Essays

Writing from scratch:

I will keep sharing further information moving forward.

Assessment is in two parts (Total: 2450 words)

Part Two: Essay One (1700 words) Learning Outcomes: LO1, LO3

Identify and describe in detail a leadership situation that you observed in your early childhood centre (real or hypothetical) (in 200 words).

Critically analyse the situation by drawing on three concepts from the Course Guide. Justify your decisions about the leaders actions by linking your discussion to the course literature. (in 1500 words)

These are the concepts from the Course Guide to apply. Choose any three from below:

Section One: You as a Leader
1.4 Distributed Leadership -(and other styles of leadership further down)

Section Two: Leading and Managing Teams
2.1 Building Teams
2.2 Supervision, Coaching and Mentoring
2.3 Staff Development and Appraisal
2.4 Conflict Resolution

Section Three: Leading Towards Change
3.1 Values-Based Leadership
3.2 Pedagogical Leadership
3.3 Developing A Shared Vision
3.4 Management Structures in the Early Childhood Sector
3.5 Planning and Associated Strategies
3.6 Implementing, Monitoring and Reviewing

This analysis depends greatly on the leadership situation that you describe. You need to relate a situation where the leader (or leaders if that works better) works with other adults – teachers – and gets things done, or resolves an issue or makes things better by using the concepts that you want to apply to it. The situation should be written as a detailed, factual account (like giving evidence in court) as in: this happened, then this happened, then the result of that was that this happened. Thereby concentrating on the actions of the leader/s in it so that you can refer back to it in your analysis. If you don’t have enough detail of interpersonal adult relationships, then you have to dig too hard to apply what you want and make it relevant. Just check that you can easily see three things there that relate to leading other adults.

The leaders don’t have to have formal roles, anyone can lead in a situation, and if you are somehow involved, then refer to yourself as “the student teacher” so that you distance yourself a little from the critique. You should be writing in the third person here.
Your critical analysis must link to the leadership literature covered in the course, and to three concepts. There are a number of different aspects in the course that you can use to critically analyse your leadership situation most are listed in the menu of the COURSE GUIDE but you may find others. You will find course guide in uploaded documents: Instructions-Course Guide.docx.

Part Three: Essay Two (750 words) Learning Outcome: LO2

Articulate and defend your values and beliefs on leadership in the early childhood sector and your own practice as a leader, in line with your philosophy of teaching. Draw on theories and practices in the course materials to justify the elements you are defending in your philosophy of leadership.

For the second essay, we want to know what you believe about leading adults, your values and beliefs of leadership in ECE. Don’t include your teaching philosophy – just the parts that relate to leading adults, if they do. What do you think works leading adults, why, and who in the literature agrees with you (theories and practices). You can use “I believe” but your decisions must be supported by the course literature to justify you including that element in your leadership philosophy.

Learning Outcomes:

LO1: Critically review perspectives on leadership within the context of early childhood education
LO2: Critically reflect on the impact of personal values, beliefs and practices in developing a professional and ethical code of leadership within the early childhood context
LO3: Justify a range of socially and culturally appropriate leadership practices in the early childhood education context

Course required readings must be used as well as additional literature and important websites to inform the knowledge of your assessment. Course Guide is only for your knowledge. APA 6th edition reference list must be attached.

Part Two: Essay One: 1700 Words
Part Three: Essay Two: 750 Words
(Total Word Count: 2450 words)
*15% leeway above or below word limit

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

(1) This is a level 7 course so please ensure to maintain good academic presentation standards with excellent referencing throughout all the parts. Further information can be found in uploaded document: Instructions-Assessment_Presentation_Criteria.pdf

(2) My writing style is simplistic with understandable terms.

(3) No headings and sub-headings within essays. The first sentence of the paragraph is a topic sentence that states the main idea of the paragraph. The last sentence of the paragraph is a concluding sentence proving the point you are making or act as a link to the following paragraph. Further information can be found in uploaded document: Instructions-Well-constructed_paragraphs.pdf

(4) For Essay Introduction use 5% of the word count and Essay Conclusion use 10% of the word count. Further information can be found in uploaded document: Instructions-Writing_Introductions_and_Conclusions

(6) Detailed information on marking criteria can be found in uploaded document: Instructions-Criteria for Marking Presentation in Written Assessments.pdf

(5) Referencing Style: APA 6th Edition with page numbers A MUST. You need to limit your use of direct quotes and more importantly, use effective paraphrasing APA Guidelines to be followed. Further information can be found in uploaded document: Instructions-APA-Quick-Guide.pdf

(6) 100% Plagiarism free.

(7) I have set deadline for this project as 22 May but my submission is later, so we can have enough time for revisions.

Thanks