Reference no: EM133534340 , Length: word count:4800

Global leaders in early childhood education

Assessment - Professional Report

Learning Outcome 1: critically analyse the relationship between economic, environmental, cultural and social factors influencing contemporary early childhood education leadership

Learning Outcome 2: utilise critical literacies to understand knowledge construction and its ratification within and external to the field of early childhood education

Learning Outcome 3: consider cross-cultural perspectives and global development in relation to local and regional enactments of research, policy and practice in early childhood education

Learning Outcome 4: critically examine national and international developments in policy, practice and research for early childhood education and care

Learning Outcome 5: communicate understanding of the key debates and contemporary concerns in the Early Childhood sector, both nationally and globally, through a generation of an original professional inquiry, utilising individual reporting and an academic report.

Details of Task:

1. Select a topic to research in relation to global leadership for early childhood education that is relevant to you as a leader in early childhood education.

2. Develop your knowledge and understandings of the topic using the scholarly research as well as appropriate policy papers and other grey literature with the aim of understanding the topic within the local and global policy context of early childhood education

3. Include in your research, scholarly research that can support the development of complex understandings in relation to cultural, environmental and/or social factors influencing this topic and its impact/importance in relation to leadership in early childhood education. N.B: You only cover what is relevant to your topic in relation to cultural, environmental and/or social factors.

4. Use theoretical concepts to develop and expand your understandings and knowledge of this topic to support the development of complex understandings of global leadership for early childhood education. For example, neo-liberalism is a concept that you have studied in this unit and may be relevant to your topic. We have also discussed how concepts like 'the child' and 'childhoods' influence how we understand and enact our leadership depending on our image of the child. We have noted some of the undergraduate work we may have encountered here such as sociology of childhood (eg: Corsaro "the sociology of childhood; Peter Moss; UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; Karen Murris and the posthuman child:

5. Develop an action plan to support you in making change to your leadership in relation to your topic. Your action plan should b e 'small' you are not able to change the system of ECEC. Start small, start local, or even just start with self as leader. Little changes in your action plan. And make your 'actions' doable. So if your action plan is to 'improve my coaching skills as a leader one action might be "to read about theories of coaching" as one action and from there 'test' out one approach and then re-evaluate. That's it. It is that simple.
5. Present your research in two parts: 1) a written professional report (3000 words); and 2) an action plan (1800 word equivalent).

Presentation:
Your professional report will consist of two parts: 1) a written professional report: and 2) an action plan (1800 word equivalent).
Your written professional report will be 3000 words and will consist of the following four sections:

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review - you will need to provide a critical literature review on your topic of choice. What does the literature say/not say about your topic of choice and its importance to the early childhood field? This is to be a critical reading of the literature and therefore written as a critical literature review. That means it is not about simply 'reporting' what the literature says but comparing, contrasting, arguing, synthesising, and evaluating the literature. This should also include the grey literature (e.g: relevant policies & reports; media, news articles, etc). You may use sub-headings for your literature review.

3. Critical discussion of your findings (i.e: from your literature review) - your should consider you topic from a 'global leadership' perspective. What relationship does your topic have to do with the readings you have engaged with in this unit? You can consider it from one or more of the following aspects as well as their relationship to each other: social, environmental, economic, and cultural factors (i.e: we covered in this unit global leadership for reconciliation, sustainability, equity and equality, and leadership in the Anthropocene as well as examining leadership within current neo-liberal policy frameworks and the globalisation of early childhood and what this means for leadership). This section will allow you to draw all your learning together both from the unit content as well as your literature review about your chosen topic and therefore, allow you to discuss your topic from a highly informed and with a critical lens in relation to global leadership for early childhood education. It is the section where you will be able to make critically informed statements about your topic in relation to global leadership for early childhood education. You will draw on your findings from the literature review to support the claims that you make in this section backed by the research.

4. Conclusion: What have you learned? What is your position? This section also considers the ‘so what' question (implications for you as a global leader in early childhood from your own local context that sits within a global context).