New leaders in Early Years: making a difference for children in England

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the extent by which the four domains of the sustainable early childhood leadership model were evident in the experiences of New Leaders in Early Years (NLEY) participants. This original piece of research explores the impact of pedagogical leadership and focuses on participants recruited to a national pilot to make a difference for children in areas of social disadvantage in England. The significance of this paper is timely given the continued focus on leadership, evidenced in the ‘Early Years Workforce Strategy’ [Department for Education. (2017). Retrieved March 30, 2017, from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/596884/Workforce_strategy_02-03-2017.pdf]. This paper contributes a conceptual framework for early childhood leadership as a methodological tool to make sense of the data. The findings suggest that NLEY did have an impact on the settings and the families they were working with and that the conceptual framework for early childhood leadership was an effective tool for making sense of their journey from novice to leader.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood
• leadership
• pedagogical leadership
• qualifications
• impact
• social justice
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Catherine Meehan is Director of Early Childhood in the Faculty of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. Prior to working in the UK, Catherine worked at QUT, Griffith and ACU (McAuley Campus) in Australia as a lecturer in early childhood teacher education programmes.

Polly Bolshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Early Years in the Faculty of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. Prior to this, Polly completed the New Leaders in Early Years (cohort 1) programme and worked as an early years practitioner within a Sure Start Children’s Centre.

Eleanor Hadfield is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Prior to this Eleanor worked at Canterbury Christ Church University as a lecturer, completed the New Leaders in Early Years (cohort 2) programme and worked in an early years setting in Kent.

ORCID

Catherine Carroll-Meehan http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1564-2922

Additional information

Funding

The New Leaders in Early Years pilot project was funded by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) and the Department for Education (DfE).