Leadership in early childhood education

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Leadership in early childhood education

HomeEarly childhood education resourcesLeadership in early childhood education

Topic summary

Leadership supports the development of effective teaching and learning in early childhood education by promoting trusting, supportive relationships and prioritising professional learning.

Leaders should focus on building effective relationships and on supporting effective teaching and learning by encouraging and enabling teachers to grow in their teaching practice through professional learning. Leaders should promote intellectually rigorous programmes, inquiry and research in their centres, and create a rich culture of professional learning activity.

Leadership in the ECE sector in New Zealand has historically had a low profile, although recent documents and guidelines have started to recognise its importance. New Zealand’s ECE curriculum document, Te Whāriki, explains that leadership is not just the responsibility of centre leaders and other positional leaders, but is expected of all teachers.

While there is clear evidence of the value of leadership in the school sector as well as in the organisational literature more broadly, there is a relative paucity of research on leadership in ECE. However, there is evidence of the importance of leaders in ECE leading professional learning, and researchers argue that mentoring and coaching are important leadership strategies for supporting the professional learning of both individuals and teams.

Positional leaders play a crucial role in creating a collaborative organisational culture focused on improvement. It is important that positional leaders in ECE provide support and encouragement as well as professional learning opportunities for the teachers they lead, and also that they enable teachers to develop their own leadership capabilities. Effective practice in ECE involves leaders and teachers working collaboratively to positively impact children’s learning. However, leaders should also model effective practices and expect accountability. 

  • How do we build and sustain trusting relationships in our centre?
  • How can we support leadership in others through mentoring and coaching?
  • How can we ensure access to and lead professional learning in our centre?
  • How can we reflect on and develop our own leadership practices?

Our Leadership courses

This series of courses has been designed to support both current and aspiring early childhood leaders to strengthen their leadership skills and build their capacity to lead teams, and to undertake improvement journeys in their contexts of practice. The courses have been designed to facilitate participants to undertake a coherent leadership journey, with each course building on the learning of the previous course. However, it is also possible to take individual courses. You will start each course as part of a cohort at specific times during 2024-25.

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Research reviews

Leadership in early childhood education in New Zealand: History and context

An overview of recent documents and guidelines regarding leadership for leaders and teachers in New Zealand and recent related research on leadership.

The role of positional leaders in supporting professional learning

How positional leaders can support professional learning related to teaching and leadership in ECE.

Webinars

Kaupapa Māori principles and leadership in early childhood settings

COMING UP: 7.30PM THURSDAY FEBRUARY 20
Dr Tui Summers will talk about some of the key principles that underpin kaupapa Māori leadership

Getting ‘Beyond Quality’ to politics and democracy in (early childhood) education – a public lecture by Peter Moss

Webinar with Peter Moss Ready to watch? Already have a subscription?Watch now Buy all-webinars subscriptionNZ$60.00 for 12 months Buy this webinar only NZ$9.95 for 12 months The book Beyond...

Professional learning communities

Sue Cherrington, Kate Thornton, and Rachel Denee explore recent research into the role of professional learning communities (PLCs) in ECE and discuss the role of both within-centre and network PLCs

Leadership in early childhood education

Celeste Harrington (AUT) and Lorraine Manuela (Director at Tots Corner) explore what leadership means in ECE

Infographics

Snapshots

Professional Learning Communities: Teachers collaborating for professional learning and improvement

Key insights from our webinar with Sue Cherrington, Kate Thornton, and Rachel Denee on the role of PLCs in teacher professional learning.

The limited research on pedagogical leadership in early childhood education

A brief account of the limited research base on pedagogical or educational leadership in early childhood education.
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