discussion of leadership in early childhood setting:
Leaders in the field of early childhood education enter the profession with a profound
love for children. Their experiences and key skills, like that of patience, organization, as well as
flexibility, enable them not only to develop a perfect working environment for the staff, children
as well as their guardians. These attributes also enable them to gather the expertise to overcome
any challenges (Stamopoulos & Barblett, 2018). The early childhood leaders need to work with
confidence, creativity and flexibility. This may range from understanding different forms of
ethical frameworks, that help in management of the changes and from quality assistances to that
of collaboratively working among teams, families and even wider community, (Stamopoulos &
Barblett, 2018). Such leaders need to embrace diversity and in turn utilize diversity as strength
in developing cultural sensitivity among children, staffs and parents. They also should introduce
new innovative ideas obtained from each cultural background in the workplace for a better
development of the workplace and also the children. Effective leadership in the early childhood
settings remain mainly focused on effective communication as well as rapport development
among children, teachers, parents as well as community. This is important in order to guide them
in developing skills and knowledge that ensures every individual to work beyond their potential
and reach the goals set for each of them for their betterment. Hence, in order to become effective
leaders in early childhood education, one must need to develop the above mentioned attributes to
achieve success in their workplace.
One of the leadership styles that can be discussed in regards to early childhood education
is the constructivist leadership. Studies describe the theory of social constructivism as the theory
that explains that the social world develop out from the social interactions with that of their
culture and the society. In simple worlds, every interaction taking place among the people can be

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taken as the opportunity for expanding the knowledge base of the individual (Long et al., 2016).
Such leaders are seen to focus on development of the concept among children without pointing
them as right or wrong but influences them to develop their own perceptions through continuous
guidance. In this way, the little children are not just advised about the rights and wrongs, but they
are rather discussed in ways by which children get their own answers by continuous discussion
on the topic. Not only for the students, is this form of leadership also beneficial for leading staffs
and guardians. Constructivism by nature is a shared experience and constructivist learning
attaches meaning to the process of learning as it does to the acquisition of new knowledge. By
this, it is meant that journey is important as that of the destination (Nuttal et al., 2018).
Another form of leadership that is also found to bring out positive impacts in the settings
of early year education is transformational leadership. A leader in the early year childhood
setting who switches to the transformational leadership style needs to understand how he or she
can effectively influence the ways the different tasks are perceived among the followers in the
settings. Such leaders are seen to inspire the followers by making them feel like they are
autonomous as well as important towards the larger cause (Stamopoulos & Barblett, 2018). The
leader following this style of leadership can influence the staff as well as the guardians by
idealized influence where they inspire change by engendering loyalty and trust among the
followers with the help of positive behavior and charisma and intellectual stimulation where the
leaders walk an extra mile in creating an environment in the childhood setting where staff
develop awareness of the needs of the settings an children and are encouraged to meet them
(Sims et al., 2015). Another leadership trait is individualized consideration where the leader
shows the tendency in prioritizing the individualized view of the staffs, the parents as well as
also the non-academic staffs. They treat each member as a separate person having unique views,

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skills, talents and motivations that can help the setting to flourish. Another trait is inspirational
motivation where they motivate the followers to meet the set goals, achieve the mission and
work beyond their potential to reach the goals. Such leadership style allows all staffs and parents
to participate completely in transforming the setting to a desired one by working beyond
potential and meet the desired goals (McDowall Clark, 2012).
Another form of effective leadership style is the invitational leadership style. This has
been developed by William Purkey and Betty Siegel. This leadership style is found to be a
perfect blend for several types of leadership values, qualities and principles. The model is seen to
shift its focus from that of emphasizing dominance and control by the leaders to that of
connectedness, communication as well as cooperation. This form of leadership aims in sending
positive messages for people making them feel valued, able, and responsible and worthwhile.
The messages are often delivered with the help of the institution’s programs, policies, physical
environments and practices (Nicholson et al., 2016). They are referred as the P’s of the
invitational leadership. Studies have found out that when such leadership is implemented, the
elements of this leadership combine and help in creating an environment which is efficient,
conducive and cohesive in learning. Such leaders are seen to invite everyone like that of parents,
academic and non-academic staffs and others who have the stake in the success of the school in
participating and hence, synergy is generated as all work towards the common goal.
It has been found that effective leadership is important for success of the education and
care settings. Skilled as well as committed leaders can not only shape teaching and maximize
learning, but they also help in creating and sustaining a high-quality learning environment
(Palaiologou et al., 2016). ECA has become successful the set of capabilities on which the early
childhood educators and school leaders can frame their professional leadership plans. These