2018 ECE Book of The Year: Leading for Change in Early Care and Education: Cultivating Leadership from Within by Anne Douglass

It seems like every year more and more books related to early childhood education and care are released. While many are interesting, too many tread over the same water. ( I think I’ve read about the The Perry Preschool Project about 100 times in books and articles at this point) In 2018, one ECE related book stood out as offering something new and unique and that was Leading for Change in Early Care and Education: Cultivating Leadership from Within by Anne Douglass.

https://www.tcpress.com/leading-for-change-in-early-care-and-education-9780807758359

Too often in ECE we hear about the deficits in the ECE workforce. In her book, Anne Douglas looks at the possibilities of developing the talent in early educacation workforce so they lead can lead the needed changes in the field. If you are interested in how positive change can happen in ECE led by early educators themselves, go buy this book.

Below are my top 3 quotes from the book to wet your appetite:

1. “People tend to think of leadership as a formal position with a job title. This book adopts s broader and more inclusive definition: it defines leadership as a process of influencing change to advance  a positive outcome to improve early care and education” ( page 29)

2 .  “Experienced early educators lack opportunities to grow throughout their careers and develop the skills and supports they need to lead in their classrooms, organizations, communities, and beyond. We are losing much needed talent as a result. A field that fails to nurture leadership from within can drive experienced and innovative thinkers away, depriving us of our richest resource: the talent and innovative ideas of experienced educators” ( page 42)

3.  “Educators need a supportive workplace that recognizes their potential, creates opportunities to lead, and cultivated a culture of continued learning” (page 90-91)

*I admit I may be biased in my choice of this book as I participated in the Umass ECE Post Masters Certificate program discussed in this book; that being said, I whole heartedly believe that this book provides unique insights that I have not seen other places and should be read by everyone in the ECE; I’d still believe that even if I did not have any association with the initiatives described in this book.