Leadership in Early Childhood Education

Joce Nuttall is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Joce’s research focuses on the professional learning of leaders and educators from early childhood settings to tertiary education, with a particular emphasis on the development of practice in childcare settings. This work is principally informed by cultural-historical activity theory. Joce’s current research is investigating the learning needs of migrant early childhood teachers and their colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region.Linda Henderson is a Senior Lecturer - Early Years Education in the School of Education, Culture, and Society in the Faculty of Education at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Linda’s work investigates leadership, workforce development, and policy across the early years of education. Drawing on critical post-humanist theories and collaborative methodologies, Linda’s research is anchored in the working lives ofteachers. She is particularly interested in exploring intersections between institutional cultures, the impact of reform measures, policy implementation, and the effects these have on the everyday work of teachers.Elizabeth Wood is Professor of Education at the University of Sheffield, England. Her research focuses on early childhood and primary education, with specific interests in play and pedagogy; curriculum and assessment in ECE; teachers’ professionalism and professional knowledge; and international policy analysis and critique. Her recent collaborative research with colleagues at Australian Catholic University and Monash University focused on the work of educational leaders in England and Australia, specifically theorizing learning-rich leadership of practice in early childhood settings.Jenny Martin is a Senior Lecturer in Science Education and Education Studies in the National School of Education at Australian Catholic University. Jenny’s research program is concerned with human agency in educational settings, and she specialises in the use of positioning theory and interactive approaches. She was previously a full time Research Fellow on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project theorising learning-rich leadership for quality improvement in early education and is currently a Partner Investigator on a Hong Kong Research Grants Council project exploring the dynamics of the agency amongst young STEM makers.

• Section 1: Background and rationale.- 1 Why do we need a new theory of leadership in early childhood education?.- 2 Responding to the state of the field: Existing discourses of early childhood leadership in policy, research, and practice.- 3 The project: Key concepts, design, methodology and approach to analysis.- Section 2: The participating leaders and their centres: Pen portraits.- Section 3: The new theory.- 4 Crisis in context: Cultural-historical contradictions as the stimulus for practice development.- 5 Imagining practice otherwise: Mobilizing collective creativity for improved quality.- 6 Design, re-design, design again: Leading and implementing practice change.- 7 Re-concretized but not sedimented: Program quality and the stabilization of new practices.- Section 4: Conclusion, implications, research directions.- 8 Theorizing leadership and change in early childhood education.