EDEC 424 Leadership Interactions in Early Childhood
Assignment description 1. Overview and marking criteria 1.In this assignment, you are to write a proposal to the Board of Management in your service, in order to seek their support to carry out your role as an Educational Leader (EL). Before you attempt this assignment, you should read the information in relation to the roles and responsibilities of the EL in the topic notes and the ACECQA website. Read the scenario carefully and address the questions followed. 2.The scenario In the past 12 months, you have been appointed as the EL in a 40-place community Long Day Care service (LDC). You are very proud of this role and passionate about providing the best early childhood learning environment to the children in your care. Often in your own time and expenses, you engage in professional development such as attending webinars and conferences, in order to seek a good understanding of this role and the latest research in programming and planning in early childhood education. 12 months on, you have noticed a few issues in terms of programming and planning in this LDC, one of them being the use of outdated approach. Educators use developmental approach in both the observation and planning of activities for the children. As well, they do not seem to have a good understanding of the planning cycle. As such, the experiences that they prepare for children focus on ‘fixing’ particular skills such as fine motor skills and language skills, rather than extending their interests and strengths. Children’s sociocultural context is seldom considered in the planning. There is also limited collaboration among educators in terms of programming. You have shared your vision with other educators who are supportive and ready to learn more about the sociocultural approach in programming, and how to align their program to address the National Quality Framework. They also want more mentoring support from you, which has been lacking for a while. However, you don’t feel supported by the management, in particular, the director. You are only given 2 hours per fortnight for this role which, considered your responsibilities, is not quite enough. You have raised your concerns and asked for more support in the past few months but the your concerns have not been addressed. You were told that the LDC did not have extra funding for extra hours for the EL, and there was nothing wrong with the programs. And that she has been planning activities for children for many years using the same way and parents are happy with the progrms. Below were the outcomes of the last Assessment and Rating: QA1 - Meeting QA2 -Exceeding QA3 - Exceeding QA4 - Meeting QA5 - Meeting QA6 - Meeting QA7- Meeting 3.The proposal You have decided to seek the support from the Board of Management that oversees the budget and direction of the service. There are 8 members on the Board, with 6 parents, and the other two community members. Two members are school teachers, one of them works at the university, one works in the gallery, two of them are small business owners, and the other two stay-home parents. They meet regularly to discuss issues of concerns in the service. You are going to write a proposal to the Board for support. This proposal explains the rationale for what you need, a list of help or support you will need in order to fulfil your role, and a plan of action. 4. Rationale A rationaleStart the proposal with a statement of its purpose, then give a rationale (reasons) for the support you will need. You need to identify the issues and explain what is at stake - Why it is important to have good programs? Who will benefit from it? What are your role and responsibilities in relation to developing high-quality programs in the service? Use current literature and the policy framework in Australia in your rationale (you must use the NQF and the EYLF in this section). You might want to revisit assignment 1, especially the part on QA7 in the QIP for insights. 5. Help and support Help and support. What sorts of help and support do you need and how can management help? Financial? Time? Professional development? Resources? You have to justify why these supports are required and how you are going to use them to support better programming and planning in the service. For instance, if you ask for more time, how many hours do you think you will need per week? Why do you need that many hours? Use dot points or short paragraphs in this section. 6. The plan A plan. You have to present a clear plan to the Board, stating exactly what and how you are going to do in order to improve the programs in the setting. State the objectives, steps, considerations and a timeline in your plan. Structure of your assignment (please use these headings): 1. The Rationale 2. The help and support 3. The plan Reference list Appendix (if applicable) Marking criteria: A rationale that is supported by the literature and policy (20%) A list of resources with justification (10%) A plan that addresses the issues (10%) Literacy and presentation (10%) Rubric has been attached
