Md. 5 assignment

Running Head: CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE LEADER 1

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE LEADER 4

Characteristics of an effective leader of change in working in the education field at a Head Start Agency.

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While working in the education field at the Head Start Agency, I discovered that leadership roles were divided into three, which are administrative and pedagogical leadership. The administrative leadership was headed by the Agency’s Executive Director whose main roles were to plan, set the agency’s objectives and quality improvement; in addition to ensuring collaboration with community systems and partners. According to (Douglass, 2019), administrative leaders should be visionary, motivational, have high accountability as a well as adequate decision making skills, since their job duties capture a wide array of responsibilities which may encompass human resourcing, finances such as management of the agency’s assets, promoting positive workplace relations, creating a culture of learning as well as improvement, constructive organizational decision-making during board meeting, and the professional development of staff. The administrative role is also led by the Education Specialist of the Head Start Agency.

The Education Specialist role and duties are to evaluate and provide recommendations to improve curriculum planning, individual lessons, and teaching methods at one or more grade levels. They also help coordinate and communicate expectations and progress among students' parents/guardians, guidance counselors and teachers (Douglas, 2019). When the Education Specialist has such leadership characteristics, the workforce and teaching staff is able to excel in their work. Their duties translate into high standards of process quality. In this way, leaders can weld an indirect impact on process quality through creation of supportive and positive working environments for staff. (Douglas, 2019)

Under the pedagogical leadership, teacher leadership which refers to personnel who engage in actions as well as behavior which influences change and development (Douglass, 2019). Such teacher leaders at the center have expert communication and superior listening capabilities which assist in the coordination and communication potentials and progress among their students and high quality interactions among children and children and teachers (Douglass, 2019). Other characteristics include deep knowledge, passion, brilliant preparation as well as organization skills for the subjects which helps in planning the curriculum, teaching techniques and subject lessons. Teachers also possess the ability to create caring relations with students which fosters approachability and friendliness. Douglass (2019), asserts that a strong work ethic and community-building skills directly or indirectly supports efforts towards building partnerships with families and the community comprising of teachers, parents, guidance counselors.

The Center manager at the agency is tasked with responsibility of nurturing positive working environment and relationships. They assist in building a culture of learning and supporting personnel proficiency improvement. They also help in decision-making, and staff professional development. Additionally, they oversee communication procedures and systems at the agency (Douglas, 2019). They have to be trustworthy people who create trusting relations with and between personnel. Centre managers promote the implementing of curriculum as well as assessment, in addition to constituting a working environment to support all of these. (Douglas, 2019)

Reference

Douglass, A. (2019). DIRECTORATE FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS Leadership for Quality Early Childhood Education and Care OECD Education Working Paper No. 211. http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=EDU/WKP(2019)19&docLanguage=En. Accessed on 6th April 2021

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