Early Education Leadership Theory and Practice
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Assignment 1: My leader’s profile
Assignment 1: My leader’s profile
Learning: LO – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; and, GA – 1, 2, 6
Length: 2800 words for profile; plus references & appendices
Below, we have provided a general outline of clustered weeks to guide you in completing this whole process; and then, a sample template is outlined for arranging all the parts of your leader-profile and preparing the contents.
Guideline # 1: Processes and procedures for creating a profile
Starting week 1 to about week 3 or 4
Background information: This assignment is an example of documenting one person’s effective leadership styles and her/his practical application of management roles within context. It is a ‘snapshot’ from another person’s professional life and perspectives. The readings associated with the EDEC324-Topic Notes will assist you with completing this profile and you are encouraged to go beyond the Topics. You are a researcher as you undertake this task (Read: Smales, 2002). It is assumed that this leader is the person you are completing your professional experience (PE) with. Your task is to create a profile of a leader in the early childhood field. This is a professional story about a person; it is not a standard essay [refer to sample template below].
1. Locate and negotiate with a director or coordinator [a positional leader] of an early childhood service or an early childhood manager within a relevant organisation [refer to the EDEC324 Professional Experience Handbook and details in the Unit Orientation part of this unit’s Moodle site]; discuss the process for creating this profile with the person, share the idea of your doing some ‘service learning’ (Butin, 2003; & see Topic 1) with this leader; and also, gain her/his consent for this profile process and your professional experience days. Be sure to ask: Does this person have a three-year University or old CAE Bachelor qualification in early childhood teaching/education (not a TAFE/VET diploma nor advanced diploma)? Next consider: 1) What about your related PE arrangements and paperwork; have you completed the UNE-PEO form, had it signed and emailed or faxed it to the PEO? 2) What about our professional ethics and this experience and story? It is a must that the names of the person and place are not used unless you have consent – so, please clarify confidentiality with your leader from the out-set. Be sure to let the leader know that part of the profile – the setting/context/background – will be shared online… do think ‘ethics’ here!
2. Read about being a leader/manager including leadership styles and management roles. This will help you: 1) identify, define and analyse the leader’s workplace position, key management/administration roles, and her/his manner of interacting (a way of noting leadership styles); and, 2) support specific in-practice examples or field evidence about the leader with relevant literature. Broadly consider: what does this positional leader do (manager, management roles & administrative tasks) AND how does s/he ‘work’ with others, particularly what is her/his interactive manner (being a leader & leadership styles)? Begin by skimming the ‘Contents’ pages of the textbook for this unit of study — Leadership: Contexts and Complexities in Early Childhood (Waniganayake, et al, 2012) — and review the sections of Chapters that you identify as relevant for this starting point for creating a leader’s profile. As you gradually draft and develop this professional profile, continue to refer back to the textbook, the unit Topics, noted readings and other resources that can guide and assist you with this process and end-product/profile.
3. Arrange at least one visit with the leader; here are your first tasks:
observe the leader (later you will shadow and work alongside her/him during your PE days); focus on the leader’s interactions with adults, including: her/his personal/professional manner, forms of communication, relationships and contribution to an emotional atmosphere = part of climate/culture of the setting for ‘organisation’ below; but also note that others contribute to climate/culture as do various environmental features. And, read Geoghegan, et al (2003) and/or other relevant literature to assist here.
and
talk informally about the whole site’s organisation and structure and the adults’ ways of relating, interacting, sharing ideas = this will give you more insights about the setting climate/culture. Some relevant questions might be: What is the management and organisational structure of this service? How are administrative/management decisions made and who is involved? With this service/centre viewed as an organisation, what metaphor-word might best reflect your service/centre’s interpersonal climate/culture or ‘first impression feeling’ [refer to Grady reference in Section 2 of profile template below]? The contextual and organisational structure will include all staff and committee/owner/council/etc. Again, because of the public-online sharing of part of this profile, please inform your leader of this and do consider professional issues of ethics and confidentiality.
Secondly, interview the leader about her/his professional self; be sure to fully document the leader’s various leadership styles and management roles. You may find it useful to take a reference that outlines various styles of leadership, as this will help you and the leader clarify and identify her/his key leadership style plus one or two lesser ones. Interviewing involves the practise being a ‘leader of conversation’ (one example: Healy, Ehrich, Hansford & Stewart, 2001; the full reference appears at the end of all the EDEC324 Topics). Remember to treat this interview as totally confidential. It is the leader’s opinions, perceptions and behaviours [all potential evidence examples] that are important here, not specific names. Do keep notes during your interview; these should be detailed so that you can reconstruct the interview later, plus they form a ‘field evidence’ appendix. The questions below could be starters for beginning your interview; you decide about questions for fleshing-out relevant issues and ideas that will assist you with completing this profile [again, refer to the template below for all the sections and components required within your profile]:
1- Q: What is your position title and your job description? [management & administration roles; collect copy of position description; link with L-POM (McCrea & Ehrich, 1999; Topic 8) and/or competencies (Culkin, 1997; Topics 1 & 3)]

2- Q: How would you describe ‘being a leader’? And, please outline your preferred/key leadership style? Any other styles (1 or 2 only) that are relevant for you? [Note: we acknowledge that there are many styles and situations; combining similar styles and authors’ ideas may assist you and the leader with this task; refer to ‘style’ literature within the Topics and beyond.]

3- Q: How does your personal/professional philosophy of ECE link to your being a leader and your styles or manner of interacting particularly with adults? What about being an advocate for the whole field of early childhood education?

4- Q: What are the most rewarding aspects of being an early childhood leader and manager (maybe administrator) and why? [Refer to Geoghegan et al (2003) or other literature]
Starting about weeks 2 to 4 until about weeks 5 to 8
4. Begin creating and writing a profile of this leader [write in flowing paragraph-style; see profile template below after point 6 for layout of headings/subheadings & various content of sections and sub-sections]. Be sure to compile this ‘working’ draft well before you begin your first day of professional experience. Note: it is important that you write this with sensitivity and knowing that later you will be taking this draft profile to your leader at the professional experience site for reconsideration by you and the leader over your PE days. When you reach this point, the profile is a near-final working-draft.

 
Guideline # 2: A sample template for the profile
Below is a suggested layout for your profile and additional guidance and information about major sections and sub-sections that are to be included.
My leader’s profile
(here, create a title relevant to your leader)
Section 1 Introduction
Introduce the whole profile. If requested ensure that you provide a fictitious name for leader and site (this will ensure ethical confidentiality/anonymity of individual and organisation); and, remember to note ‘changed names’ or ‘real names’ at the beginning of your profile by creating a footnote on page 1. [write: a paragraph; if you are unsure, do check what an ‘introduction’ is.]
Section 2 My leader’s setting (this section is also online posting #1; from/during weeks 4/5)
Organisational setting
Provide an organisational description of the workplace, including all staff and others. Q: is the staffing and whole centre/service management structure typical or not? Why, why not? Also incorporate a brief but wholistic overview of this centre/service/organisation’s ‘size/numbers’. All this is setting background and context. [write: about two paragraphs plus a chart or table of adults’ layers of responsibility and organisational arrangements; at least one reference]
Interpersonal climate with metaphor
Create an overview description of the interpersonal climate or emotional culture of the setting (peoples’ interactions & relationships, communication formats inform the ‘feel’ of the place); What is the ‘first impression feeling’ of this place? Then, decide on a metaphor (just written word here, not a picture) and briefly present it. Finally, discuss the metaphor in terms of why and how you selected it for reflecting the human-climate of this setting; clearly explain the relationship between this setting, the adults present and the metaphor. Be sure to double-check the metaphor description for your intended meanings and implications; Q: are there any mixed messages here? (Check Topic 2; read Grady,1993 in the Readings and/or locate other metaphor literature). [write: about two paragraphs; at least two references]
Hint: All of Section 2 above sets the scene; it will be a total of about 2-3 pages. Note, you may decide to refine this section after online discussions and comments from other students before embedding it in your ‘draft’ profile for taking to PE days and before finalising the whole profile.
Section 3 My leader’s story
Introduction
Begin by introducing your leader’s professional story here – broadly, who is s/he and what is included about her/him in this ‘story’ section? [write: a paragraph/half page]
[guidelines: Then, this story as Section 3 will have two major parts; in each part use a critical approach for presenting and then investigating and interrogating ideas, events and concepts to create an overall cameo narrative of your leader. For these two parts, think about management roles as usually the ‘what’ or our ‘doing’ – the ‘things’ a person does; whereas, leadership styles are more ‘how’ and one’s ‘manner’ of interacting when doing roles – a person’s ways of interacting and relating with others.]
My leader’s management roles
Here, generally outline her/his title and position [write: a paragraph/half page; include position/job description as appendix and cross-reference from here to it as appropriate within this sub-section]. Next define in a table or chart a sampling of her/his major or key directorial-position management roles by gathering them together into either: 1) P O M clusters of L-POM model (McCrea & Ehrich in Topic 8; the L=leading aspect is reflected in next sub-section of profile) OR 2) Culkin’s competencies (do combine some competencies so there are fewer; Culkin, 1997 in Topics 1 & 3). Then, critically discuss this leader’s management by reflectively interrogating groupings of her/his management roles; so, for each cluster/or/competency add support literature to your discussion. Here, go beyond just repeating items from the leader’s position/job description in appendix; do refer to the textbook and Topics for supporting concepts. [write: This sub-section of the leader’s story will be about 2-3 pages total with at least two references.]
My leader’s leadership and her/his styles
Next, write a working-draft, leading story [and later refine during/after your professional experience days] about your person generally ‘being a positional leader’ and then introduce her/his focal leadership styles [write: an introductory paragraph to ½ page with at least two references; see content ideas below]. This is a profile of a real person, not an essay, with practice examples; so s/he is ‘upfront’ in all your writing for this part. Your portrayal will offer the reader an impression of this leader’s key or major styles-in-action.
I suggest that you and the leader identify her/his preferred style and at least one other (up to total of three styles) that you can explore and clearly document showing your leader’s interpersonal manner and her/his related persona. Then, document these styles one-by-one (each is a sub-heading/sub-section); but, begin with the leader’s preferred, predominate, strongest or main style [write about 2- 2 ½ pages] and then move to one or two lesser-used styles [write about 1 ½ pages each]. Analyse at least her/his preferred style of leading other staff and some working with families before your professional experience days begin and, of course critique all styles further at the end of your professional experience. For writing a sub-section for each ‘style’:
1. create a sentence or two that generally defines/describes the style;
2. briefly overview your leader in terms of this style [note if each style is focal or occasional for this leader];
3. explore and critique her style via explicit/specific everyday evidence examples and happenings that represent this leader’s style-in-action [be sure to cross-reference to your research data in appendix]; and,
4. follow-up with support from relevant research and professional literature.
These examples are like ‘mini-stories’ that need to be complete enough for a reader to clearly understand without referring to an appendix; however, do clearly cross-reference to particular interview questions or observations or shadows or side-by-side working events in ‘field-evidence’ appendices. Later, add more specific evidence-examples [during professional experience days] to preferred leadership style and possibly others as you shadow and work attached-at-the-hip. [write: This sub-section is the major/biggest part of the whole profile; it will be about 1200 words or 6 pages, with sub-headings and a minimum six of references.]
Section 4 My leader’s essence
End the profile with a critical synthesis about your positional leader’s broad or general typicalness and advocacy. Do this by briefly exploring if s/he is a typical early childhood education leader/manager or not. And, write a critical analysis and explanation of how/why this leader is typical or not. Secondly, explore how and why your leader is/might be an advocate for the field of ece or not. Link a couple of support references with each of these concepts to help you reflect on a genuine essence of your leader’s typicalness and advocacy. [write: two paragraphs or half pages, at least three/four references]
Section 5 References
Prepare a standard listing of references; use a minimum of 10-12 professional and research sources, primarily journal articles. Place all references used for online posting #1 here as well for final whole profile e-submission. A note about references: There are times and places where older sources are deemed to be classics or seminal pieces of writing; and so, they have a valid place in our thinking and writing. The use of classic resources often shows the origins of ideas and depth of consideration over time, particularly alongside newer references. Using older and newer references together can reflect a progression of change in research and professional ideas and beliefs. Consider such literature as you prepare your written work for this unit.
Section 6 Appendices
Attach a separate appendix for each of the following:
1) raw data from interview questions and responses;
2) one sample of initial observing or PE shadowing notes; and
3) copy of position/job description [hint: remember ethics here!]. You might include a sample of relevant leader shadowing notes or working side-by-side notes from professional experience days as useful, relevant (not your PE goals nor workplan). All these items are your field evidence sources, so please date, etc all documents.
Please refer to the sample provided to guide you with the format and what is expected file name in the upload (early education leadership ASS1 sample)
And a scaned paper with the centre information in the upload called (centre info file)

 
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