Subject code and name Course code and name Name of presentation (eg: Lecture Week 1) ECPPL405A LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD HE20510 Bachelor of Early Childhood, Education and Care (Birth – 5) Week 11 Lecture Topic: Power, professional judgement and ethical practice Leading ethical practice Intentional leadership Power and relationships with children, families and staff www.highered.tafensw.edu.au TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 1 LEADING ETHICAL PRACTICE 2 www.highered.tafensw.edu.au TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood New understanding about contemporary leadership has challenged early childhood leaders and educators to reconceptualise their thinking, ideas, perspectives and approaches. For those working with and for young children and families, the intricate interplay between pedagogy, research, policy and ethics guides how leadership is framed and enacted. In rapidly changing times, early childhood leaders are responsible for ensuring that practice in early childhood services benefits the well-being of children, families and the community. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 3 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Therefore, they must be prepared to meet changing attitudes, needs, expectations and demands in ways that embody early childhood’s enduring professional values. Early childhood leaders are professionally obliged to lead quality services that are underpinned by ethical practice. The significance, importance and complexity of the moral or ethical dimension of contemporary leadership cannot be under-estimated. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 4 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Ethics refers to a codified philosophy of moral values that addresses questions of morality and describes the internally defined and adopted moral values and principles of a particular individual or professional group that are used to judge and govern conduct. Ethics often is applied to guide decision-making about more subtle concerns, such as rightness, fairness and equity. In early childhood, ethics should guide decision-making and policy development at all times. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 5 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Ethical practice requires early childhood leaders to develop considerable self-awareness about who they are, what values underpin their morality and ethics, how these affect their behaviour, and how their choices and decisions impact on others. Effective early childhood leaders are able to identify professional values and visibly personify (or live) their personal and professional values in their enactment of leadership. They define their own standards according to society’s moral values as well as professional values, expectations and obligations, and put those standards into practice. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 6 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Conscientious early childhood leaders who understand themselves are aware of the values that are most important to them—that is, the values in which they believe and that define them as people and as professionals. They proactively reflect about, choose and then embody their key values through their choices, decisions and actions. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 7 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Early childhood leaders who live out their values in their personal life and professional work are trusted, respected and perceived as ‘having character’ by colleagues. When early childhood leaders identify, share and live their values in their day-to-day work, team members, families and other professionals regard them as: genuine, honest, having courage and integrity, doing the right thing, leading legitimately and authentically, and generally doing their best personally, professionally and ethically. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 8 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Transformational leadership has become synonymous with ethical leadership because it is underpinned by values and morality. Transformational leaders display strong values and work to raise others’ consciousness in order to transcend self-interest. Their priorities and goals focus on the betterment of others and life in general. Today, early childhood educators wholeheartedly endorse the inclusion of ethics in their definition and enactment of leadership. Indeed, many would agree that leadership is essentially an ethical action that is guided by personal and professional values and principles about what is right and wrong, and in the rights and best interests of young children, families and early childhood services. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 9 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood An understanding of ethics is fundamental to leadership in early childhood because ethical principles help set high professional standards, build value-led workplace cultures, focus attention on what is right rather than what is expedient and guide decision-making. Ethics helps everyone in early childhood to understand: what they truly value how to connect values with daily life and early childhood practice influences on individual and professional choices and decisions, and standards and policies developed for early childhood services. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 10 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Ethical decision-making is a product of open dialogue when faced with problematic choices, characterised by empathy, fairness, equity, objectivity, learning from history and previous mistakes. It is based on information and facts from a range of perspectives and consultations. In early childhood, its aim is to protect and support children and families by arriving at facilitated, harmonious and just solutions to thorny issues. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 11 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood LEADING ETHICAL PRACTICE IN EC SERVICES Early childhood leaders and educators who engage in ethical practice base their day-to-day activities on core professional values directed at achieving high standards, securing ethical conduct, and advancing family and community understanding of quality service provision. Ethical practice refers to the ways in which early childhood educators understand and implement moral values and principles in their daily work and reflects professional ethical responsibilities for the protection of young children’s and families’ well-being in four key areas: TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 12 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood 1. the promotion and protection of children’s rights 2. ensuring quality services that affirm children’s rights 3. administration of services in accordance with ethical values and obligations, and 4. using the profession’s code of ethics to guide the resolution of ethical dilemmas. Ethical practice in early childhood services results from the complex integration of leaders’ understanding of, reflection about and decision-making in these four areas. Ethical values and principles determine how people ought to behave, treat one another and the obligations they have to one another; consequently, acting ethically in these areas means living by example and behaving professionally at all times. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 13 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood An understanding of ethics is fundamental to leadership in early childhood because ethical principles help set high professional standards, build value-led workplace cultures, focus attention on what is right rather than what is expedient and guide decision-making. Ethics helps everyone in early childhood to understand: what they truly value how to connect values with daily life and early childhood practice influences on individual and professional choices and decisions, and standards and policies developed for early childhood services. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 14 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Ethical decision-making is a product of open dialogue when faced with problematic choices, characterised by: empathy fairness equity objectivity learning from history and previous mistakes. It is based on information and facts from a range of perspectives and consultations. In early childhood, its aim is to protect and support children and families by arriving at facilitated, harmonious and just solutions to thorny issues. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 15 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood THE CODE OF ETHICS AND ETHICAL CHOICES Being a competent early childhood educator in contemporary society means more than being trained, qualified and experienced in the provision of services for young children and families. It involves adopting a particular mental set or attitude towards one’s work. Early childhood educators increasingly regard themselves as professionals, with a distinct professional identity and growing professional self-esteem and confidence. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 16 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Professionalism continues to be a valued in early childhood throughout the world. The adoption of a professional code of ethics is part of the definition of what it is to be a professional. Insightful early childhood educators appreciate that achieving professional status and credibility in the eyes of the community carries additional moral obligations and responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, services, local communities and society. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 17 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood A professional code of ethics is a set of statements about appropriate and expected conduct of members of a professional working group that reflects agreed and adopted values. Such statements help professionals avoid temptation, poor choices, improper decisions and wrongdoing by providing guidelines for determining what is right and courageous rather than expedient or avoidant, what is good rather than practical, and what behaviour may never be engaged in or condoned under any circumstances. A code of ethics offers a framework for identifying professional expectations and standards, a vehicle for advocacy, a mechanism for uniting the sector, a scaffold for reflective practice, a guide to decision-making and a challenge for action. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 18 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood A code of ethics is a vehicle for protecting the rights and welfare of those who may be dependent and vulnerable, as well as a means of protecting members of the profession themselves from making unsuitable decisions or engaging in unacceptable behaviour in relation to young children and their families. While early childhood leaders might argue that they are guided by altruistic values, vision and goals, and naturally would act in accordance with children’s rights and their best interests, a code of ethics provides a focus for debate about values and ethical issues, philosophy and pedagogy, guiding the complex decision-making faced in day-to-day work. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 19 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in Early Childhood A code of ethics is necessary because the early childhood’s infrastructure incorporates certain features that increase the likelihood of ethical quandaries occurring in daily practice, such as low status and power, a multiplicity of clients with potentially conflicting needs and interests, and role multiplicity and ambiguity. A code of ethics can assist early childhood educators, including leaders, to have the courage to make decisions and behave in ways that do not compromise children, themselves and other parties and groups associated with early childhood services. While a code of ethics cannot, and is not, intended to solve the individual and complex situations faced by early childhood educators in their daily work, it does offer a tool for guiding reflection, decision-making and action. TAFE NSW -Technical and Further Education Commission 20 ECPPL405A Leadership and Management in