Competencies

Formulate a vision to lead.

Evaluate principles of ethics and leadership.

Explore advocacy opportunities in the community.

Evaluate how to develop high-quality educators through ethics and leadership.

Evaluate the impact of professionalism on children, families, and community.

Develop strategies for training and mentoring future leaders in early childhood education.

Instructions

One aspect of being an early childhood education leader is advocating for children, their families, yourself, and the profession. Networking with other leaders, investigation, and reflection will assist you with finding your voice, while becoming a catalyst for change and positive outcomes for you and the children and the families you serve.

This project contains two components: an interview with a leader, and a public service announcement. Part 1: Interview with a Leader

First, conduct an interview with an individual in a leadership position. This individual can be in a formal or informal leadership position and is not required to work within the field of early education. For example, you may choose a parent leader of a parent support group, a manager of a local business, a community activist, or an individual with a leadership role within your own organization.

Organize and schedule the interview with your chosen leader. Interviews can be conducted via email, video or phone call, or in person.

Prepare at least 10 questions to ask during the interview. Keep in mind that the purpose of this interview is to gain insight into the individual’s leadership style as well as how they handle challenging situations.

Conduct the interview. Interviews should be limited to no more than 45 minutes. Remember to take detailed notes.

Next, in a written reflection, summarize the details of the interview (i.e., the name of your interviewee, time, date and method of the interview). Describe why you chose to interview this leader and include your list of questions in your reflection. Using at least three examples, compare and contrast your leadership style with the style of your interviewee. Offer an example of at least one similarity and one difference you noticed in how you would approach situations and lead others. Describe at least one strength and one weakness for each leadership style using outside resources to support your ideas.

Part 2: Public Service Announcement

Choose a challenge, crisis, or situation that you might encounter while at work in an early childhood setting, such as a natural disaster, economic crisis, health emergency, difficult conversations with parents, etc. If you are not currently working in an early childhood environment, select a situation you think could happen in that setting. 

Use a presentation tool such as PowerPoint or Prezi (or any other format that is compatible with the drop box) to create a public service announcement to help others see how you would handle the situation. The public service announcement should contain the following components:

A detailed description/narrative of the challenge or crisis. What issue needs to be addressed, solved, or supported?

A reflection on the situation, challenge, or crisis and explanation of how your leadership style (as described in the reflection above) may affect the outcome of the situation. Will your leadership style be a natural asset or would you need to modify your style before addressing the situation? Offer at least two examples to support and clarify your ideas.

A course of action through the crisis or challenging situation. List and describe at least five actions you will take to remedy the situation. Your course of action should support your leadership style.

A visually interesting and organized presentation using photos and bulleted lists.

A cover page/slide including name, date, and title of the PSA.

Use the appropriate audience-specific tone and context to write a narrative script in the notes section of each slide or in a Word document. Then narrate and record your script using the presentation tool you selected.

Your recorded presentation should be no longer than two minutes.

Submit your written interview reflection and your PSA presentation.