Unit: organisation of early childhood education
Understanding Educational leadership
Weighting: 50%
Length: 2500 words essay
Due:Wednesday 31 May 2017
Select and read a book that is an autobiography or biography of someone you would consider to be a leader. This does not necessarily have to be someone who has an interest in young children (such as Barbara Holborrow). It can be an Australian or someone from overseas (such as President Barack Obama). It does NOT have to be someone who is famous or has celebrity status! It is however essential to justify your selection by explaining the relevance of this person’s work for early childhood leaders. Write an essay that addresses the three aspects specified below:
a) Briefly explain your rationale for choosing this person for this discussion. Your selection of the person must be supported and verified through appropriate scholarly literature on leadership, including the unit textbook.
b) Select ONE of the following topics for an in-depth discussion:
• Building a staff team
• Responding to external threats to the organization
• Initiating change and innovation within the organization
• Professional ethics and power Having selected one of the topics from the above list, discuss how the person you have profiled addressed key challenges s/he has encountered as a manager/leader in their life.
c) Critically analyse any learnings that you have garnered from reading this biography/autobiography that could be used in your work as an Early Childhood Leader in the future. Explain the extent to which this person reflects the characteristics of an EC leader as defined in relevant literature in Early Childhood. In your discussion, highlight implications of what you have learnt from reading this book, for those working in EC organisations.
Points of importance to consider when preparing the applied task assignment:
• Identify a suitable biography/autobiography early in the semester and start reading it immediately. Share your ideas about these books online through the unit website, especially if you can’t decide which book to read. I would like to encourage a diversity of books so that everyone reads a different book.
• Scholarly Literature = This includes the textbook and readings specified for this Unit but is NOT limited to these. That is, it is essential that students read widely – including publications on leadership and management in other fields or professions.
REQUIRED TEXTS AND READINGS
Required texts: These texts can be purchased from the Co-op Bookshop Waniganayake, M., Cheeseman, S., Fenech, M., Hadley, F. & Shepherd, W. (2012). Leadership: Contexts and complexities in early childhood. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Perrin, R. (2015). Pocket guide to APA style (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
These texts can be downloaded from the links Australian Government Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations. (2009). Belonging, being & becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Australia: Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_years _learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
Early Childhood Australia. (2016). Early childhood Australia code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ECA-COE-Brochure-2016.pdf