Key Findings

The key findings from the project included:

• Effective ECE leaders and teachers do undertake professional learning and development. Often it was not leadership orientated but rather had more of a pedagogical focus. The leaders and teachers acknowledged that professional learning and development contributed to change in practice, but not specifically leadership practice.
• Effective leaders demonstrate strong leadership; model pedagogical and organisational leadership; encourage designated leadership; promote critical inquiry; build confidence and competence; and vision sustainability.
• Effective leaders can grow leadership by building leadership capability and capacity within the ECE setting. Clearly, the leadership of the participating leaders was valued, respected and helped to create a strong ‘culture’ within the different centres.
• ECE leaders developing others as leaders encompassed pedagogical leadership, career development, conceptual, entrepreneurial and community leadership.
• The identified attributes that contributed to the sustainability of leadership within ECE centres were related to recognition of the importance of being a life-long learner, a critical thinker, a proactive team member, and an experienced and reflective practitioner.
• Leadership is a key factor in lifting the quality of early childhood services. Yet, although effective leadership plays a major role in promoting the necessary systems and structures to drive quality outcomes in early childhood services, many people holding leadership positions in these settings have limited professional preparation for their leadership and administration roles. In most cases, leadership development is limited to ‘on-the-job’ learning.
• A high level of congruence was found between what the leaders said they valued (espoused leadership theories of action) and the practices they enacted (leadership theories-in-use), which underscores the value of making ‘leadership practice’ a more explicit part of what leaders and teachers reflect on and articulate within their everyday professional lives.

Key Recommendations

The key recommendations from the project included:

Sustainable leadership development | Supporting sustainable leadership development for current leaders and their teaching teams, and thereby strengthening positive outcomes for children and their whānau, within the ECE sector.

Ensuring effective leadership | Develop a framework to support the professional learning and development in leadership, for leaders and their teams, to ensure that effective leadership is purposefully grown, developed and sustained across their ECE settings.

Design of future tertiary leadership programmes | From a wider perspective this leadership investigation aims to impact on the design of future tertiary leadership programmes in early childhood education.