Early Childhood Leadership: The Art of creating a Learning Community

Catharine Hydon

2019

Acknowledgement

“Leaders are essentially creatures of habit.

They don’t really do extraordinary things that often. They do ordinary things often and consistently and persistently …

Good leaders keep turning up, they’re there, … regardless of how overwhelming the opposition seems, from both in and outside.”Mick Dodson, Chair, Indigenous Governance Awards, presentation to Mt Isa Sharing Success Workshop, September 2007

ways of thinking…

Technicalwhen professionals are

concerned with finding out how things happen and how they can

control this.

Practicalwhen professionals are

concerned with finding out what things mean -

understanding events rather than trying to control them

Criticalwhen professionals examine whether what they might be

biased….asking critical questions about whose

needs are being met.

Leadership in early childhood literature…

blazing our own trail…

However it is important that the leadership discussion in the early childhood field blazes its own trail to create a new paradigm for early childhood leadership, for a number of reasons:

• theoretical perspectives are predominantly based on “white middle-class male perceptions of leadership”;

• significant change in the field where women predominantly hold early childhood leadership positions and diversity has not been explored call for different perspectives of leadership to be theorised and applied; and

• early childhood contexts are like no other as they are not uniform nor static…

p25

Traditional Styles of leadership

•

Kurt Lewin developed his leadership styles framework in the 1930s

Autocratic leaders

…make decisions without consulting their team

members, even if their input would be useful. This can be appropriate when

you need to make decisions quickly, when there's no need for team input, and

when team agreement isn't necessary for a successful

outcome.

Democratic leaders

…make the final decisions, but they include team

members in the decision-making process. They

encourage creativity, and people are often highly engaged in projects and

decisions. As a result, team members tend to have high

job satisfaction and high productivity.

Laissez-faire leaders

…give their team members a lot of freedom in how they do their work, and

how they set their deadlines. They provide support with resources

and advice if needed, but otherwise they don't get involved. This autonomy

can lead to high job satisfaction, but it can be damaging if teams don't manage their time well.

The distributive leaderDistributed leadership is primarily concerned with mobilizing leadership at all levels in the organisation not just relying on leadership from the top.

It is about engaging the many rather than the few in leadership activity within the school and actively distributing leadership practice.

The emphasis here is about leadership practice and not leadership functions. A distributed model of leadership is one premised upon the interactions between many leaders rather than the actions of an individual leader.

http://www.almaharris.co.uk/distributed_leadership.htm

The transformative leader

A transformative leader, simply defined, is a person who can guide, direct, and influence others to bring about a fundamental change, change not only of the external world, but also of internal processes. Transformative Leadership In The 21st Century By Rounaq Jahan Columbia University

…transformational leadership as a process where "leaders and their followers raise one

another to higher levels of morality and motivation.“

Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that causes change in

individuals and social systems.

In its ideal form, it creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end

goal of developing followers into leaders. Enacted in its authentic form, transformational

leadership enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety

of mechanisms. James McGregor Burns introduced the concept of transformational leadership in his 1978 book, "Leadership."

Autocratic Democratic Laissez-faire

Distributed Transformational

Leadership

the action of leading people towards common

goals…

Educational Leadership

guiding and developing

understandings about children’s learning…

Management

The action of organising resources

to achieve goals…

Clarifying roles…

Leadership Model....four aspects of leadership that early childhood leaders need to know, understand and apply in their work:

1) professional knowledge;

2) professional identity;

3) the application of interpretive lenses; and

4) relational trust.

Each of these aspects is interrelated and builds capacity in leaders and the early childhood profession to find a model of leadership that best suits their needs.Reframing early childhood leadership Elizabeth Stamopoulos Edith Cowan University AJEC Vol 37 No 2 June 2012

professional knowledge

bringing a strong knowledge base to leadership and connections with other

professionals

professional identity

'to reconstruct or reshape who we are, what we stand for and

what we want to achieve'.

an interpretive lens

...building a culture of analysis, reflection, interpretation and

contexual solutions.

relational trust

'Interpersonal relationships are integral to leadership

effectiveness because they entice followers to contribute to

the change process'

Leadership in Context

How do these ideas work in

practice?

Leadership Challenges…

Dewey: Reflective Practice Reflection emancipates us from merely impulsive and merely routine activity, it

enables us to direct our activities with foresight and to plan according to ends-in-view or purposes of which we are aware, to act in deliberate and intentional fashion, to

know what we are about when we act. (p. 17)

Dewey has maintained that reflection encompasses three major components.

The first of these components involves

a process or systematic way of

thinking and meaning-making.

The second component of

reflection includes a specific reflective

disposition composed of three main

attitudes: open-mindedness, whole-

heartedness, and responsibility.

The third component is that any real

reflective thinking involves some kind of

language and communication,

which is best accomplished in the company of others.

http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume18/ej71/ej71a2/

Leadership Challenges

Leading People

Leading Change

Leading Quality

ECA Code Of Ethics (2016)

In relation to: Children

Families

Community and Society

Colleagues

The profession

I will…

In relation to colleagues, I will:• encourage others to adopt and act in accordance with this Code, and take action in the presence of unethical behaviours

• build a spirit of collegiality and professionalism through collaborative relationships based on trust, respect and honesty

• acknowledge and support the diverse strengths and experiences of colleagues in order to build shared professional knowledge, understanding and skills

• use constructive processes to address differences of opinion in order to negotiate shared perspectives and actions

• participate in a ‘lively culture of professional inquiry’ to support continuous improvement

• implement strategies that support and mentor colleagues to make positive contributions to the profession

• maintain ethical relationships in my online interactions.

What gets in the way of effective teams…

Nice ladies Self-

OrientationHorizontal Violence

Fear

Managing Difficult ConversationsAn effective conversation goes through the following seven steps:

Listen - Listen quietly, with no interruption, trying to see the world from the other’s perspective

Ask – Inquire openly, with curiosity, trying to understand why your counterpart thinks what he or she thinks

Summarize – Let the other person know that you heard what he or she said. Summarize what you heard and ask them if you understand it correctly

Validate – Acknowledge that what your counterpart said is reasonable even if you interpret things differently

Express – Share your truth, your assessment of the situation, your examples, your reasoning, your goals and your suggestions. Speak in first person. Use “I”. Avoid using “you”, “we”, and “it”

Negotiate – Engage creatively and try to find a solution that addresses everyone’s concerns

Commit – Formalize your agreement with a series of commitments and a timeframe

Leading Change

Create Urgency develop a sense of urgency around the need for change

Form a guiding coalition building the momentum for change requires a strong leadership

Develop a vision and strategy a drive for change needs a clear vision

Communicating the vision constantly communicate about the new vision

Enabling action and removal of obstacles practical action as you put supportive structures in place and empower and encourage

Generating short-term wins Success breeds success.

Hold the gains and build on change continuous improvement and seeing each success [and failure] is an opportunity

Anchor changes in the culture becoming embedded in the new “way we do things around here”

Leading Change

Form a guiding coalition

Develop a vision and strategy

Enabling action and removal of

obstacles

Anchor changes in the culture –

what we do things

Leading quality Improvement...

Reflection and Analysis

Strategy

Participation

Celebration

Training Our Future 2019

Standard 1.3 (Assessment and planning)Standard 7.2 (Leadership)Standard 2.2 (Safety)

Theme 1: Practice is embedded in

service operations

Theme 3: Practice is shaped

by meaningful engagement with

families and/or the community

Theme 2:Practice is

informed by critical reflection

Exceeding Themes There are three Exceeding themes that services will need todemonstrate for a standard to be rated Exceeding NQS.

Leading quality is knowing the difference between Dynamic and Static

Static

Dynamic

Catharine Hydoncatharine@hydonconsulting.com

0409554450