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The Director as Key
September 23, 2010
I was not meant to be here telling my story, but the universe conspired, along with my courageous ancestors, to make it happen through their bravery and love of life.
-Olga Lacayo, in Stories of Resistance
-Olga Lacayo, in Stories of Resistance
A recent research report by the Urban Institute, “Understanding Quality in Context: Child Care Centers, Communities, Markets, and Public Policy,” recommends that policy makers “focus more on directors’ leadership skills and belief systems when shaping efforts to support quality.” The report concluded….
“The ability of child care center directors to produce good care is shaped by different contextual factors ranging from a director’s leadership style, management skills, and belief system to parent demand, labor supply, public funding and standards, and access to resources. While the confluence of external factors can make it extremely challenging for directors facing multiple obstacles, a wide range of strategies might be considered as policymakers seek to support higher quality programming. To improve the quality of the largest number of programs, it is important that initiatives take a comprehensive — and a flexible and individualized — approach. The directors with whom we spoke were clearly all committed to doing their best to support children and families. Initiatives to support early care and education can build on this fundamental strength.”
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Comments (4)
Displaying All 4 CommentsShishu Vikash Kendra
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Director is the key , its right . flexibility , corelation , orientation in early childhood
is also essential .
Honolulu Community College
Honolulu, HI, United States
So what are those skills/dispositions/personality traits/knowledge? Are they the same for big schools? small schools? poorly funded? well-funded? what makes miracles happen despite poor funding? what creates horrible schools? We know the director is the key. I suspect the skills are not teachable--that it's who the director is as a person. An data?
Strathmillan Children\'s Centre Inc
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
This particular article is exactly correct. The focus needs to also be placed on the leadership. Leadership dictates the direction, the scope and the kinds of service delivery that will occur within an Early Learning Program. The leader must have the necessary skills, tools and intellectual and emotional equipment to meet the ever diverse needs of a program. They must have the unique ability to recognize, analyse, decide, mentor and be excellent observers of behavior and interpersonal interactions combined with a knowledge of pedogogy and how that pedogogy will be dilevered and perhaps even articulated within the community. They must be reflective in their practice and must model that skill. They need to allow their staff to grow, to make mistakes, to learn, to take control and be leaders in and of themselves.
Thank you for highlighting a very important aspect of ELCC.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Management skills or leadership skills are important. Effective management stems from the director's ability to understand the bigger picture, to plan and chart a path towards the future as well as guide and support staff towards these goals. Within the founding of goals and drawing the map towards the bigger picture of the future, a leader needs to include the staff, the families and community. The future is built on the platform of today thus the elements of today must be included in creating the foundations for tomorrow.
Leadership is a balancing act. There are times when a leader needs to let the crew operate and allow a great deal of autonomy. Then, there are times when the leader must step into the role and take over the lead. Times of change and times of crisis or flux are times when the presence or strength of the leader is dearly needed. Change and flux are times to promote security and optimism as well as a time to provide effective (and often times specific)directions towards goals. Once staff feel secure and confident, the director needs to step back and find ways to support and increase autonomy of the staff.
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