Is boss a four-letter word?

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Ships, airplanes, platoons, and teams have captains; choirs and orchestras have conductors; governments have mayors, prime ministers, and presidents. Who do early childhood centers have to keep things on track, assure people are learning their parts, working in harmony, and strengthening democratic ideals? The McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership has coined the phrase, "Directors are the key to quality." Since research shows that quality in most programs is mediocre at best, I can't help but wonder: Where have we put our keys?

I've been musing on how directors perceive their roles and choose their leadership style, particularly when changes are needed in their centers. In community-based ECE programs I typically see a preference for the idea of director as a facilitator, rather than a supervisor, and for shared leadership rather than a ship's captain. Is this because our profession is predominantly female, inherently focused on nurturing growth and philosophically opposed to ...