Pedagogical Leader Award
Closing Date: 21 February 2020
Pedagogical Leader Award
Pedagogical leadership drives quality in early years provision, to the benefit of children (Hallet, 2013). Early Childhood Ireland wants to celebrate and learn from these leaders in our membership. The pedagogical leader in early learning and care services is a ‘leader of learning’ in services, for staff teams and children.
Pedagogical leaders in early learning and care settings understand the wider context for learning; are committed to collaboration, and to the improvement of children’s learning outcomes (Siraj-Blatchford and Manni, 2007). Effective leadership practices includes: identifying and articulating a collective vision in a service; effective communication; encouraging reflection; monitoring and assessing practice; a commitment to ongoing, professional development; distributed leadership; building a learning community and a team culture; encouraging and facilitating parent and community partnerships.
A pedagogical leader recognises that the core of early learning is to ensure the quality of the day-to-day lives of children; who keeps abreast of current evidence and issues in early learning and disseminates this information to staff (Kagan and Bowman, 1997). Pedagogical leaders ensure that practices are appropriate for children and advocate on behalf of children and families.
ECI’s member services are invited to nominate an educator/manager in their service who they believe is a pedagogical leader.
Inspired Practice - Criteria for Short-listing and Judging
Please use the awards application form to demonstrate how an early years educator:
| Criteria | Marks |
· Gives visibility to the competencies and contributions of babies, young children and preschool children. · Deepens engagement with families as partners in their children’s learning | 25 |
· Demonstrates a partnership and collaboration with the community. · Values, promotes and celebrates respect for diversity, equity and inclusion. | 25 |
· Uses and disseminates current evidence and thinking in early learning in developing a culture of improvement. · Develops a culture of reflective practice so that professional development happens day after day. | 25 |
· Articulates the centrality of children’s play in learning and development and supports and mentors practitioners to implement an emergent enquiry-based curriculum. · Plans for and builds shared collective leadership in the service to make changes and to improve practices, to the benefit of children and families. · The themes from the Aistear Framework should underpin your story. However, it is not necessary to make direct links to the learning goals and aims | 25 |
| Total | 100 |
Documentation and Supporting Evidence
- The maximum word limit is 750 words.
- Award entries must be factually accurate
- Supportive evidence may include for e.g. a maximum of one relevant photograph or artwork to support but is not essential
- A completed application form, in Microsoft Word format only.
- A signed Declaration
- Consents for all photos included (photos will not be accepted without photo consents).
- Photograph submission form, if applicable.
- A written testimonial from a parents and/or other family members
- You can embed your photos into your word application form (file size should not be bigger than 3 mb)
Opening and closing dates for awards applications
Opening Date: 6 January 2020
Closing Date: 21 February 2020
For more information on how to apply and the short-listing and judging process see here (click to page 2)
