Leadership at Play in Preschool Children: A Systematic Synthesis of Nearly Nine Decades of Research

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: While leadership is not a novel concept, child leadership is still an under-cultivated field. Despite nearly nine decades of research on play leadership in preschool children, there still remains a paucity of empirical studies examining this developmental area, especially considering that leadership in the preschool years is an essential aspect of social competence. To ascertain the current state of knowledge concerning child leadership in the context of social play, this systematic synthesis analyzed the only 11 research studies that met the inclusion criteria. A content analysis revealed that the knowledge base on child leadership may have been impeded by a lack of clear definitions and conceptualizations of this phenomenon. Nevertheless, it yielded insights in three areas: (1) typology of leadership styles using labeling, dichotomizing, and dimensionalizing as strategies, (2) typology of leadership behaviors, and (3) attributes of child leaders. This synthesis also suggested two important directions for future research on play leadership: (1) within-culture studies on diverse child populations, and (2) cross-cultural comparisons. Practice or Policy: Play leadership should be integrated into the early childhood curriculum to promote social competence in young children. Teachers should also provide children ample social opportunities to develop, exercise, and hone their leadership abilities.

Acknowledgments

The author expresses sincere gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive and insightful comments on this work. She is also grateful to her graduate research assistant, Wilson Rodrigues, for ably conducting the searches of articles and analyzing the data along with the author to help establish interrater reliability. The author would also like to thank Nora Krieger for her valuable feedback on the final version of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In this article, the terms, “child leadership,” “early childhood leadership,” “child leaders,” and “young leaders,” all refer to the leadership of young children, especially preschoolers.

2. It is worth noting that the “United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” aimed at supporting and protecting children’s wellbeing, is regarded as: “The world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty in history” (UNICEF, n.d., n.p.). To date, however, the United States is the only member of the United Nations that has still not yet ratified this treaty (UNICEF, n.d.). Although this political status may not have impacted the ways in which educators work with young children in the United States, it may have implications for how this country may allocate its priorities and, in turn, be perceived by its compatriots and the rest of the world.