Leadership in Early Childhood Education: Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography explores leadership in early childhood education, focusing on pedagogical leadership, the Australian National Quality Standard, and the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) framework. It analyzes four contemporary pieces of literature, examining the role and function of pedagogical and educational leaders in education and care settings. The bibliography covers topics such as professional practice development, reframing leadership, sustainable pedagogical leadership, and the implementation of quality standards. It emphasizes the importance of leadership skills, knowledge, and ethical practices in early childhood education for achieving positive outcomes and fostering future leaders.

RUNNING HEAD: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 0
Leadership
August 10
2019

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1
Nuttall, D. J. (2016). Leadership for professional practice development in early
childhood education: From ‘performance management’ to ‘system
development’. Australian Council for Educational Leaders, pp. 14-17.
The author of this article is Joce Nuttall and his researches are based on the support
and importance of leadership and professional learning in the system of education. The main
purpose of this article is to throw light on the importance of professional methods to involve
in the education system for providing a quality childhood education. This study examines the
performance of educators in providing childhood education for developing a system of
excellent education that helps in the development of qualified leaders.
This article is based on the early childhood curriculum for the development of leaders
in the nation. The data for this article has been collected by the author using the systematic
approach of considering the individual worker study and then the focus has been derived on
collective development. The article talks about the significance of primary childhood
education system in the development of capacity in the centre system level. The author has
stated that there are limited staffs in primary childhood profession and their means of
mentoring and directing is also limited.
The article explains the concept of the individual worker and has defined its role
while merging it with the collective development of the entities as a whole. It shows how the
process of performance management helps in developing a system for the leadership building
in the childcare education system to develop future leaders. The performance management
process goes from performance planning to the role of the individual worker in the
organization, to the feedback system, to the evaluation of the performance and finally to the
performance review in the company. It is the future of performance review where the
importance has been shifted from the responsibility outlook to learning capabilities.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2
This study provides information and discussion on the issue of the collective
development of the education system that would create a skilled and knowledgeable teacher.
The author has emphasized that teachers development is also linked with the development of
the children as the teacher's successful leadership will not only enhance the efficiency of the
system but will also result in better system development for future.
This article will be useful in understanding the role of proper execution of leadership
skills in the education system. This article has provided information regarding the motivation
in teachers and students. It has defined the development process of both the student and
teachers. The article helps explain the tasks and responsibility of the teachers and identifies
the direction in which the education framework should be intended to bring positive
outcomes.
Thomas, D. L., & Nuttall, J. (n.d.). What does/can leadership look like in an early
childhood education context? An alternative to ‘doing’ leadership and ‘being’
the leader. Australian Council for Educational Leaders, pp. 40-42.
This article has been written by Louise Thomas and Associate Prof. Joce Nuttall. This
article focuses on leadership development in the individuals at the early education stages. It
provides information regarding the benefits and outcomes of these professional learning in
early childhood education. It describes the way this system of learning is being implemented
to the individuals for upbringing the successful and skilled human resources for the nation. It
has been observed that knowledgeable educators can only fulfill the upcoming need of the
nation which includes the demand of the country for skilled and excellent leaders.
The reform in the system of learning for building leadership skills in early childhood
education is supported by the National Quality Framework in Australia. The Early Childhood
Education and School Aged Care (ECEC) is a framework for childhood learning in Australia.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 3
The author has stated that the concept of using leadership in the education framework was an
associated element of Australian education. However, the specific role and need for
leadership in education have been highlighted in this article. And the changes have been
made by the systems of childhood education focusing on leadership learning. The reforms in
the education system are necessary which will enhance the quality of both the educators and
the students. It defines leadership development with the individual by executing the
leadership and developing as a successful leader to serve national development.
The National Quality Framework (NQF) has revised its framework focusing on the
development and enhancement of leadership skills at the early childhood education stage.
The educators are engaged in complying with the changes made by the NQF for enhancing
the methods of providing an education which is a more effective way to introduce skills in the
students. The motives of the changes are to build the leaders through education which will
uplift the effectiveness of the services provided and this is possible when the educators and
the education system supports the forecasted vision. This requires the more successful and
great leaders who will show their leadership talent in the education system and will motivate
and develop future leaders for the system.
The article contains the changes made by the learning frameworks, the role of
educational leaders and the types of leadership the education framework wants to adopt. The
leadership is a never-ending skill and the quality of leadership will be enhanced by the
changes made by the National Quality Framework. The article is written by the two experts in
the area of education in early childhood which makes the information of the article more
relevant and the information of the ECEC and NQF are reliable. The educational framework
established by the Australian government aims at developing the best education system for its
country.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 4
Stamopoulos, E. (2012, June 2). Reframing early childhood leadership. Australasian
Journal of Early Childhood, 37, 42-48.
The author of this journal article is Elizabeth Stamopoulos and according to her, the
leadership should be reframed in the system of education for developing future leaders in the
system. It provides the information of change in the system of National quality Framework
(NQF) has also been amended for the ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) to offer
the required support in the process of building qualified education system.
The changes in the frameworks of Australian education are made to support and uplift
the leadership capabilities of the educators and provide them the guidelines to use the
required skills in the system. For this purpose, knowledge has to be provided at the early
stage regarding the professional education, study of pedagogical capacity and the
infrastructure of the work in the framework for the early education and care of children. It
will generate excellent results in the children; also it will bring reform in the leadership field
in the future. This article defines the author’s study on the past researches made on the
significance of leadership.
The first research study of the article analysed the professional background of
leadership management and the prominence of headship. The second research was conducted
by examining three different teachers of three different government schools to notice the
changes in their teachings and drawing conclusions. The author has analysed two researches
and the study of changes in the system has been concluded in her writing as the role of
leadership usage in the education system for deriving the desired results and development. It
also talks about the current changes in the educational system brought in ECEC and defines
the leadership model theories. The leadership model states the method of applying the
leadership skills in building the professional capability and capacity of the individual leader
and throws light on the relationship management and infrastructural impact on the

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 5
performance. The model of leadership defines the connection of headship to the framework
of early childhood education in reframing the structure of childhood education.
The profession identity and knowledge, relationship and infrastructure building,
tertiary education institute and early childhood professional organizations has been explained
in the article. These analyses provide information about the usefulness of the leading study in
education. The writer has not only defined the cons of leadership in the system but has also
presented her view regarding the weakness of the framework as the prospectus is not
promising for the outcomes. This article is useful for early childhood educators as it explains
how leadership can be connected to the profession of educators. It also suggests the changes
to be made in the curriculum for producing the targeted results in the education system.
Clarke, J. (2017). Sustainable Pedagogical Leadership In Early Childhood Education And
Care: Implementing The 2012 Australian National Quality Standard. Retrieved 08
10, 2019, from https://eprints.qut.edu.au/114123/1/Jennifer_Clarke_Thesis.pdf
The writer of the information is Jennifer Clarke and according to her, the purpose of
this study is to explain the term sustainability in the education framework of the country. The
sustainability has been defined based on the reforms in the Australian quality assurance
system for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) namely:
 The National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School
Age Care ‘National Quality Standard’ (NQS) of sustainability and pedagogical
leadership.
The author has combined the concept of pedagogical leadership with the sustainability
concept to explain the continuous use of leadership techniques in education practices.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 6
The author defines how the teachers at the ECEC should use their understanding of the
concepts for providing early childhood education and integrating the idea of sustainable
educational learning in their practices. It focuses on primary childhood training on
sustainability and the initiatives taken by the Australian government to encourage educational
sustainability. It also defines the benefits of Early Childhood Education for Sustainability
(ECEfS) for the children. The benefits include providing suitable opportunities for children to
maintain their physical and mental health. The ECEfS also aims at developing a positive
impact on the future lives of the students that will bring them success and social
sustainability. It used various case studies to examine the impact of the theories in the actual
future. The perception of pedagogic leadership in the framework of education set by the
Australian government and the leadership challenges in the ECEC are discussed by the
author. The sustainable learning practices have a perception that the young children drive
their learning from the behaviour and actions of their adults; here the educators. It defines the
job of a pedagogical leader and the different types of a pedagogical leader in the system.
The author put stress on the excellence of children early-stage learning and provides
for the measures to identify the quality of the ECEC by using different quality scales. The
policies of superiority in the ECEC and the proper rating of the excellence have been
explained by the study. The policies include the legislative framework set by the government
for education development such as ECEC. It defines the strategies and ethical code of
conduct for the frameworks to achieve their educational development goals. It also defines
the ethical consideration to be undertaken while collecting the data from different sources.
Hence, the writing has defined the author’s vision about the integrated concept of
sustainability and early childhood education. It provides guidelines for the educators of the
leadership teachings to integrate the sustainability concept in their teachings. All the

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 7
discussion of the study is in the reference of Green Leaf Early Learning Centre of ECEC and
thus it provides reliability on the research study made by the author.
Concluding Statement
The leadership in the early childhood education setting has been explained as the
process of developing and enhancing the leadership capabilities of the individual in providing
early childhood education for the positive results in the children (Darling-Hammond, 2017).
The leadership in early childhood education describes the skills, attributes, knowledge,
methods, practices, and ethics which should be followed by the educators for achieving the
desired outcome. The pedagogical and educational leaders have an influence on the children
in the early education system. The role of the pedagogical and educational leader in the
system includes cooperating with the other educators upon their system of education and
exchanging their practices and guidelines to provide for suitable results in the system
(Dyllick, 2015). The functions also provide for supporting the teachers in the correct
implementation of the planned leadership measurement. It also includes the conduction of
various learning programs which help the educators in developing their skills in the education
system (Lameras, Arnab, Dunwell, Stewart, Clarke, & Petridis, 2017). Thus, the aim of the
pedagogical and educational leader is to frame the education planning, provide training for
effective implementation and ensuring successful implementation of the planned system.
The study of the above articles helps in identifying the required leadership skills in the
initial education framework. Prof. Joce Nuttall has explained the requirement of the
effectiveness and skills in the educators to implement their leadership knowledge in the
education system. It will provide for encouraging the nation in the future with the availability
of efficient and effective leaders has been added by Louise Thomas in the support of the
study. Jennifer Clarke in her study explains the importance of Early Childhood Education and

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 8
Care and guided that it should be taken special care as it is the stage at which the learning rate
is highest and the outcomes are also highest. Elizabeth Stamopoulos has defined the working
of the government of Australia in the support of the teaching of children and also defined the
changes and initiatives taken by the government by revising the National Quality Framework
of Australian Education. The analysis of the study of the pedagogical leadership concept
explained that educators must use leadership skills in their learning techniques for better and
desired outcomes. Clarke has stressed on the topics of sustainability in the education system
and the helpfulness of pedagogical leadership in the system of early childhood education.
Thus, these studies provide help in developing the framework for achieving the goals of the
pedagogical and educational leader.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 9
References
Clarke, J. (2017). Sustainable Pedagogical Leadership In Early Childhood Education And
Care: Implementing The 2012 Australian National Quality Standard. Retrieved 08 10,
2019, from https://eprints.qut.edu.au/114123/1/Jennifer_Clarke_Thesis.pdf
Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher education around the world: What can we learn from
international practice?. European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 291-309.
Dyllick, T. (2015). Responsible management education for a sustainable world: The
challenges for business schools. Journal of Management Development, 34(1), 16-33.
Lameras, P., Arnab, S., Dunwell, I., Stewart, C., Clarke, S., & Petridis, P. (2017). Essential
features of serious games design in higher education: Linking learning attributes to
game mechanics. British journal of educational technology, 48(4), 972-994.
Nuttall, D. J. (2016). Leadership for professional practice development in early childhood
education: From ‘performance management’ to ‘system development’. Australian
Council for Educational Leaders, pp. 14-17.
Stamopoulos, E. (2012, June 2). Reframing early childhood leadership. Australasian Journal
of Early Childhood, 37, 42-48.
Thomas, D. L., & Nuttall, J. (n.d.). What does/can leadership look like in an early childhood
education context? An alternative to ‘doing’ leadership and ‘being’ the leader.
Australian Council for Educational Leaders, pp. 40-42.