6 semester credits

What knowledge, skills, and dispositions should early childhood leaders exemplify? The field needs leaders who (a) know the history and understand the values and ethics of the field; (b) who approach the present and the future as critical and creative thinkers committed to positive change; and (c) who are advocates, researchers, relationship builders, data-driven decision makers, and managers of change with a keen understanding of diversity, humane interaction, organizational development, and system-oriented thinking. In this course, professionals engage in the study of leadership for positive social change in the early childhood field, which culminates in a capstone project that requires participants to apply the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of a leader to effect change in an early childhood setting of their choice.