Leadership Analysis ReportStudent Name:

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Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u Leadership Analysis Report PAGEREF _Toc69994480 h 1Introduction PAGEREF _Toc69994481 h 3Importance of the Chosen Issue PAGEREF _Toc69994482 h 4Impacts of Leadership in Relation to Personal Values PAGEREF _Toc69994483 h 6Leadership Issues in Relation to Chosen Issue PAGEREF _Toc69994484 h 7Approaches to Leadings Change and Advocacy for this Issues PAGEREF _Toc69994485 h 9Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc69994486 h 10References PAGEREF _Toc69994487 h 11

IntroductionThe purpose of this report is based on the first part of the assignment (Part A), which focuses on the issues of “who decides curriculum, and what the role of family and community is in contributing to programs. The question applies back to the issue of leadership in Early Childhood Education (ECE), an issue that is important to the education sector in Australia. In regard to the issue of focus, this report will discuss the importance of the selected issue, and the appropriate approaches that help bring about advocacy and change on the issue chosen. In addition, this report will also provide a detailed analysis of the impacts of the chosen issue on leadership in relation to various factors such as personal professional values and beliefs.

As it is in many parts of the globe, curriculum is one of the most important elements in any education system. Within any academic institution, the development of a clear and efficient curriculum provides a collection of assessments, lessons, and other academic or institutional contents that are supposed to be taught in a school program. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore clear that, the development of an efficient curriculum is an important aspect in many learning institutions globally both public and private. While curriculum plays a vital role in enhancing learning and teaching among academic institutions, it goes without saying that, leadership as well forms and plays an imperative role in the establishment of an effective, clearly established curriculum system leading to the provision of high quality education. By helping in the establishment of an effective curriculum system, effective leadership is paving way for the establishment of an education system that ensures the availability of enhanced learning and teaching. In Australia, the curriculum is determined and developed by ACARA board (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), an institution funded and authorized by the Australian government, all state, and territory governments to decide and develop the Australian Curriculum. With this regard, it is imperative to note that, it is through the leadership structure of ACARA that there exists inclusivity collaboration with other stakeholders such as families and the community at large and as a result creating an environment of shared sense of direction and mission within the Australian education system. By engaging these stakeholders, ACARA will be able to improve its awareness on matters involving the local community as well as the interest and needs of families and children and as a result improving on their leadership work in their respective environment, for instance when determining the presentation of the final contents to be published on the website. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore important to establish and adopt various approaches such as professional development from time to time that guide the establishment of this relationship by addressing key challenges that might impact it negatively.

Importance of the Chosen IssueDetermining who decides curriculum, and what the role of family and community is in contributing to programs is one of the most important aspect within academic and learning institutions. With the day by day developments of new technologies, tools and methods of instruction, students, learning activities, and educational objectives various countries Australia included need to consider new approaches and ways to keep up with these changing factors and avoid key challenges that influence learning in during the short and long run (Mufanechiya, 2015). In this regard, it therefore important for learning institutions to establish curriculum systems that provide a collection of assessments, lessons, and other academic or institutional contents that are supposed to be taught in a school program. Savage (2016) indicates that, in Australia, the ACARA board (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority), is an example of a national governmental institution charged with the responsibility of deciding and developing the Australian curriculum. The willingness by the Australian government to establish and fund ACARA in order to take part in deciding curriculum indicates the government’s need to establish a system that not only works for a certain region, but cuts across regional, public, and private schools borders in an effort to provide all Australian learners with a home based proud educational system . Atweh & Singh (2011) indicate that, by establishing a curriculum system that is to be followed by all learning institutions in Australia, ACARA board in conjunction with the education department is able to create a fairly based system driving towards the achievement of a common goal, which is, working together to ensure enhanced teaching and learning within all Australia’s learning institutions.

The development and establishment of the curriculum in many learning institutions is not just considered the work of one stakeholder, for instance, ACARA, but a joint effort of numerous groups. According to Waniganayake et al. (2012), leaders can improve their working environments through awareness of the available local community and interest and needs of families and children at the centre, for instance, when determining the presentation of the final contents to be published on the website. With this regard, it is therefore evident that the establishment of curriculum system such as the Australian curriculum is indeed is a joint effort of not one but numerous groups. Understanding the various roles of the community when it comes to education matter is of great significance. According to Mufanechiya (2015), engagement in community participation on education matters is a grass root strategy emphasizing on the need for collective abilities rather than individuals and self centered abilities due to the fact that they add value on children’s development processes. Provision of education should be a task of shared responsibilities between different groups. Taking into perspective the various power dynamics between communities and schools greatly helps in collective decision making among individuals. With this, it is clear that there a need to utilize all the available material and human resource in order to provide students with an excellent foundation they can have to survive in the complex market. The establishment of soluble problems such as assistance with homework involving cultural and ethnic tops that some members of the community have knowledge considers the need for community intervention. On the other hand, the establishment of a caring and respectful relationship between educators, families, and children creates an effective collaborative relationship which is constructive in terms of learning experiences and curriculum development to various children in their local communities (Olibie, 2014). While establishing the role of communities and families on curriculum development, it is important to note that effective leadership also plays a major role in establishing and providing high quality education. For instance, in communities, the development of management skills and effective leadership for different communal services can help provide a high quality environment for children development and learning.

For curriculum development to be very effective and schools to succeed, individual who decide must be present in the process of developing the curriculum. Therefore, without any doubt leaders in education have a vital role in ensuring teachers and other instructors provide quality education to learners based on the teacher’s experience, competencies, and knowledge that ensures the curriculum is well and effectively developed. ACARA board as well as the department of education implement and decide on the curriculum, hence providing better and simplified learning because the two teams respectively, are the most knowledgeable in matters of teaching and ways in which the curriculum should be introduced and followed in the classroom. Therefore, the involvement of curriculum development teams for instance the education department and the ACARA board is imperative for a meaningful and successful development in curriculum. ACARA takes the national approach in matters of education by implementing and developing a comprehensive and robust national curriculum to be followed by all students. Also, they run National assessment program in terms of National tests that learners take in schools. The ACARA board is also responsible for publishing and controlling data in schools within Australia, to measure the performance and resources of schools all around the country.

Impacts of Leadership in Relation to Personal ValuesImplementation of curriculum by the department of education and ACARA board results into the adoption of ethics, values, and, moral in leadership decisions within classrooms, staffrooms relationships and cultures in school improvements (Kindler, 2016). Most successful leaders in schools are flexible in terms of their thinking associated with core values such as optimism, resilience, and persistence. These traits help in facing challenges of intellectually alien community, parental passivity, and national policies that are not benefiting the school. In addition, successful principals in schools are able to achieve success leadership because they have the ability to enter into different relations inside their world, that is, functional and personal (Savage, 2018). The functional relationship has no purpose other than allowing us to be ourselves whereas the functional relations are of importance in leadership since they are instrumental. This interdependence of personal and functional relations is seen to be both desirable and inevitable. With intentional leadership, leaders are able to come up with more than only performing the specific jobs provided to them. In this regard, managers are only expected to focus on only school staff and the handling of the day to day activities. However, a good leader is visionary and expected to be prepared for the future outcomes (Parkes, 2013). Bearing this in mind, it is therefore clear that leaders are able to counter any challenges that occur in future.

Head teachers secure and grow their success by practicing leadership actions and strategies. Effective head teachers always make their judgment based on their selection, timing, context, relevance, continuation, and application of these strategies which create right and effective condition learning teaching and student achievement as per requirement of the curriculum. Leadership focus in classroom level is reflected in vast literature within instructional leadership (Waniganayake et al., 2015). It is therefore imperative to have those instructional leadership practices in school as per the curriculum to enable potential outcomes and benefits to students.

Leadership Issues in Relation to Chosen Issue

Education systems within several countries globally have gone through considerable reforms since education policies are designed to respond to the various forces and processes of globalization. Education system of Australia is not an exception is experiencing these issues, as it is evident in experiencing these issues, as is evident in the implementation of Australia’s first national curriculum that commenced officially in the year 2012 (Kindler, 2016). Therefore, factors that factors that are both outside and within school context can impinge the leadership and practises of individuals in the curriculum leadership because of the strange and new implementation of curriculum. Therefore, bearing this in mind, it is imperative for leaders to employ numerous micro-political strategies in order to achieve their goals.

Usually, the curriculum of a given learning institution in given country is located to a given extent based on what matters more in the present, past, and future (Parkinson, 2015). It represents what is considered important, while also representing a vision of the intended foundation for the Australian generation that is at school. However, leaders in the administration are experiencing issues such as facing challenges in the new forms and bodies in knowledge that are viewed to be imperative in the universities and in also everyday life. For instance, computer technology has developed to an extent than they cannot allow different multiple commands to be achieved examining different sources at a go unlike before where this was impossible to achieve. Therefore, these leaders in schools are required to apply new designed curriculum that fits the current needs and see to it that it is followed, which may be a problem before learners can fully adopt the change.

In today’s curriculum leaders in the field of education end up finding themselves tackling interesting issues and occurrences. In regard to this, Parkes (2013) indicates that one issue that results to these challenges and occurrences is the academic rationalist curriculum discourse. Here, in numerous academic curriculum designs, it is evident that the curriculum design and good program means a build up of the academic units, so that when students are progressing thought degree, they also develop into an increased sophisticated and specialized disciplinary understanding and knowledge. However, this curriculum design if shared widely brings about the sense of how the university curriculum design is complex, and continues to be increasing abstract and complex as learners progress with their degree programs. Therefore, this becomes an issue as it makes learning in universities become complex. With this, students therefore are forced to begin their first year survey of units as they progress to their major specification units

Professional development is another major leadership issues in relation to chosen issue (Dao, 2017). In an effort to create a new curriculum that is to be used in school programs, there is a need to constitute professional development for teachers and other relevant stakeholders. This process involves the help that all stakeholders for example teachers, will need when the process of changing is in place Professional development can be considered a major leadership issues in relation to chosen issue due to the fact that, lack of school based development presents major challenges and issues for a vast majority of participants including leaders during the implementation of the curriculum.

Federal governments for the longest time have had a vital role in the development of technical curricular systems for universities and colleges. In this regard, it is therefore clear to note that, apart from professional, government and politics are also considered leadership issues in relation to curriculum development. Studies of management and leadership are an important part in teacher’s preparation programs. There is need for teacher to study policy and politics due to their dynamic nature as they change with time and affect the curriculum. For instance, Australia is well known for the dynamic nature of its socio-political landscape (Rose, 2016). Based on the fact the Australian context is comprised on three different tiers of government, that include, eight separate states and the territory jurisdictions, it is important to note that all these tiers of government are involved in the provision of early childhood programs. This kind of situation contributes primarily to the complex and abstract policy environment, that is, characterised by disparate approaches in regulation, accountability, and funding. As a result, this factor brings new structure of governance, leadership, and issues to policy framework, that in turn affect the Australia’s national curriculum.

Approaches to Leadings Change and Advocacy for this IssuesIn order to ensure change and advocacy on the chosen issues regarding curriculum development, several recommendation and strategies need to be adopted (Donnelly, 2015). For instance, there is need for future research to be conducted within other territories and states in Australia and in several different schools so as to compare findings, which can contribute in implementing better and large scale reforms of the curriculum. Also, approaches in comparative studies can be carried out in order to explore ways in which school leaders implement the national curriculum, in order to identify commonalities and differences in the implementation. This may result to improvement in the manner of implementing the national curriculum (Dao, 2017). School leaders can conduct further research within the school site so that findings of that current study can be shared with individuals of leadership in school curriculum and there insight and perceptions can be used in regard to implementation and efficacy of the curriculum.

Creating awareness on the importance of involving both family and local community is another approach towards leading change (Dao, 2017). In many countries, Australia included the involvement of families and communities when developing and deciding the curriculum for school programs has always been a major challenge. In this regard, it is important for authorities charged with the responsibility of developing curriculum for school programs to engage both the local communities and families in these programs due to various imperative roles they play. The awareness of local communities and the interests and needs of students enhances how leaders work in implementing the curriculum, for instance, when determining the presentation of the final contents to be published on the website. Major occurrence and events such as professional development in a country such as Australia can influence performance of leaders and their responsibility locally

Professional development is another approach that can be used in leading change. According to Dao (2017), in an effort to create a new curriculum that is to be used in school programs, there is a need to constitute professional development for teachers and other relevant stakeholders. This process involves the help that all stakeholders for example teachers, will need when the process of changing is in place (Rose, 2016). Professional development is considered of great importance due to the fact that, lack of school based development presents major challenges and issues for a vast majority of participants during the implementation of the curriculum. In this regard, it is therefore important for professional development to be carried out in order to create an ease lead to change and advocacy for curriculum development.

ConclusionIn summary, curriculum is one of the most important elements in any education system. It is imperative to note that, the development of a clear and efficient curriculum provides a collection of assessments, lessons, and other academic or institutional contents that are supposed to be taught in a school program. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore clear that, the development of an efficient curriculum is an important aspect in many learning institutions globally. While curriculum plays a vital role in enhancing learning and teaching among academic institutions, it goes without saying that, leadership as well forms and plays an important role in the establishment of an effective and clearly established curriculum system leading to the provision of high quality education. By helping in the establishment of an effective curriculum system, effective leadership is paving way for the establishment of an education system that ensures the availability of enhanced learning and teaching. Bearing this in mind, it is therefore important to establish and adopt various approaches such as professional development from time to time that guide the establishment of this relationship by addressing key challenges that might impact it negatively.

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