Leadership in Early Childhood Education - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages There are different definitions of leadership in general and there is no widely accepted definition of leadership, no shared agreement on how best to improve leadership and leaders. The definitions mostly revolve around individual traits, influence over others, role relationships, situational characteristics and the notion of the follower, meeting people’s needs, mobilizing power, negotiating agreements and becoming political. (Lecture A1PP).             Traditionally, the leadership viewed the worker as a person who was part of the working masses. Historical definitions have changed a lot and new contemporary definitions emerged through many authors’ works. However, highly gendered traditional models of leadership have been seen as natural to leadership (Hard 2005). However, research indicates that women are rated as more effective leaders and that many women have developed a leadership style that involves promoting interactions with colleagues, encouraging employee participation, and sharing information and power (Hard 2005).             I concur with the view that express leadership in terms of formality and informality (Hard 2005). The formal leader is the one who is appointed the informal leader is the one who demonstrates leadership qualities. This is evident in the theory of Leadership treats approach, which focuses on the traits of individuals, identifying the characteristics such as self-confidence, problem-solving, organizational skills (Hard, 2005). Some researchers conceptualize leadership as a treat or as behavior whereas others view the leadership from an information processing perspective.             In my view, I support contemporary styles of leadership that include Transformational leaders, Transactional leadership, Charismatic leadership, Gender-specific leadership, authentic leadership (lecture A2), Distributed leadership,  Transformational leaders articulate a vision, use lateral thinking, and inspire their colleagues to achieve at a high level for the organization.  In transformational leadership, I can improve workers' conditions, develop teams, and have shared decision-making. My success is very much dependent upon the workers' perception of the leader's ability. Visionary leaders adopt a new vision; their goal is to move people towards a new vision. According to Macbeath (2004) (as stated by Hard, 2005), charismatic leader is closely associated with the bid leader image and has qualities that are larger than life and they inspire their colleagues to follow them. Gender-specific leadership is based on the assumption that men make the best or most natural leaders. This dominant discourse has prevented women from being the producers or subjects of knowledge (as cited by Hard (Tnaton 1994) 2005). Ebbec (2003) says that there is an agreement among these contemporary authors that the leadership grows through interaction with people and the relations that grow between leaders and the others are vital in sustaining leadership. The traditional view has changed a lot among contemporary authors but some traits of it still in use these days. Authentic leaders are self-aware. They are not afraid to show their real selves to their followers. Their behavior does not vary whether they are in the public sector or in private. They are not afraid to make mistakes or look wrong. The conceptual models of distributed leadership primarily developed by Wariganayaanayke (2000, cited by Ebbeck and Wariganayake, 2004), advocated the knowledge-based leadership. The accentuating aim of this model was to enable leadership in areas in which one is knowledgeable, component, and therefore able to guide decision making in an informed way.  ...Download file to see next pagesRead More