SF: Assignment 1

Facing Goliath:: A Heart-to-Heart Talk About Leadership and Change

Author(s): Valora Washington

Source: YC Young Children , Vol. 70, No. 2 (May 2015), pp. 38-41

Published by: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/ycyoungchildren.70.2.38

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Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? Vanity asks the question, Is it popular? But conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.

—Martin Luther King Jr. “A Proper Sense of Priorities”

L eadership speaks about change and change makers—early educators asking an essential question of con- science: Are we doing the right thing?

The CAYL (Community Advocates for Young Learners) Institute was established in 2004 to provide a forum for early educators to ask questions, and to seek answers, about our work. A basic CAYL (pronounced kale) premise is that, during this dynamic era of interest in early learning, early educators must be better organized, equipped, and empowered to lead change for both children and themselves.

In the decade since CAYL’s inception, we have engaged in intimate, trusting discussions with hundreds of early educators as they define

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Young Children May 201538

Leadership: Supporting a New Generation of Early Childhood Professionals

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their dreams, hopes, and fears about change. Representing their voices, we address the questions posed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

■n Is our work popular? Largely due to the successful advo- cacy of early educators, the public has more interest in, and more willingness to invest, in our work than at any time in history.

■n Is our work politic? With public interest comes public scrutiny and new perspectives. Once-novel voices— governors, economists, and school boards, for example— now weigh in and take action about young learners.

■n Is our work safe? Sensing a new era for the profession, many worry that the changes challenge our field’s ac- cumulated wisdom, question our practices, and rush too quickly toward academic outcomes. Many of us feel unsafe—intimidated, negated, and isolated—in the face of a tsunami of proposed changes.

■n Are we doing the right thing? We cannot deny the gap that exists between what we know and what we do in practice.

■n Do we have the will to take a position that may be neither safe nor politic nor popular, because we know it is right? In order to move forward, we as a profession would need to be a more strongly organized, effective field of practice.

■n Are we doing the right thing? Many children still do not receive high-quality early care and education. Even as millions of dollars are invested in early childhood systems, our colleagues who work on the front lines have low wages in spite of rising expectations about their qualifi- cations and the results they will produce. Knowing this, what are our responsibilities to take action? And how exactly do we do so?

Facing Goliath In our book Ready or Not, Stacie Goffin and I articulated two predominant ironies in our field:

■n First, there is a performance gap. The field’s knowledge base has exploded in recent years, but this new knowl- edge has not been implemented consistently or system- atically.

■n Second, we face a credibility gap when we fail to ad- dress poor-quality practice or to insist on the necessary resources to do the job well (Goffin & Washington 2007).

To address these ironies, the field as a whole must act with greater urgency to better define our purpose and responsibilities. But while many of us hear and concur with these calls to action, some of us feel paralyzed. To the individual practitioner, the job ahead might seem too big— too Goliathan—to take the first steps. Using the analogy of the well-known story of David and Goliath, we ask, Who among us has not felt the quiet despair of feeling weak in the face of the strong?

What can we do? The size, force, and direction of change is huge—Goliathan. And, yes, there are obstacles to change—wavering courage, gigantic challenges, and uncertain responses when we feel intimidated, neglected, or isolated.

In a book on leadership to be published later this year, my coauthors—Brenda Gadson and Kate Amel—and I share lessons we have learned over the past 10 years about leader- ship, about mobilizing early educators to influence the direction of change, and about the educators themselves becoming Architects of Change. We discuss ways to

■n Build community among all of us (i.e., schools, family child care, and centers)

■n Share, and learn from, the experiences, wisdom, and approaches used by “ordinary” people—early educators like you

■n Create safe places where we can own our adaptive lead- ership work, which is to

■● Question our assumptions

■● Engage in collegial dialog, nudging each other out of our comfort zones

■● Facilitate constructive, active learning that stimulates innovation

■● Identify options

■● Take action

Toward becoming an Architect of Change We describe the lessons we have learned about leader- ship and change in a framework called Analyze, Advance, Act, and Accelerate. Change begins as we Analyze—think and reflect about—the challenges before us. Then, Archi- tects of Change Advance our cause through planning and preparation, understanding the asymmetrical nature of our efforts, deciding how to face Goliath, and strengthening our collective vision and identity. Now the Architect of Change

About the Author Valora Washington, PhD, is the CEo of the Council for Pro- fessional Recognition and the founder of the CAYl Institute. She has served on numerous federal, state, and local boards and commissions and coauthored over 50 publications. She is a Certified Association Executive with the American Soci- ety of Association Executives. Her book on leadership, with Brenda Gadson and Kate Amel, will be published by Teachers College Press later this year. [email protected]

You and I—ordinary people—can and must participate directly in creating positive social change for our children and for ourselves as a profession.

May 2015 Young Children 39

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is ready to Act with courage and boldness; we align what we know with what we do, beginning with our everyday challenges. Finally, we Accelerate change by working within a confidential community, focusing on what we want (rather than what we don’t want), and communicating impact. Each step in this four-path framework represents a progression that builds upon and is interdependent with the others.

Gather five smooth stones David brought five smooth stones to the challenge with Goliath. For us the stones represent the ideas, knowledge, skills, dispositions, strategies, and people necessary to achieve important goals. If one stone doesn’t work, we do not give up! Becoming an Architect of Change will require a lifetime of investigation, reflection on our experiences, and active testing of what we are learning.

Our hopes We have four major hopes for you as you face your own Goliaths:

■n Become an Architect of Change, not simply a reactor to the change occurring around us. You can learn how to change the rules of the game rather than be overwhelmed by Goliath-size obstacles.

■n Learn and gain insights from the experiences of a confi- dential community of early educators—leaders like your- self. Community is a vital tool when facing our everyday Goliaths.

■n Be inspired to participate in a new vision and shared identity among early educators. We must reduce our individual and collective sense of isolation.

■n Cement your resolve to make our national commitment to both young children and the people who care for and edu- cate them even stronger. A towering goal, to be sure. We must champion early care and education practice as a foundational part of America’s public education system, even when our programs are not located in a “school.”

Let’s talk about leadership and change Each of us is called to leadership. . . . And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.

—Martin Luther King Jr. “A Proper Sense of Priorities”

We must take a field-wide leadership position—because it is right. We cannot be intimidated, negated, or isolated anymore. You and I—ordinary people—can and must participate directly in creating positive social change for our children and for ourselves as a profession. We intend to overcome all of our Goliaths, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. (1964), “to fulfill the American dream.”

I have personally been encouraged by the infinite potential of people who commit their lives to caring for and educating young children. Generations are nurtured in our family child care homes, preschool centers, Head Start pro- grams, and schools. Every child comes to us with enormous potential and unknown power. And every child who comes through our door with a trusting smile and an open hand is pure and perfect—a gift. Some come to us bruised or hurt, perhaps, and too often underfed or underloved. We take them under our wing and open doors wide to the wonders of this life. We open those doors, keeping them safe while nudging them into their unknown futures.

There is no more breathtaking profession, no more mag- nificent calling, than being an early educator. Be reminded of who you are. Who we are. The respect we deserve, and the resources we must have. And now is the time that has come for us, as we gather our communities, polish our stones, and face our giants!

Our field-wide efforts to become Architects of Change matter deeply—for us and for those we serve. We face Goliath because we recognize the possibilities of change (not fate) and of equality (not social hierarchy) and of op- portunity (not predestination). We face Goliath because we have hope.

We anticipate a journey, a marathon—not an event or a sprint. We know that neither leadership nor change happen by chance—but by our willingness and strength to face Goliath.

Now is the time that has come for us as early educators.

I come here tonight and plead with you: Believe in your- self and believe that you’re somebody! . . . Nobody else can do this for us.

—Martin Luther King Jr. “I’m Black and Beautiful”

References

Goffin, S.G., & V. Washington. 2007. Ready or Not: Leadership Choices in Early Care and Education. New York: Teachers College Press.

King, M.L., Jr. 1964. “The American Dream.” Speech presented at Drew University, February 5. http://depts.drew.edu/lib/archives/online_ exhibits/King/speech/TheAmericanDream.pdf.

There is no more breathtaking pro- fession, no more magnificent calling, than being an early educator.

Copyright © 2015 by the national Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online at www.naeyc.org/yc/permissions.

Young Children May 201540

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