Leadership emergence and development : Organizations shaping leading in early childhood education

Early childhood education (ECE) effects positive outcomes for children, but outcomes depend upon the quality of the program with which children engage. Program quality is positively influenced by effective leadership; yet we do not fully understand how effective leadership emerges and develops withi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEducational management, administration & leadership Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 672 - 693
Main Author Gibbs, Leanne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.07.2022
Sage Publications Ltd
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ISSN1741-1432
1741-1440
DOI10.1177/1741143220940324

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Summary:Early childhood education (ECE) effects positive outcomes for children, but outcomes depend upon the quality of the program with which children engage. Program quality is positively influenced by effective leadership; yet we do not fully understand how effective leadership emerges and develops within ECE sites. This lack of knowledge potentially compromises the development of effective leadership and, subsequently, a child's right to high-quality ECE. This paper, therefore, contributes to the field of research on ECE leadership development by describing a qualitative Australian study that investigated leadership cultivation. The mini-ethnographic case study examined the emergence and development of leadership in three high-quality, diversely governed ECE settings. Findings of the study suggest the practice of leading is foundational for positional leadership roles and is enabled by the practice architectures of an organization. Practice architectures comprise cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements. Arrangements, found within organizations, included cultures of trust, use of professional knowledge and language, collaborative development of philosophy, democratic allocation of resources, sharing of power and openness to activism, disruption and creativity. Such arrangements play an important role in the emergence and development of leading and therefore offer organizations alternative ways to consider leadership cultivation. [Author abstract]
Bibliography:Refereed article. Includes bibliographical references.
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ISSN:1741-1432
1741-1440
DOI:10.1177/1741143220940324