Leadership for Learning: A Case Study in Singapore

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Curriculum Leadership in Singapore's Early Childhood Education Landscape: Learning to Lead and Leading to Learn

Abstract

Roland Barth (2008) writes, “In our [education] profession, especially, one [who] is a learner . . . [is] thereby a leader. The moral authority of the educational leader comes first and foremost from being a learner” (p. x).

This study investigates ad hoc and planned efforts by centre leaders in Singapore pre-schools to build structures, processes and nurture a culture to support educators’ continuous learning (Siraj-Blatchford & Manni, 2007; Youngs & King, 2002). The scope of the study included typical leadership practices among centre leaders as well as variations in leadership practices across centres.
A philosophical stance of pragmatism was adopted and a combination of inductive and deductive strategies were used. The study design was one of convergent mixed methods (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011), with a survey and a multi-case study of seven centres. A theoretical framework, modified from that used by Youngs and King (2002) for capacity building guided the design of the survey to surface common leadership practices. Variations in leadership practices were surfaced through both the survey and the multi-case study.

The findings suggest that centre leaders spend 40% or less of their time on “professional tasks”. Centre leaders offered few opportunities for professional conversations and teacher initiative or agency. Centre leaders and teachers from government-funded private centres were involved in a wider range of professional learning activities and in greater frequency as compared to their counterparts in the non-funded private centres. On the professional development of teachers, individual learning activities appeared to have been favoured over group activities. Overall, a culture of performativity (Borko et al, 2010; Darling-Hammond, 2016) appeared to have been common among centres in a quickly changing early childhood landscape.

In this paper, the possible reasons behind the variations in leadership practices will be examined and implications of the findings on the quality of services for the children will be discussed alongside the implications for staff. The findings also suggest implications for leadership development within Singapore’s mixed offering of ECE in a neo-liberal landscape with minimal government intervention - that coordinated sector-wide and centre-based systems incorporating the careful selection and preparation of potential leaders, and the continuous professional and leadership development of the incumbents are needed (Bush & Glover, 2014; Kagan & Hallmark, 2001; Robinson et al, 2008; Stoll, 2009).

Author

• Chee-Wah Sum, Singaproe University of Social Sciences