Module 1Leadership management in

ECEC

Module overview
In this first module we will discuss and define the complexities
surrounding the notion of leadership in early childhood education and care
(ECEC), and explore concepts to understand ECEC leadership roles,
relationships and responsibilities to enhance your understanding.

In the Self-access content that you need to complete before coming to

class, we will investigate the current literature to gain an understanding of
definitions of ECEC leadership and the reciprocal relationship between
leader and follower.

Topics from the Self-access content will be explored in detail within the
Tutorial where you will brainstorm definitions of leadership in your own
terms, sharing beliefs, and actively engage with your peers. We will
consider and discuss who is an inspiring leader to each of us, and consider
why. You will be introduced to theoretical perspectives about leadership
and clarify your own views and responses that you have formulated across
the Self-access activities. The Workshop will link this content to your
assessment tasks and we will clarify any questions you may bring. Please
look over the assessment tasks before attending the workshop.

Let’s get started! 😃

Module purpose
By the end of this module you will be able to:

 Define the term ECEC leadership

 Explain the differences between leadership and
management in ECEC
  Describe ECEC leadership roles, relationships and
responsibilities
 Outline attributes, dispositions and qualities of leaders in
ECEC
 Locate the requirement for leadership in ECEC within the
National Quality Standard (Australian Children’s Education
and Quality Authority [ACECQA], 2018).

Introduction
For many years, early childhood teachers and educators have believed that babies and
young children’s learning and development has benefited from their active participation
in an early childhood education program prior to school. It was only following the
completion of the first component of a longitudinal study conducted in the United
Kingdom that evidence confirmed this long-held belief. The Effective Provision of Pre-
school Education [EPPE] study concluded that high-quality preschool experiences have
positive effects on children’s intellectual and social development up to age 11 (Sylva,
Melhuish, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford & Taggart, 2011). The research not only highlights
the importance of quality early childhood preschool experience, but one-follow up inquiry
titled: The Effective Leadership in the Early Years sector: The ELEYS (Siraj-Blatchford &
Manni, 2007) also highlighted the important link between leadership and quality
outcomes in ECEC.

The evidence from both of these studies provided the impetus for governments around
the world to invest in early childhood education, and placed stronger emphasise on
leadership. Understanding that leadership is one of the determining factors that helps to
support positive learning and development outcomes for young children in education and
care services, it is therefore important to understand what leadership is, and what it is
not.

This section begins conceptualising leadership, and specifically discussing what

leadership looks like in an early childhood education and care service.

Activity 1.1 - Reflective Questions

As we start to explore leadership in ECEC, note your answers to these

questions and bring them with you to your tutorial so you can join in
with the discussion.

Conceptualising Leadership
Leadership is not easy to define, there is no one agreed definition, and it
becomes even more complex when we consider leadership in an ECEC
service. Let us start by first looking at a few definitions about leadership
more broadly:

Leadership is:
 a relationship between people and the best leaders are
those who are able to empower others - (National Quality
Standard, DEEWR, 2009. p.171)
 a process of moving a group of people in some direction
through mostly non-coercive means – (Kotter, 1990)
 the process of interactive influence that occurs when, in a
given context, some people accept someone as their leader
to achieve common goals - (Alberto, 2016 p.4).
Based on these three definitions, you can see the common thread about
leadership being that it is an inter - action between people. How do these
definitions compare to the definition you documented? Would you change
your initial ideas? If this is the case, make additional notes on your
responses from above.

Leadership in ECEC
Let us now consider leadership in our sector, ECEC.

Similar, to the problem faced by the business and school sector, the
definition about leadership in ECEC also varies with no one agreed
definition.

Rodd (2020) dedicates multiple pages to defining leadership from the

most basic - "leadership is about how a group of people is influenced
(using values and vision) to achieve a common goal" through to “a
process and responsibility that requires attention to multiple roles,
functions and people in ways that align with and promote committment to
shared values and vision" (Chapter 1). This definition is similar to Whalley
(2011) who suggests that the leader provides direction, offers a vision
shared by others and inspires and demonstrates effective practice. Siraj
and Hallet (2014) describe leadership in ECEC as a “relational and
communal concept where all can be a leader and engage in leadership,
benefit from leadership and exercise power and individual agency” (p.10).
A differing conceptualisation is that leadership is a formal role in a setting.
It is framed by three elements: the person (traits, values, personality), the
context, and the position (formal leader) (Palethorpe, 2019; Stamopoulos
& Barblett, 2018; Wanigananayake et al., 2024). In a more recent
publication, Heikkinen and colleagues (2024) described leadership within
the profession in ECEC and that it includes thefour types as professional
leader, contextual leader, teacher leader, and leader persona. These
authors view "ECEC centre leadership ... as a triangular relationship
between policy, research and the profession" (p. 349).

Take some time to have a look at this short video [3.19] that adds to these
definitions.

Watch Video
What Is Leadership In Early Childhood Education? - Childhood
Education Zone
Duration: 3:20
User: n/a - Added: 17/02/25

YouTube URL: [Link]

Activity 1.2: Reading

Read the following two articles and compare the above thinking about
leadership.

Fu. W. (2022). A critical examination of effective leadership in Early

Childhood Education. Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy
Studies, 7(1), pp.1-14. [see attached file]

Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority [ACECQA].

(2018). Occasional Paper 5 – Leadership and management education care
services. Note their conceptualisation of leadership.

[Link]
OccasionalPaper5-
[Link]
Collect any points from the reading that you find interesting, confusing, or
you want to clarify and bring to our discussion in the Tutorial.

 How was leadership defined in the readings?

 Consider the definitions you have engaged with from your
readings, how are these similar or different from your earlier
definition about leadership in ECEC?
 How has your thinking about leadership in ECEC changed or
been affirmed?
 

Leadership in ECEC (what it

is and what it looks like)
By now you should have a good understanding that leadership and
leadership in early childhood education (ECEC) is complex with no agreed
definition. Regardless, leadership is a professional responsibility of
teachers and educators implementing quality early childhood programs
(Waniganayake, 2024) with the aim of Quality Area Seven:
Governance and Leadership under The National Quality Standard
(ACECQA, 2018) to support effective leadership and management of the
service that leads to quality environments for children’s learning and
development.

Committed to leadership, ECEC service teams will enact leadership in

different ways. This is due to the fact that leadership is influenced by
context (Palethorpe, 2019). Early childhood education and care services
will have team members with different qualifications, experience, values,
beliefs, and all of these factors will influence the local leadership. Further,
the leadership will also be influenced by children, families, the governance
of the service, ownership type, as well as the local community and society
more generally.

Who are the leaders in ECEC?

An early childhood leader demonstrates passion, wisdom, has insight, and
respect for children, families, colleagues and themselves. Such a view of
leadership requires the leaders to have a commitment to, and a curiosity
about learning as a lifelong process. (Waniganayake, 2024). Leaders can
be anyone of us. If we consider the notion of ‘influencing others towards a
goal’ then at times dependent on the topic and your interest and / or
understanding you can be a leader, and then at other times be a follower.
Stamopoulos and Barblett (2018) suggest that “all early childhood
educators lead in some way, whether it is through their own professional
and ethical practice or in a more formal role” (p. 4).

Can you identify an inspirational early childhood leader?

Who are they? What have they done? and Why do they inspire you? You
will be asked to share your idea in the tutorial so please take the time to
think about this.

Activity 1.3: Reflective Questions

Case Study
The case study demonstrates that it is possible for a student to use
leadership skills to improve practice in an ECEC service to support children
and adult’s learning and development.

Leaders and Followers

As demonstrated in the case study, “…intentional leaders are teachers
and educators who engage in ethical practice by implementing leadership
responsibilities in positive, purposeful ways. Such leaders demonstrate
courage in their decision–making and find ways to collaborate with others
to achieve collective goals” (Waniganayake, 2017, p.13). The terms
aspiring, emerging, and informal refer to those leaders who may not hold
a leadership position but enact practices of leading.

This module has focused on leadership, leaders and leading. Much focus
has been on the quality of the leader. However, leadership does not
happen in isolation and it would be omiss not to highlight the importance
of the relationship between leader and follower. Followers are the
members of a service or organisation, that are influenced by the leader.
Followers can be defined by their behaviours, following the actions or
requirements of others. It is important to note, that leading and following
is interchangeable, and dependant on the topic or context, the follower
may step up to be the leader and vice versa (Brooker et al., 2021).

Positional Leaders
Leadership can be enacted by anybody at any time – therefore we all have
the ability of being a leader. Leaders can also be appointed to a leadership
position. They may lead as a successful lead, and they may not. It is
important to understand that just because a person is appointed to a
leadership position, does not mean they are leading. I am sure you can
think of a leader who was unable to lead, and did not influence others
towards a collective goal!
The terms formal or positional leader refer to those leaders who hold a
leadership position such as approved provider, nominated supervisor,
director or educational leader (within the Australian context).

Role of gender stereotypes

The ECEC workforce is overwhelmingly female (97%), this means that only
3% of males are employed within the Australian sector (Productivity
Commission, 2011). There are many reasons for this imbalance, including
the perception that it is women’s work, low levels of pay and status
(Nutbrown, 2012) and sensitivities about child abuse (Siraj and Hallet,
2014). However, when men do become ECEC professionals, they are more
likely to gain leadership promotions (Lumby and Coleman, 2007). This
perhaps is due to a gender stereotype in society in which men are
considered the dominate leaders, with one researcher suggesting that it
may be due to their style of leadership (Eagly, 2013). If we consider the
challenges and barriers men often face when entering the ECEC sector, it
may be likely that they are some of our more passionate and dedicated
team members. It then makes sense, that they may also be more likely to
embrace opportunities for leadership positions or step up and lead.

Understanding ECEC
Leadership Roles,
Responsibilities and
Relationships
Leadership will be different in each setting, however to be a successful
leader, the leader must be intentional by considering the individual
context of a service and create a harmonious organisational culture that
enables a service to achieve its goals (Palethorpe, 2019; Waniganayake et
al., 2024).

Unpacking quality leadership

practice
In their Effective Leadership in the Early Years Sector [ELEYS] study, Siraj-
Blatchford & Manni (2007) identified a range of ‘effective leadership
practice catergories’ in the quality settings from the Effective Preschool
Education Project (EPPE) study (Sylva et al., 2011). Remember, this study
was discussed in the introduction of this module. The centres within the
EPPE study who supported young children to achieve the highest learning
outcomes were studied to understand the leadership enacted in these
centres. What were these centres doing that other centres were not doing.
The study found that these centres had strong leadership and the
following were the common leadership practices:

 Identifying and articulating a collective vision

 Ensuring shared understandings, meanings and goals –
building a common purpose
 Effective communication – providing transparency about
expectations, practices and processes
 Encouraging reflection – critical reflection about teaching
and practice providing the impetus for change and
motivation for ongoing learning and development
 Commitment to on-going professional development –
supporting staff to become critically reflective in their
practice and to embrace opportunities for continued learning
 Monitoring and assessing practice – through collaborative
dialogue and action research
 Building a learning culture- establishing a community of
learners
 Encouraging and facilitating parent and community
partnerships – promoting achievement for all young children.
 Distributed leadership – strong leadership is often needed to
develop high levels of collaboration and team work (to be
discussed in Module 2).
What is a collective Vision?

A vision – is the idealistic place or ultimate outcome. Waniganayake et al.,

(2017) simply suggest it is "the imagined future" (p.13). A clear vision,
must exist to ensure an organisation can achieve its desired outcomes or
goals. Siraj and Hallet (2014) suggest that a vision needs to be developed
through collective discussion and that the vision needs to be clearly
articulated so that it is understood by all, is convincing and compelling
and connected to teaching. Once the vision is established and understood,
teachers and educators can work together to develop goals for working
towards the collective vision.

Watch this recruitment video by New South Wales Education about their
vision.

Visions and values from Jobs & Opportunities on Vimeo.

Being a good communicator is considered an essential skill of a good
leader. In fact, Rodd (2013) suggests that leadership in ECEC “is a matter
of communication more than anything else” (p. 63). A leader who
communicates effectively is likely to command greater capacity for
influencing others (Siraj and Hallet, 2014), as they can explicitly
communicate the vision and understanding about why change is needed.

Activity 1.4 - Reflective Questions

In the last learning activity, you may or may not have considered tasks
such as planning, performance management, budgets, or checking
programming that were not included in the leadership list collated from
the Early Years Sector Study centres. If you did consider these absent,
then you have just confused management tasks with leadership tasks, an
action that many students do. Tasks that are considered management,
and those considered leadership have been a point of contention for
decades. Although an older academic source, Jillian Rodd (2013) highlights
clearly a comparison between what managers and leaders do. Both are
inherently linked and interwoven tasks, however also different.
Rodd (2013) suggests: managers plan, organise coordinate and control.
Whereas leaders give direction, offer inspiration, build team work, set an
example and gain acceptance. Stamopoulos and Barblett (2018) also
highlight the difference between these two notions, suggesting that
“people in management positions are often thought as maintaining the
status quo by managing the functions of a business. Leadership, among
other aspects, encourages people to focus on the future, posing questions
of what could be and how to attain shared goals and aspirations” (p. 9). In
their thinking, Stamopoulos and Barblett (2018) have adapted the
concepts about leadership and management from a number of authors
including to provide further clarity to the ECEC sector about the notion of
managing and leader (Daft & Pirola –Merlo, 2009; Murray, 2010)

A Manager... A Leader...

Directs and controls Inspires and guides

Maintains status quo Creates and challenges status quo

Supervises and designates Empowers

Regulates Is visionary

Manages by goals and Managers by interactions

objectives

Creates boundaries Reduces boundaries

Administers Innovates

Focuses on systems and Focuses on people

structures

Takes a short-term view Takes a long-term view

To sum up, leadership emanates out of vision that is based on philosophy,

values and beliefs, which in turn guides policy, day-to-day operation and
innovation (Rodd, 2013).

Based on your understanding of Management and Leadership, go

to Quality Area Seven: Governance and Leadership under the
National Quality Standard (ACECQA, 2018) to examine each element
and determine which ones are management and which ones are
leadership. Bring your answers to the Tutorial.

Attributes and dispositions of an

ECEC Leader
Earlier, you were asked in a learning activity to identify an ECEC leader
that inspires you, and to think about their leadership characteristics. Let
us continue to think about the personal attributes and qualities of a
successful ECEC leader. Stamopoulos and Barblett (2018) highlight that
early childhood leadership traits relate to the ‘personal characteristics of
an early childhood leader’, these include honesty, integrity, collaboration,
respect, flexibility, problem solving ability, ethical decision making,
reflectiveness, responsiveness, confidence, being knowledgeable and
having effective communication skills (pp. 10 -11).

Activity: 1.5 - Reading

Go to MyReadings and read this article about a small research study in

New Zealand that identified a set of dispositions held by responsible early
childhood leaders. Davitt, G., & Ryder, D. (2018). Dispositions of a
responsible early childhood education leader: Voices from the
field. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 33(1), 18 –
31.
Consider the characteristics of the ECEC leader you identified. Did you
identify any characteristics that were identified as being important by
Stamopoulos and Barblett (2018) and Davitt and Ryder (2018)? How might
their research influence your future thinking about leadership?

Early Childhood Australia [ECA] is the largest child advocacy member

organisation in Australia, committed to providing a voice for young
children. Over the last decade this organisation has understood the
importance of leadership and recognised the influence of context. Read
their blog article, provided below, about what leadership looks like in ECEC
settings and then go to MyReadings to read a few pages from another ECA
resource.

What does leadership look like in

early childhood settings?
As your first module draws to a close, two final readings are provided to
you to actively read and consider what leadership looks like in ECEC.

The Spoke Blog

Go to MyReadings and read Gibbs, L. (2021). Leadership as practice in
ECEC settings. Research in Practice Series 28 (4). pp. 5 - 8

Summary
Across this module we have looked at what leadership is within early
childhood education and care. We discussed the differences between
leadership and management and explored the attributes, dispositions and
qualities of leaders in ECEC. Further, it was made clear, that everyone is a
leader at times, and at other times a follower. Positional leaders such as
the centre director, educational leader, room leads are appointed to their
position often due to recognised knowledge, skills and holding the
characteristics needed for leadership. However, just because you are
appointed to a position does not mean you are a good leader, and
influencing others towards collective goals. This Self-access content will
be unpacked further during the Tutorial with practical examples and
discussions around many of the activities covered. Please bring along your
notes to the Tutorial so we can have your many different perspectives
on this interesting topic. We will also follow this in the Workshop with how
all this connects to your assessment tasks.
References
Alberto, S. (2016). What is leadership? Journal of Business Studies
Quarterly, 8(1), 1 – 5.
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S. & Farmer, S.
(2025). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (9th ed.).
Cengage Learning Australia.

Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority [ACECQA].

(2022). National Quality Framework. [Link]

Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority [ACECQA]

(2018). National Quality
Standard. [Link]

Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE].

(2022). Belonging, being and becoming: Early Years Learning Framework
for Australia v 2.0. Commonwealth of Australia.

Brooker, M., Cumming, T., & Logan, H. (2021). Followers and following in
early childhood education workplaces: A narrative review of the
followership literature. Educational Management Administration and
Leadership, pp. 1-17. [Link]

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR].

(2010). Educators Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework of
Australia. Commonwealth of Australia.

Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR].

(2009). National quality standard for early childhood education and care
and school age care. Retrieved
from [Link]
d/nqf/[Link] this document with
ReadSpeaker docReader
Eagly, A.H. (2013). Gender and work: Challenging conventional wisdom.
Harvard Business School.

Kotter, J. (1990). A force for change. New York: The Free Press.

Lumby, J. and Coleman, M. (2017). Leadership and Diversity: Challenging

Theory and Practice in Education. Sage.

Nutbrown, C. (2012). Foundations for Quality: The Independent Review of

Early Education and Childcare Qualifications. Final Report. June.
Department of Education.
Palethorpe, L. (2019). A Change Agent for Improving Quality: The
Educational Leader in Australian Early Learning Education &
Care. [Doctoral thesis, Griffith University]. [Link]
[Link]
Productivity Commission. (2011). Early childhood development workforce:
Research report. Melbourne: Productivity Commission.

Rodd, J. (2020). Leadership in Early Childhood. (4th ed.). Allen & Unwin.

Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Manni, L. (2007). Effective leadership in the early

years sector: The ELEYS study. Institute of Education, University of
London.

Stamopoulos, E. & Barblett, E. (2018). Early childhood leadership in

action. Evidence-based approaches for effective practice. Allen & Unwin.

Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Taggart, B.
(2011). Pre-school quality and educational outcomes at age 11: Low
quality has little benefit. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 9(2), 109-
124.

Waniganayake, M., Cheeseman, S., Fenech, M., Hadley, F., & Shepherd, W.
(2017). Leadership: Contexts and complexities in early childhood
education (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press

Waniganayake, M., Cheeseman, S., Fenech, M., Hadley, F., & Shepherd, W.
(2024). Leadership: Contexts and complexities in early childhood
education (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press