Leadership: Contexts and Complexities in Early Childhood Education

Leadership will provoke and challenge you to think and question the way you look at and engage with leadership matters within your early childhood setting and beyond. It is an essential resource that will assist tertiary students and practitioners engaged in early childhood matters to critically understand and actively engage with the macro and micro contexts within which they may work as intentional leaders. Based on the authors' professional development and research-based activities in a variety of locations, including metropolitan, rural and remote regions in Australia, the book draws on established professional networks to capture diverse images and experiences of early childhood leaders. This book is in two parts. The first provides an orientation to the various contextual dimensions of early childhood leadership. These chapters are focused on 'big picture' issues that give shape to early childhood leadership, and include discussion of early childhood policy, legislative frameworks, quality standards, advocacy, governance and pedagogy. Part two deals with the application of leadership within early childhood settings. These chapters address perennial areas of importance including the development of sound relationships with families, engagement with community, and the creation of effective workplaces, as well as focus on other relatively new leadership dimensions: social entrepreneurialship, professional judgment and succession planning. See more