Unit Outline

This unit explores ideas, practices and concepts of leadership and advocacy in early childhood education. Topics include research examples of practices that foster collaborative, effective leadership, constructive management strategies and considered ways to promote advocacy in early childhood. Students will have opportunities to refine their concepts of pedagogical leadership, with emphasis on collaborative approaches to pedagogy, curriculum and to building relationships with families.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:


1	explore and analyse contemporary scholarship on early childhood leadership to consider pedagogical impact in early childhood settings.
2	critically discuss diverse issues relating to advocacy in early childhood.
3	incorporate a range of perspectives, synthesise information and reference according to the APA style of formatting.

Requisites


REQUISITE TYPE	REQUISITES
Anti-requisite (mutual excl)	ESM782

Alterations as a result of student feedback

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule


ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Leading together? An exploration of collaborative leadership in early childhood	Week 7	40 %	LO1, LO3
Assessment Task 2:	Early Childhood Leadership - Job Application	Week 12	60 %	LO1, LO2, LO3

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Leading together? An exploration of collaborative leadership in early childhood

Task Description:

Using a reflective approach and with reference to contemporary scholarship, critically examine
the possibilities and the challenges of collaboration to support transformative pedagogical leadership in early childhood settings. Consider specific contexts (where is the service located? who attends? what are the specific community strengths/needs? What kind of transformations are suited to this context? Why?)
You will submit 5 online posts (approx 200 words each) in weeks 1- 6 to explore these questions with supporting scholarship from the weekly readings. Each post will count towards the total assessment wordcount. For the final assessment, you are required to write an additional 200-250 word reflective summary, to be submitted with all your posts (copy and paste into a word document and submit).

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 6.2

Task Length:

1200 words

Due Date:

Week 7

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)


1	Analyse elements of contemporary leadership, specifically in relation to effective and collaborative leadership in early childhood settings, to demonstrate a critical understanding of pedagogical impact	LO1
2	Identify and critically discuss effective and sustainable leadership strategies and communication skills that you would need to aspire to and/or employ to be an outstanding early childhood leader
3	Communicate academic language, using relevant, current, and scholarly literature and accurate APA referencing conventions	LO3
4	1 2 3	LO1, LO3

Assessment Task 2: Early Childhood Leadership - Job Application

Task Description:

You are applying for a leadership position in a Child Care and Education Centre or a Kindergarten or AST3 (Early Childhood) in a school setting.

In your portfolio you will outline how you would initiate and develop a culture of collaboration with staff, families and relevant community members who, in the past, have been hesitant or reluctant to participate and how this vision will be implemented into the context.

In your response, consider the following - collaborative research-informed leadership strategies, ethical practices, participatory involvement and shared decision making.

Completion of this Assessment Task relates to Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) 6.1, 7.3

Task Length:

1400 words equivalent

Due Date:

Week 12

Weight:

60 %

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and pass any hurdle tasks.

Academic progress review

The results for this unit may be included in a review of your academic progress. For information about progress reviews and what they mean for all students, see Academic Progress Review in the Student Portal.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Academic integrity

Academic integrity is about acting responsibly, honestly, ethically, and collegially when using, producing, and communicating information with other students and staff members.

In written work, you must correctly reference the work of others to maintain academic integrity. To find out the referencing style for this unit, see the assessment information in the MyLO site, or contact your teaching staff. For more detail about Academic Integrity, see Important Guidelines & Support.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.

Required Resources

Required reading materials

Davis, K., Krieg, S., & Smith, K. (2015). Leading otherwise: using a feminist-poststructuralist and postcolonial lens to create alternative spaces for early childhood educational leaders. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 18(2), 131-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2014.943296
Cooper, M. (2023). Teachers grappling with a teacher-leader identity: complexities and tensions in early childhood education. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 26(1), 54-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2020.1744733
Omdal, H., & Roland, P. (2020). Possibilities and challenges in sustained capacity-building in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions: ECEC leaders’ perspectives. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 28(4), 568-581. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2020.1783929
Klevering, N., & McNae, R. (2019). Making sense of leadership in early childhood education: Tensions and complexities between concepts and practices. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 33, 5-17. https://doi.org/10.21307/jelpp-2018-002
Aubrey, C. A. (2019). What early childhood leadership for what kind of world? Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20(1), 65-78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949119828145
Nxumalo, F., & Villanueva, M. (2020). (Re)storying Water Decolonial pedagogies of Relational Affect with Young Children. In B. Dernikos, N. Lesko, S. McCall, & A. Niccolini (Eds.), Mapping the Affective Turn in Education. Routledge.
Poelina, A., Wooltorton, S., Blaise, M., Aniere, C. L., Horwitz, P., White, P. J., & Muecke, S. (2022). Regeneration Time: Ancient Wisdom for Planetary Wellbeing. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 38(3-4), 397-414.
Blaise, M., & Hamm, C. (2022). Lively Emu dialogues: activating feminist common worlding pedagogies. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 30(4), 473-489. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2020.1817137
Somerville, M. J., & McGavock, T. (2022). Learning Planetary Literacies Through Multiple Bushfire Deaths and Hope Through Recovery and Regeneration. In M. Häggström & C. Schmidt (Eds.), Relational and Critical Perspectives on Education for Sustainable Development: Belonging and Sensing in a Vanishing World (pp. 113-127). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84510-0_8
Nelson, N., Hodgins, B. D., & Danis, I. (2019). New Obligations and Shared Vulnerabilities: Reimagining Sustainability for Live-Able Worlds. In Nordina: Nordic Studies in Science Education (Vol. 15): University of Oslo.

Reading Lists provide direct access to all material on unit reading lists in one place. This includes eReadings and items in Reserve. You can access the Reading List for this unit from the link in MyLO, or by going to the Reading Lists page on the University Library website.