An Exploration Of Leadership And Management Challenges Among Center-Based Early Childhood Education Directors

<p>Managing early childhood education (ECE) programs is intricate, with directors facing challenges in organizational leadership, business management, and meeting pedagogical standards. Early childhood education directors are vital as they play a crucial role in ensuring quality education and care. Despite the importance, research on leadership and management, especially through a gender lens, is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the leadership and management challenges Los Angeles County based, private-for-profit, single-center early childhood education directors experience in their leadership and management roles. Six participants who self-identified as ECE directors completed semi-structured interviews over Zoom. These interviews were then restoried into narratives and coded into themes using a coding software. Two major themes were developed: leadership and management challenges and strategies. The findings suggest that ECE directors need leadership and management academic and professional preparation before beginning a director’s position. All directors emphasized the need for mentorship for support and guidance. While this study adds to the existing knowledge, further extensive research is required to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges ECE directors experience and the support they need to lead and manage their programs successfully and effectively.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Author dc:creator

• Portillo-Lemus, Yeni

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ian A. Menchini
• Alaina A. Desjardin

• early childhood education
• early childhood education director
• ECE
• ethics of care
• the whole leadership framework
• Education
• Educational Leadership

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dune.une.edu/edu_diss/26

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dune.une.edu:edu_diss-1029