Building Leadership Capacity in Early Childhood Special Education Through Self-Reflection and Action Planning

The diverse demands of implementing high quality early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) practices demonstrate a need to develop leadership capacity at all levels. We analyzed self-rated capacity-building leadership behaviors and evaluating self-identified goals to improve leadership capacity ( n = 15) to address the severe lack of research in the area of leadership in EI/ECSE. Participants rated their behaviors with both colleagues and supervisors similarly, with self-ratings of relationship building as the highest. Inductive coding of self-leadership related action plan goals resulted in three primary categories: empowering others, introspective practices, and action-oriented tasks.