A Learning Journey through a Heart-Centered Book

As faculty for a graduate program in early childhood leadership, we co-designed a course on community-based action research around Patricia Wilson’s book, The Heart of Community Engagement: Practitioner Stories from Across the Globe. In this review we share how it mirrored our own deepening sense of community engagement practices, and how our students engaged with this unique text on their individual and collective learning journeys. We share highlights from the text that reinforced our sense of liberatory pedagogy. Wilson’s personal stories, as well as the stories of community-engaged practitioners across the globe , invite all of us to create our own purpose and intentions for the evolving path of facilitating change within ourselves and with others.

Constructing early childhood leadership models in China: a mixed-methods study

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to construct a scale that is contextually suitable for measuring early childhood leadership in China.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a standard scale development procedure, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were addressed. Qualitative data was collected from 21 semistructured interviews with formal and informal teacher leaders in Xiamen City, China. Using survey data of 120 respondents and 305 respondents, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted twice to determine the underlying factorial structure of the scale. A further sample of 317 respondents were used to test the latent structure and validity of the scale using confirmatory factor analysis.FindingsBased on the results from reliability and validity tests, this study indicates that the scale demonstrates sound psychometric properties. A three-factor model was determined, including staff management and development, peer learning and support and communication with parents.Originality/valueThe scale is the first of its kind for measuring early childhood leadership in China.

Characteristics of Effective Early Childhood Leaders

Effective leadership in early childhood is vital for quality early childhood care and education. There is a need for a comprehensive and coordinated system of early childhood leadership training. To create fiscally sound early childhood programs with learning environments that nurture and challenge young children and with work environments that develop, support, and retain skilled teachers, program directors capable of strong leadership are essential. There is a need to establish policies and pathways to ensure early childhood leaders are well prepared. The purpose of this study was to identify sets of characteristics that are essential for effective early childhood leadership and explore the challenges early childhood leaders encounter in an effort to become effective leaders. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends relational leadership as an essential component of the framework for effective leadership in early childhood education.

Approaches to Effective Early Childhood Leadership for Quality Child Care and Learning

Considering the importance of the early childhood period in the life of every child, experts have advocated the provision of a safe, secure, and enabling environment in care centres to help children develop appropriately. The place of leadership in childcare settings may not be detached from the provision of enabling environments that will enhance the all-round development of children. This chapter, therefore, focuses on the part leadership could play in early childhood care and education, analyzing the situation in the Nigerian ECCE settings and discusses different leadership approached for effective leadership that may give room for the centre and societal sustainability.

What early childhood leadership for what kind of world?

This article uses autoethnography as the method of inquiry to explore definitions and contexts of early childhood education leadership. This affords a new space between the subjective and objective, the autobiographical and the cultural, to write in a way that lies between literature and the social sciences. Against a backcloth of scientific and cultural change, five turning-point moments are identified that link personal social circumstances to continuity and change in conceptions of leadership and management, particularly in the early childhood education sector. Modernist hierarchical and more recent subjective or postmodernist models are considered along the way. It is concluded that there is a role for theory in both guiding and interrogating practice. If leaders’ conceptions are to be better informed by knowledge of contrasting and competing theories, then through a process of praxis, critical awareness may increase. This depends, however, on access to the training and development that early childhood education professionals do not currently enjoy.