1、中文 6000 字 ， 3700 单词， 2.1 万英文字符 出处： Sciaraffa M A. Profiles of Early Childhood Education Administrators: Looking for Patterns of LeadershipJ. 2004. Profiles of Early Childhood EducationAdministrators:Lookingfor Patterns ofLeadership MA Sciaraffa Administrators in the field of Early Childhood Educatio
2、n (ECE) assume multipleroleseachdaybecauseofthemanyinterdependentandinteractingcomponentsoftheearly childhoodprogram.Theymaintainanorganizationthatdeliversacomplexsetofservicesto children and their families. Culkin (1997) stated,“Early childhood managers work intheareas of personnel, budget, pedagog
3、y, adult education and staff development,families, outreach to community, communication, planning, and overall attention to the internaland externalvalues,mission,andgoalsoftheprogram”.Earlychildhoodadministratorscontend with the following issues: administrative educational preparation andrequiremen
4、ts；teacher educational preparation and requirements； auspice of the program； programfunding；and minimal standards with no compulsory accreditation program. Each of these issueswillbe explored in the following section then, followed by a research study thatinvestigatedearly childhood administrators l
5、ives andwork. Supervision in the field of ECE is very complex. First, there is no one clear pathwayto becoming an administrator in ECE (Kagan& Bowman, 1997； Mitchell, 1997).Individualsusually become administrators in ECE settings with little or no highereducationalpreparation. Despite the multiple r
6、oles and the various types of ECE programs (e.g.,publicschools, Head Start, private child care), there are very few required qualificationsfor administrators (Mitchell, 1997). Currently, there is not a compulsory national credential foradministrators of ECE programs. Administrators qualifications ca
7、n range from noformaleducation or training to a doctoratedegree. Incontrast,thereisawell-establishedpathtobecominganadministratorinaschoolsystem. This route entails attending a teacher preparation program at a four-year collegeor university in order to become certified to teach within the public sch
8、ool system. Then,theseindividuals may teach within a public school system after graduation from such aprogram. Theymayenrollinagraduateprogram,suchasEducationalLeadership,andcompletethestate requirements to be certified as a school administrator. Mitchell (1997) claimed, “Thetheoretical knowledge ga
9、ined from courses and the practical knowledge fromadministrative internships will prepare the individual to be a goodprincipal”. Administrators of Head Start programs follow a similar path. HeadStartadministratorstypicallybeginasteachers,becomecoordinatorswithsomemanagementresponsibilities, and fina
10、lly assume an administrative role. Unlike many child caredirectors, HeadStartadministratorsdohaveaccesstotrainingandtechnicalassistanceandhaveasupport system at regional and national levels. Additionally, there is a Head Start Directors Association, which offers formal and informal peer support andt
11、raining(Mitchell,1997). However,becomingadirectorofachildcareprogram,forexample,involvesalessdirect route and requires little or no formal education. There are few college-levelprogramsto prepare early childhood administrators and even fewer continuing education opportunities(Mitchell,1997；Morgan,20
12、00).Manytimes,teachersinchildcarebecomeadministrators but do not necessarily prepare for administration with formal education. Inasurveyof990directorsofchildcarecentersinIllinois,itwasfoundthat86%hadbeen classroom teachers prior to becoming an administrator, and 38% had no prioradministrative traini
13、ng (Bloom, 1992). Typically, many directors work as assistantdirectorsfirst, learning how to administer the program from the director. According toMitchell (1997), “ Some directors do prepare for their leadership roles by working asassistantdirectors under the nurturing guidance of a mentoring direc
14、tor in a large center”.Mitchellsuggested that it is important to learn from predecessors andmentors. Oneresourcenewdirectorshavetodirectandguidetheminthestatelicensing standards. Unfortunately, these guidelines are typically minimal and promote standardsthatare good enough to “do no harm” (Morgan, 2
15、000). Mitchell (1997) pointed out thatearly childhood administrators have few opportunities to attend formal college-levelcourses. According to Culkin(2000): Current preservice and inservice director-focused training opportunities are variedand uneven in terms of scope of knowledge and design of lea
16、rning activities. Someareembedded in higher education, others are based on practical experiences, and somecombine the theoretical with the practical, either in higher education settings or inprogramsdesigned for on-the-job learning. Additionally, only eight states mention administrative training in
17、theirlicensing requirements (Morgan, 2000). Bloom (1992) stated, “ While there is uniformagreementamong theorists about the importance of the directors role and the need for highly-trained personneltoserveinthiscapacity,thereisasurprisinglackofagreementaboutwhat constitutes minimum qualifications an
18、d how individuals should be trained”. ECEadvocates have discussed the need to implement a compulsory director credential, which would outline educational requirements for early childhood administrators. Having suchacredential, “will better equip directors with the necessary interdisciplinary andlead
19、ership knowledge and skills” (Culkin, 2000). The American Business Collaboration forQuality DependentCare(ABCInitiative)hasbeeninvestingindirectortrainingandcredentialing through projects at the state, local, and community agency level (Culkin, 2000).Thisinitiative is aiming to improve the quality o
20、f early childhood programs throughtheimplementation of a director credentialingproject. AsecondfactorthatmakessupervisioninthefieldofECEparticularlycomplexisthemanagementofvariouslyqualifiedstaff.Theearlychildhoodadministratormanagesstaffmemberswhodonothaveclearlydefinedrolesandwhoareatvariouslevels
21、ofcognitive ability, professional development, and stages of life (Sheerer & Bauer,1996).Childcareprovidersaregenerallyatadifferenteducationalandprofessionallevelthan teachers in elementary schools (Kagan& Bowman, 1997). Bloom (1992) stated, “Despite theaccumulationofevidenceintheresearchliteraturer
22、egardingthecrucialimpactof caregivers on childrens development in their early years, personnel requirements arenotregulatedinthesamemannerasthosefordegreedprofessionalsinelementaryschools”. The field of ECE appears to be a fragmented system characterized by inequities because ofthediverserequirement
23、sforchildcareproviders,HeadStartstaff,andelementaryschoolteachers. Bloom (1992)claimed,Many believe we are at risk of developing a two-tiered system of earlychildhood educators. Attracted by higher salaries, more attractive benefits, and betterworking conditions,thebestandbrightestearlychildhoodeduc
24、atorsarebeingluredintothepublicschool system. The significant differences in salaries and the status according tothoseworkingforpublicschoolsexacerbatestheproblemofstaffturnoverandcompromisesprogram quality in nonpublic prekindergartenprograms. Sheerer&Bauer(1996)notedthelackofhigherlevelsofeducatio
25、ninthefieldof ECEwithmanycaregivershavinglessthananassociatesdegreeandhavinglittletono child development or early childhood backgrounds. Thus, “ supervision oftenbecomesinterwovenwiththeprofessionaldevelopmentofstaff-asoundconcept,butonethatis oftenoverwhelmingforuntrainedsupervisors”(Sheerer&Bauer,
26、1996,p.202).Staff turnover can also make administration difficult because the administrator may spend agreatamount of time and money on recruiting new staff members and training newstaffmembers. AthirdfactorthatmakessupervisioninthefieldofECEcomplexistheauspiceof the program. Early childhood program
27、s exist for diverse purposes, serve children andtheirfamilies in a variety of ways, and confront different internal and external challenges.They areofferedtosocietythroughvarioussponsors(seeTable1):communityandgovernmentagencies,for-profitgroups,employers,churchesandsynagogues,publicschools,privatei
28、nstitutions, and individual providers (Goffin, 1994). In early childhood programsthesponsor generally guides the mission and purpose of theprogram. Some programs are privately owned and are for-profit programs or are affiliated withacorporate program (e.g., Kinder Care, Bright Horizons, or Tutor Tim
29、e). Some programsarechurch-sponsored and are not-for-profit programs. Other programs fall into the HeadStartcategory and can be governed by community action agencies, local school boards,or non-profit programs. Early childhood educational programs can also be set within thelargercontextofaCommunityCollegeoraUniversity.Theseprogramscaneitherserveaslab schools or as a service program. Lastly, some programs are affiliated with hospitals,
