Mavericks who toe the line: the push and pull of being a ‘good’ leader in early childhood education and care

Leadership occupies a key role in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy in Australia having been formally introduced to the sector with the legislation of the National Quality Framework – a framework for the regulation and quality assurance of ECEC services. Presently, critical workforce supply and retention issues further the challenges faced for leaders in the sector. This paper reports on data from a larger study that examined early childhood leadership and how understandings of ‘good’ leadership are produced through discourses currently framing the sector. Discourses of leadership enable and constrain how leaders understand the policy landscape and therefore how they see their role as leaders within. Findings of this study indicate that early childhood leaders struggle with the push and pull of leading within the discourses available to speak about their work. Further complicating matters are conflicting views, within center teams, of what ‘good’ leadership is. As new conceptualizations of leadership continue to be espoused through ECEC policy, it is important that policy developments are informed by those that are ‘doing’ the leading.