Pedagogy is the art of teaching, whereby a teacher passes academic or theoretical information to learners. This process involves daily lives of teachers, which incorporate more than just teaching, as it involves other aspects such as making informed decision, possession of skills and practice among others (Kagnan & Bowman, 1997). This essay paper will be focusing on the analysis of pedagogical leadership and relationships, involved by a teacher with children, parents, and fellow teachers.
Families and other attachments that a child gets involved in his or her early childhood are the primary influence on that child’s learning and development. Professionals are also engaged in advancing the level of learning and development of a child.
For the professionals to work effectively, they engage in family-centered practice through respecting the responsibilities of families as far as the life of a child is concerned (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004). To come up with an effective pedagogy, the professionals make use of families` understanding of their off springs to be able to make informed decision concerning a child’s learning and development.
In most of the learning institutions, an environment is created whereby all families are given some opportunity to participate and contribute towards learning and development of their children (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004). Through this, families get a chance to assist in planning the best way of educating their children.
Once the teaching team understands all the attachments in early childhood, a teacher knows better how and where to start the process of teaching. As the teaching process continues, teachers still learn more while giving the feedback to the family on how a child is fairing in learning and development. Through this interaction, families also get a chance of coming up with new ways of advancing children’s learning and development at home and within the society.
The child-teacher relationship is very crucial in the process of teaching. This relationship is an important source of child’s trust. For any child to trust his or her teacher, the relationship must be very positive. A child’s development greatly depends on this relationship, as it acts as a building block of a child’s early stages of life.
The behaviors acquired by children in their early childhood impose a great impact in their adult lives (Linke, 2000). A teacher is a unique role model to the growing children, as he is considered the first adult, who a child can build trust on and have an open discussion.
A good relationship of the teacher and his students makes them to rely on teacher for support and guidance due to the trust they develop. It is teacher’s responsibility to encourage the children to explore and discover their talents as early as possible (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004).
These talents are meant to help them in future. This relationship should also have some boundaries, and it is the teacher’s duty to set some standards. A healthy teacher-child relationship can be facilitated much by their communication, as children are very sensitive to voice tones, gestures and physical expressions. A good communication will influence children positively currently, and even in future.
The parent/teacher relationship is another factor in effective learning and development of children. Teachers should rely on parents for some basic important information concerning children. Although parents are as busy as teachers, the time to build their relationship and develop it should be there.
According to some studies conducted, it is evident that the parents who get involved with the studies of their children positively, their children perform better. It is also evident that, the parents who receive information regularly from the teachers concerning their children, they become more involved in what their children do at school.
Some of the ways through which the relationship of the teacher and parent can be improved is by parent keeping in touch with the school (Linke, 2000). Parents should have that desire of knowing what their children are doing in school. This information can only be gotten from teachers. Parents should make some efforts to visit school and have a talk with teachers, or if this is much demanding, they can make regular scheduled telephone calls and discuss the progress of the child.
Another way that a parent can improve the relation ship is through offering the praise and encouragement to the children. Parents can encourage their children to complete the assignment, and introduce them to the outside events that would improve their self-confidence and widen their interests (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004). For the teachers, they can involve parents in classroom activities through acknowledging them where they can be of assistance as far as the child’s learning and development is concerned.
Teachers should also give parents a voice in decisions especially in setting the goals and standards for their children. Ways of achieving these goals should also be discussed in presence of teachers and the parents.
The school should also encourage parent/teacher conferences, where teachers and parents can air out their grievances to make the life of their children better in school. The communication during such conferences should be in a comfortable environment where information can be shared, questions asked and answered, and recommendations made.
The teacher-teacher relationship is very important to the life of children in school. It is always advisable for the teachers to have a good relationship, as they are role models to the children. A negative remark by a teacher concerning his fellow teacher may make students to think less of him and develop a negative attitude towards him. Teachers should not undermine one another in presence of the children, as it is a bad picture to the children, who trust and rely on them for direction (Kagnan & Bowman, 1997).
Incase there is something negative to be discussed, it should be taken and handled in the department meetings, where it can be weighed by all members and formally discussed. Some of the factors that may improve the relationship of teacher-to-teacher are respect for ones personality as this may allow them to listen to one another incase of some disagreements (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004).
Exchanging ideas and experiences is another important issue that would enhance their growth and that of the children. Working together and consulting one another on difficult issues is also healthy, and can promote their relationship to greater heights.
Pedagogical leadership is crucial as it solely focuses on the teaching and learning that impact children’s positive outcome. Several dimensions should be considered for the pedagogical leadership to be effective (Kagnan & Bowman, 1997).
To begin with, coming up with learning goals and communicating them to the relevant people is one of the most important steps of achieving an effective pedagogy leadership. Both the learners and their teachers are supposed to be aware of how to achieve their expectations. Another important dimension is having all the strategic resources to facilitate each teaching goal for easier achievement.
The school should make efforts in providing all the necessary resources that would be required to achieve the set goals. Thirdly, leaders should be involved directly in planning and organizing a good teaching curriculum. If they get a chance in preparing a school curriculum, it would be easier for them to follow and deliver the required information to the children (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004). In addition, teacher learning and development should be introduced and the leaders encouraged in participating.
Finally, an orderly and a supportive working environment should be provided, for both teachers and students to have an opportunity of focusing on teaching and learning. The above five dimensions discussed provide a clear path that the school leaders should follow in achieving their goals. These important issues can make a great difference to the outcome of the learning children.
The early childhood teaching and learning is applicable in the day-to-day lives of both children and adults. The application of this education is beneficial to the children, their families, and the society. Improved behaviors in the society are one of the day-to-day applications of the early childhood learning.
Young children have proved to acquire good and admirable behaviors that they demonstrate in the society. Through the knowledge they acquire in their early childhood education, and practice of virtues, there is a high possibility of their excellence in future education (Linke, 2000).
These children realize early enough the importance of education hence an increased number of high school graduates. Early childhood learning makes children to get used to exams and how to prepare for them, hence doing better even in their future tough exams. In the day-to-day lives, the interaction of the parents and their children during the early childhood education makes the two parties to understand one another well.
Another important application of the early childhood learning reduces the number of children attending special education, because most of their serious problems are realized and solved. When a certain weakness is realized during the early stages of a child, they are solved better. The early interaction of the children with their teachers is very crucial in the lives of the young ones. Teachers are in a position to understand challenges faced by the children, and on the other hand, children try to practice the morals observed from their teachers.
For instance, a research done internationally proves that children who did not get a chance to attend early childhood education were 85% likely to be involved in violent crimes by age 19 than their fellows who had attended (Kagnan & Bowman, 1997). This education also reduces the rate of teen pregnancy with 45% likelihood of those who did not attend early school becoming pregnant, than those who attended.
Increased contribution to more stable families is an ongoing daily application of the early childhood education, several adults globally, who confessed being along well with their families, than their fellows who did not attend, proved this. This gave a ratio of 75% of stable families and 64% for the unstable ones (Kagnan & Bowman, 1997).
Greater levels of employment and higher wages in future are also results of engagement with early childhood learning. Most of people have confessed of having stronger communities because of involving each generation in early education. This is the place where children lay their strong foundation, as they understand the overall importance of education to them and to the community.
The government as well enjoys the fruits of the early learning that its citizens receive on daily basis. For instance, it is evident that every $1 spent in improving the quality of early education, saves the country $7 that would be used in activities such as criminal justice services (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004).
Through the early education, children learn many tactics of handling challenges in future. More than 60% of the people, who are detained due to criminal offences, are those who never attended early childhood education, according to research done internationally
Reference List
Kagnan, S., & Bowman, B. (1997). Leadership in early care and education. Michigan: Cengage Learning.
Linke, P. (2000). Infant brain research. What is it and what does it mean? New York: Cambridge University Press.
MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2004). Building a strategic approach to teaching techniques: In techniques for teaching young children. New York: Routledge.