Reflection

This is a reflection on my learning experience for leadership in early childhood

education. this experience been tremendously beneficial to my development as a leader and

an educator. This reflection focuses on the topics, leadership and management,

administration, and staffing. It is prudent for me to begin with my reflective thoughts

concerning leadership and management it is meaning, importance and parameters. A

leadership, I have found, is more than just a title or a position, but it someone who has a duty

to firstly direct and guide all the stakeholders in the education process to predetermined

outcomes towards an overall vision. An effective leader can successfully communicate that

vision and inspire all the stakeholders to see those outcomes and that vision realized. As

many scholars agree this approach to leadership, described as transformational leadership, is

incredibly attractive and effective. There is much educational research that focuses on

leadership and I found that most these contemporary studies focus and agree that

transformational leadership the preferred leadership style in educational institutions

(McKnight, 2017; Northouse 2015). I learnt however that while this is the preferred style, it

does not mean that the styles are mutually exclusive.

Throughout the course, I was able to examine all the different leadership styles

critically and expand my understanding of each in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.

One crucial observation is that no one leadership style has the answer. I must admit that I,

like many persons, stigmatized and perceived incorrectly the autocratic and laissez-faire

styles. I was able to understand that it is useful to evaluate a leader’s behaviour in context of

the style that the employed to accomplish a task or objective given the circumstances of a

particular situation instead of generally associating or defining a leader by any one style, even

if there is a tendency to one.

keeping in mind the outcome and goals. Leadership from my understanding, therefore, is

contextual, intuitive, and dynamic. From my own experiences in the classroom and as a

leader, I am able retrospectively see how I influenced persons around me to towards a

particular goal. For example, when creativity and innovation is required, I remember being

able to employ laissez-faire leadership strategies by take a step back into a more facilitator

role. This allowed persons to operate more independently and for me this was remarkably

effective at getting people to develop ideas, problem solve, and innovate creative solutions to

problems. There were also times when I had to be firm and more direct in administration and

this promoted speed and efficiency.

Early Childhood leadership therefore is not characterized by any particular style, but

they must be adaptive enough to evaluate, conceptualize, implement, and mobilize strategies

to deal with shifts in the environment. Whether in the classroom, or an administrative setting,

an effective leader is a leader that is three moves ahead. It is important to point out however

that theory is a lot different from reality. As found by Dunlop (2008), a leader’s effectiveness

can be severely impact by the perception of the stakeholders around them and that people

tend to regard qualifications and educational background more than the quality of leadership

as a basis for support especially in early childhood education in Jamaica. It speaks to the state

of early childhood education in Jamaica and the hurdles we face as educators.

Another relevant observation is that leaders must also safeguard the learning process

and experience of students. This is especially true for early childhood education. In reflecting

on the administrative aspect of early childhood institutions, my experience is best

encapsulated through a mnemonic device I put together to help me understand the importance

of these safeguards. The elements of the device, the 5Ps (the purpose, policy/procedure, plan,

people, and positivity) should be always in place when assessing any situation within the
learning environment. ‘Purpose’ refers to the general goals or objectives of the institution.

‘Policy/Procedure’ refers to those procedures and policies required to ensure the safety and

proper administration of the institution including regulatory or legally considerations. There

is the ‘plan’, which refers to what plans and strategies are in place concerning the matter at

hand. ‘People’, refers to identifying and selecting the right team or personnel for the

situation. Lastly, ‘Positivity’ refers to the outlook of the leadership and how we should

always strive to be positive and motivated. This topic and the course itself are especially

usefully when I was given the opportunity to create my own school, which for me is

especially useful as I would like to open a school in the future.

A leader in early childhood education is a person who bears a great responsibility for

the development children at their most impressionable stage. This is a team effort. The

importance of developing early childhood educators cannot be understated. Leadership of

early childhood institutions have a responsibility to promote the development staff with

different levels of qualification and experience (Early Childhood Commission, 2007, 2012).

Further, I must remind myself that I should not readily dismiss the importance and efforts of

all the stakeholders, especially administrative staff and the parents. Children at this level need

to be facilitated and encouraged so that they may develop their conceptual platform for

inquiry (Margolin, 2012). This emphasizes the importance have a strong team around you. It

is important to highlight to build an effective team, they must be empowered to fill roles

beyond their designations. We must all be facilitators, administers, educators and partners in

the learning process. I recognize that a school’s success is dependent upon the active

involvement of parents, PTAs and that we are educators and leaders should promote strong

alliances between parents and schools.

Learning, as described by Dewey, happens not from the experiences themselves but

when we reflect on those experiences. The course also revealed to me the importance of early
childhood education research and how we can move froward to reduce the gap for

conceptualizing to implementing and acting upon new methods and procedures. I know now

that must be critical of myself and investigate how my own practices and behaviours impact

those around me in the learning process. As pedagogical leaders we must spend time in

engaging in practice, learning and teaching, reflecting and planning not just by ourselves but

collaboratively through dialogue. I believe that building a safe space and effective learning

environment requires creating trustful relationships among the students and teachers like

myself.

One key issue I that come into greater focus for me when doing this course is that

while there are many studies and definitions for leadership, early childhood leadership has yet

to be clearly defined at the national or international level (McKnight, 2017). From my

observation, the lack of proper study and research, and emphasis from policy makers and

scholars may be inhibiting the development of early childhood leadership theories and

practices. We can see this lack of focus in our communities where many early childhood

schools and nurseries are underdeveloped, have significant issues concerning safety and

procedures, with untrained leaders and educators. This study by McKnight found that the

none of the participants had any specific early childhood leadership qualifications. The state

of early childhood education is alerting, but I believe that my participation in this course puts

us one step closer to a more developed education system.

Dunlop, A-W. (2008). A literature review on leadership in the early years. Glasgow:

University of Strathclyde.

Early Childhood Commission (ECC). (2007). Standards for the operation, management and

administration of early childhood institutions. Jamacia. Retrieved from

[Link]

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boxtype=pdf&g=false&s=false&s2=false&r=wide

Early Childhood Commission. (2015). Annual Review Publication (2014-2015). Jamaica.

Retrieved from [Link]

Margolin, I. (2012). Changing early childhood education by developing leaders through

reflection and research. AABRI journals, 4, 1-19. Retrieved from

[Link]

McKnight, N. (2017). Exploring early childhood leadership and policy enactment in Jamaica.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository, 45959, 1-12.

[Link]

%2F4959&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage

Publications: USA.