Leading in Early Childhood

Geraldine Davis, Gemma Ryder

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781473988118
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Leadership in the early years is about using your knowledge, skills, personality and experience to positively influence practice. Every practitioner has the capacity to lead, and in doing so, improve opportunities for children and their families.

Examining the various roles of early years practitioners, and the everyday challenges and opportunities they face, this book promotes leadership of early childhood practice by considering the following;

·Who the leaders are, and what skills they require

· The variety of ways a practitioner can lead within a setting

· Key roles including the t eam leader and the k ey person

· How to develop a culture of leadership

· The importance of working with families and other professionals

· Improving leading through reflective practice.

Whether you are a room leader in an early childhood setting needing support in your leadership skills, a manager of an early childhood business, a leader of a nursery, a leader of practice or studying to become an early years practitioner this book is ideal for helping you improve your leadership skills.

1 Learning to Lead

Chapter Objectives

• → Discuss the meaning of leadership in the early childhood sector.
• → Consider leadership of early childhood practice and the knowledge, skills and confidence required.
• → Outline theories of leadership and their relevance to early childhood settings.

Introduction

What does the word ‘leadership’ conjure up for you? For many people the term is associated with individual job roles, with a job description which includes leading a team or an organisation. Thus, ‘leadership’ can be seen as the role of the ‘big boss’, the person who has the authority to hire and fire. In this chapter we aim to convince you otherwise, that leadership in early childhood settings is not the exclusive role of those who have ‘leader’ in their job title. We firmly believe that leadership can and should be part of everyone’s role, and especially so in the early childhood sector. This chapter also sets out our values and beliefs about leadership, based on our own experience and the experience of early childhood practitioners from a range of settings. We hope that you will see the importance of these values, whatever your role in the sector.

What is ‘Leadership’ in the Early Childhood Sector?

In our view, leadership is about using your knowledge, skills, personality and experience to positively influence practice. Every practitioner has the capacity to lead, and by doing so to improve opportunities for children and their families and promote ways of working which support staff development.

We consider that some roles are identified as ‘leader’ roles, but that all early childhood roles need people who can enact leadership. Practitioners do this by enacting the values and supporting the goals of the setting.

Activity 1.1: Leadership and My Role

Think about the work you currently do in an early childhood setting: this may be a formal job role or an informal one, or it may be your role as a parent or relative. Thinking about this role, answer the following questions:

• → Do you know what the organisation or setting does?
• → Do you know what your role involves?

As an early childhood practitioner you have the potential for leadership in your role and you have the potential to positively influence practice. We suggest that you keep a notebook or journal as you work through the activities in this book. Make a note now about what the organisation or setting you work for does, and what your role involves.

The above activity is intended to demonstrate that every practitioner has some understanding of the setting for which they work, and at least some understanding of the role they have within this setting. Your role may be as an assistant, as the overall leader of the setting, as a SENCO, a teacher, a room leader, a key person, a nanny, or one of several other roles. You may have a job description, or you may have a number of tasks which are your responsibility. Whatever your role, you have a part to play. In this book leadership is seen as a component of every person’s work in the early childhood sector. One participant in our research for this book, a senior early years educator, indicated what leadership meant to her:

‘I think it means guiding and mentoring others, having the knowledge and confidence to deal with situations, and supporting others that have less knowledge of an area, so you can help them, and having ideas and implementing them and showing best practice, so others copy your good role model’.

Leadership may be taking overall responsibility for a whole setting or several settings, putting in place policies and procedures to enable the setting to achieve its aims, and providing a structure for the workforce to work with (therefore Chapters 5 and 6 will be particularly relevant to you if you are in this role). This is how many people view leadership, but leadership is much more than this. It might be looking for ways to do your own job more effectively, for example to work more productively with children and families, or to achieve the aims of the Early Years Foundation Stage. Chapter 7 considers ways in which all practitioners can promote positive ways of working with families. Leadership can include thinking creatively about your own work, how you might do something differently. Seeing leadership as part of your role can be empowering, it can make you feel you have an important role in the setting, and make others also realise the importance of their roles. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 aim to support such leadership practice within the practitioner role. Penn (2011) identified that there is a great deal that the early childhood practitioner cannot control about the setting in which they work, for example they cannot control the pay scales, or the curriculum, or government policy, or charges to parents. However, she also stressed that practitioners can control some elements of their work, and as such you do have control over the way you do your ‘job on a daily basis’ (Penn, 2011:149). As an example, one practitioner in our study, an early years educator, described that when she first started her job she suggested rearranging the way the room was laid out. As the room leader she discussed this with her manager and the other staff, and was encouraged to make this change. The very next day, furniture was moved around with the aim of improving the flow of the room: ‘a home corner, and moving the cosy area away from the window, and moving the books … ’. The other practitioners in the room were pleased with the way it made an improvement. This example demonstrates the leadership that practitioners can exert over their practice.

In early childhood settings leadership is different from what is the case in many other sectors. It is different because context is all important. Garvey and Lancaster (2010) point out that in the business world competency frameworks which measure leadership knowledge and practice are commonplace, but that they do not take account of the importance of experience and context in the enactment of leadership. For early childhood education and care, context is crucial and the experience of the practitioner within that context can build a strong culture of development. What is also important in the early childhood sector is that the characteristics of early childhood leaders are often distinct from those of leaders in other sectors, being ‘kind, warm, friendly, nurturing and sympathetic’ (Aubrey, 2011: 30). It is these same qualities which will support you to develop leadership in early childhood settings.

Leadership of the Organisation and Leadership of Practice

The different ways in which leadership is enacted are usefully identified by Whalley (2011b). In her consideration of the professionalisation of early childhood practice she identified two aspects of leadership, namely leading an organisation and leading practice. In this book we have devoted some chapters to specific roles within the early childhood workforce (leader of a setting, room leader, the key person). Here it is worth thinking about the overlap between leadership of the organisation and leadership of practice.

If asked the question ‘What do leaders do?’ three key elements spring to mind:

• → Leaders identify and enact values.
• → Leaders set the vision and goals.
• → Leaders ensure legal and moral responsibilities are met.

However, these aspects of leadership can be enacted at many different levels. For example, the identification of values for a setting will typically be led by the main identified leader within the setting (and Chapter 6 focuses on leadership across a setting or settings), but a collaborative leader will want to encourage all the members of a team to have their say in this. If you are a member of the workforce within a setting, you can show leadership through your willingness to contribute to the development and identification of these shared values. In his book which considers how organisations are structured, Morgan (2006: 137) discusses the ‘enactment of a shared reality’ and the value of this to the success of organisations. Early childhood settings have their own culture in which beliefs, vision and values are shared, and where children, families and community can be understood and supported through these shared values, vision and beliefs. Thus, the collaboration between various members of the workforce to undertake the job of leadership is important in the early childhood sector.

Activity 1.2: The Opportunity to Lead

Thinking about the setting in which you work, or a setting with which you are familiar, ask yourself the question:

• → Do you sometimes think that changes are needed in the setting?

If your answer is ‘Yes’, what would you then do about this?

You will need to consider this need for change. You have the potential for leadership in that you could reflect on current practice, think about alternative practice, read about what others have written in relation to your ideas, and then present those ideas coherently to the person in charge of the setting, who might ask you to present your ideas to the other staff for discussion. This overall leader will be interested in your ideas if these fit with the overall values and goals of the organisation, and if the leader considers that your ideas might improve achievement of these shared values and goals while still meeting its legal and moral responsibilities.

In thinking about alternative ways of working you are clearly recognising that your role includes leadership. You may not have the final say as to whether your ideas will be implemented, but you are offering your experienced and informed view about potential changes. Doing this in a way which supports the organisation or setting is more likely to result in a positive response from the leader.

Not everyone who is part of the early childhood workforce will be confident enough to suggest changes, or to take up the leadership opportunities in their role. We hope you will find the chapters in this book helpful for you, so that you can begin to take up these opportunities and gain sufficient confidence to demonstrate some of the qualities of leadership. Jones and Pound (2008: 4) note that leadership influences ‘others to improve and enhance children’s care, learning and development’. We argue that leadership does not have to be in one direction only, that influencing improvements can occur from the bottom up, from the top down, or sideways (influencing colleagues).

Leadership and Management

The terms ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ are often used interchangeably, but they have a different emphasis. Many roles combine elements of leading and managing, but it is useful to consider the difference. Whalley (2011b) clearly states the differences between the two. Leadership includes developing a vision and identifying shared values within the team, being accountable for quality, and taking responsibility for the needs of all stakeholders, for example children and families and other staff. On the other hand, management is seen as the effective deployment of resources, for example identifying staffing needs, organising a rota, and making sure that records are kept. Management will also include elements of planning and decision making. Leading changes in practice demands both leadership and management skills.

Leading Practice

We know from research, for example from the Effective Leadership in the Early Years Sector study (Siraj-Blatchford & Manni, 2007), that strong leadership is a key characteristic of an effective early childhood setting. These authors identified a reluctance to lead within settings, and a lack of qualifications in leadership across the early childhood sector. Our own experiences, and research for this book, have caused us to believe that all practitioners in early childhood settings have the capacity for leadership as part of their professional role and professional development. In our view, the element of leadership which can be undertaken by all practitioners is the leadership of practice. Elements of leading practice identified by Whalley (2011a) include: being reflective and reflexive; having knowledge and understanding of children and their development; having knowledge and understanding of learning; valuing the child; and having a vision for practice.

To support leadership of practice, these elements can be incorporated into the development of all early childhood practitioners. For example, each practitioner can be encouraged to reflect on their practice and consider changes to practice. This can be done informally by the practitioner and by others in the setting on an ad hoc basis, but also formally with mentors. Although many starting practitioners will have no or limited knowledge of child development or of learning, this can be built into the development of the member of staff, through induction activities, expectations, reading and sharing in the setting. Valuing the child is an expected ‘value’ which can be reinforced by the culture of the setting, and as practitioners take this on board they can contribute to the culture, for example through reflection on activities within the setting and how those activities demonstrate the value of the child. A vision for practice is often something new employees have, or they can see different ways of doing things – this is to be encouraged, so that through reflection the need for changes in practice can be identified and planned for. The final chapter of this book considers ways in which we can improve practice through reflection. Activity 1.3 below is intended to support you in thinking about working collaboratively to support developments in practice.

Activity 1.3: Values in Practice

Esme is a new member of staff who has not worked in an early childhood setting before. She has noticed that the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Authors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Learning to Lead
• 2 Leading Children in their Learning
• 3 The Room Leader
• 4 The Key Person
• 5 Leading People
• 6 Leading Developments Across a Setting or Settings
• 7 Working with Families
• 8 Working with Other Professionals
• 9 Improving Leading Through Reflection
• References
• Index