Abstract
Situated in the field of early childhood education (ECE), this paper uses literature on educational leadership to answer four questions about leadership in ECE contexts. Firstly, what is leadership and how important is it for the success of an organisation? Secondly, what does it look like in ECE? Thirdly, what does leadership in ECE involve? And fourthly, how does efficient and effective leadership function in an ECE context? It is important to answer these questions because there is an understanding that leadership in ECE contexts is unlike leadership in other educational institutions. It requires special administrative and managerial skills to plan, organise, lead, control and direct the operations in the ECE context, as well as leadership skills to provide an organisational vision, direction and aculturation. An understanding of what leadership in ECE contexts looks like, its roles and functions can inform ECE leaders in ways that help them to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their educational institution.
Highlights
When discussing a term such as leadership which has been defined in many different ways, it is prudent to start the discussion with Hammersley’s (1998) advice that we should define the terms we use so as to acquaint the reader with “statements about how the author is going to use a term, about what meaning is to be associated with it” (p. 80)
Fligsten & Freeland (1995) extend the importance of leadership beyond the locality of the organization when they assert that the ability of organizational leaders to solve internal resource problems is a function of their abilities, knowledge and links with the outside world. This external linkage highlights the importance of leadership to coordinate and to harmonize the structural-cultural dynamics (Kivunja & Power, 2006) which foster organizational development and learning in a way that makes a positive difference to the lives of students in an early childhood education (ECE) context
The literature reviewed in this paper leads to an understanding that whereas efficient and effective leadership is essential for the success of any educational organization, it is even more vital for the success of an ECE setting
Summary
When discussing a term such as leadership which has been defined in many different ways, it is prudent to start the discussion with Hammersley’s (1998) advice that we should define the terms we use so as to acquaint the reader with “statements about how the author is going to use a term, about what meaning is to be associated with it” (p. 80). Leadership is about enabling change that helps followers to make a contribution to this change This resonates well with Fullan (2000) who sees the new meaning of leadership as leadership which makes “each and every educator strives to be an effective change agent” Fligsten & Freeland (1995) extend the importance of leadership beyond the locality of the organization when they assert that the ability of organizational leaders to solve internal resource problems is a function of their abilities, knowledge and links with the outside world This external linkage highlights the importance of leadership to coordinate and to harmonize the structural-cultural dynamics (Kivunja & Power, 2006) which foster organizational development and learning in a way that makes a positive difference to the lives of students in an ECE context. A conceptualization of leadership as an agent which enables the pursuit of this moral purpose by everyone involved in ECE sees leadership not as the preserve of one leader but as distributed across the membership of an organization such that “leadership is everyone’s business” (Kouzes & Posner, 2003: p. 383)
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