Educational Leader - What's happening in your workplace?

[Mad Molly]

Looking for some feedback regarding your Educational Leader (as per draft regs)?

Who have you appointed at your centre? And what sort of hours are the doing. How much non contact time do they sit in on? How much time would they spend in each group? Is it a Director? Is it a Teacher? Do they also have another role / tasks to complete?

We have already had one Director leading this for approximately 2 years so the transition should be fairly easy, but recently there has been some question over rostering and role descriptions... so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Anne Kennedy]

Hi---interesting questions. I have heard about a cluster of services sharing the employment of a pedagogical leader between their services....none of the services could afford to hire a PL on their own, but as a cluster it was affordable. The PL works across the services, with individual educators, with educators from the different services who work with the same age groups and with whole staff teams when possible. This sounds like a great idea...the problem would be finding someone with the quals and experience and skills for this type of work.
Anne K

[Sandra Cheeseman]

I do like your question Molly, we have had this term emerge in the Regs with little explanation about where this role fits. For me it is not a separate role but is a part of the role of the most qualified people in your service. Perhaps it has not been explicit before but as you say your Director has been taking on this role for the last two years. In most cases the most qualified people in the setting do assume soem responsibilty for leading others - I think the Regs are now making this clear. To me this is not an extra role but one that should be a part of the work of qualififed staff. It is I guess like a hairdresser who coaches and guides their apprentice thorugh a range of strategies like direct teaching, to mentoring, to modelling and helping to problem solve. YOur question about time to do this well is a good one - much of the time it can happen on the go but to do it well there should be time to meet and talk, set goals, gain feedback. After all the apprentice is supernumery for quite a while and this is not the case in early chidlhood settings - we dont have the luxury of a sopare who can stand alongside while the mentor demonstrates. My suggestion is not to make this role bigger than it needs to be and try to find ways of incorporating the responsibility into the day to day work and culture of the setting. But yes do organise some time for all to talk and refelct as leadership cannot be done well when always on the run.

[Sublimity]

My Director talked to me about this, despite regs being a little unclear on what this persons role is. Though she thought that since I was the most qualified person in the centre, I would be better suited to the role and thought it would be more economical and sensible to appoint this role to someone already at the centre who knows how things go and works with it, therefore having better repore with existing staff. This also means that they dont have to financially hire another staff member. She thought that since I was already employed as the Kindergarten Teacher (Govt Approved in QLD), they would just extend my role to the Educational Leader since Im there full time anyway and then I would also satisfy the requirements of an ECT at the centre.

She suggested that perhaps I would be given 30mins non-contact time to spend with each of the group leaders during their programming time (total of 1.5 hours) to assist them understand the programming requirements, provide support, check paperwork, answer questions, provide them with more knowledge or ideas and keep them up to date with the latest trends and developments in the Early Childhood Sector etc etc. This also would mean I would continue to do everything I already do, attend as much PD as I can and report back to the staff.

[Mad Molly]

Sounds like we are on the right track then. Thanks folks!

I had considered the possibility of the Kindergarten Teacher assuming the role, and obviously offering non contact time with each other group leader but I was concerned about the actual practise not being given any time.

Either way - role description complete! Now to make the offer haha!

[soniat]

believe that the major issue facing education leaders is that the students we serve do not have adequate support from their families. If that is the case, what do you recommend that school leaders do? I see three options: blame the parents and throw up our hands; concentrate our energies on changing the ways parents choose to raise their children; or change our strategies to work effectively with the students who come to us for an education, whatever their circumstances. i want to make dissertation on educational leadership for iv th sem plz help me out anyone have anything to guide me.. Thanks

[Sandra Cheeseman]

I guess I could suggest another option - reflect on how the pedagogies at the school reflect the needs and desires of the families and how miuch emphasis is put on developing a sense of belonging for all families - not just the pretty ones. It is challenging at times when famileis have different values or styles than those we are comfortable with. We are however charged with the responsiblty as professionals to take the initiative and see where we can change our practices to better engage families who for any number of reasons might not see it our way. This is so important for pedagogical leaeders to model reflective practice and encourage staff to persist in engaging families and children in all the program has to offer.

[Gam]

I agree with you Sandra, but it is the how? How do schools engage families who see school as the place to deal with all issues not as a partnership. This is an ongoing struggle but of course a very important one.

[Anne Kennedy]

Gam...I agree with you that some families regard schools in a different way sometimes because their own experience of schools or schooling was not so positive or because partnership ideas were not prevalent when they were at school. Some teachers I worked with this year, developed a small project to engage with those families who were not very visible in the schools where they worked. What worked best were having informal, child and family focused social things such as a 'family fun day'. In social work these are called 'soft options' which mean they are non-threatening, gentle ways to start engaging with families. The other helpful strategy was to use 'a change agent' person to help encourage other families to come to the social event. For example, in one school two Turkish speaking teacher aides were very active in encouraging families to come and come they did in numbers that had never been seen at the school before.
Anne K

[Gam]

Some great ideas Anne I will be suggesting some 'soft options' for next year. It is true that social family events are always more popular. At our school we need to better reach out to our multicultural community. It is a focus we are constantly discussing and trying to find new ideas and resources. I am sure many others have similar difficulties.