EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

Weeks 1-9: Reflections

Week One: Who inspires me?
This week we discussed who leaders are, and people that inspire us.
Below are a few examples of my inspirations.
Immediate circle
I am fairly sure that one of my biggest inspirations is my high school
English teacher, who has become my confidante, and very close friend in
recent times. Firstly, I recall that from the moment she entered class,
there was a way about her that charmed everyone into listening to all that
she said. She is so eloquent, you would sometimes be in awe at how she
worded things. However, before I side-track, she not only taught me
English, but of life itself. She has a very distinct way of putting me in my
place, and telling me the harshest truths, as though it was a leaf that fell
from a tree. What inspires me are her ideas, values and attitude. She
looks at the world as a place of opportunity, of learning, and of happiness.
She is a free spirit, an independent and strong lady that possesses not
one, but many strengths. She inspired me to become a teacher. I wanted
to inculcate her ways of life and values into my own, so that I would have
a similar effect on the children I teach. I yearn to be like Aroshe, bursting
at the seams with wit and wisdom, light hearted yet scintillating
conversational skills and a whole lot of woman.
Someone I dont personally know
Lilly Singh is a YouTube sensation, better known as Superwoman.
She is 27 years old, A Canadian born- Indian, and a comedienne, role
model to young people, lover of people, singer and motivational speaker.
Apart from Lillys multifaceted and highly successful career, I aspire to be
like Lilly purely because of her personality. She talks about loving yourself,
being your own friend, accepting others, promotes equality and shares the
message of One love. She was severely depressed a few years ago, and
she decided to change that for herself. Now, with an ever-growing number
of followers, Lilly has become one of the most inspirational YouTubers to
live. Through her videos, you can see that she remains humble, dedicated,
and truly cares about the others involved in her success. I hope that one
day, I can be as inspiring as her, to others.
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

Week two: Legislature/policy and leaders with legal responsibilities

This week we discussed policy and legislation. However, what I

found really interesting this week was the article titled, A critical analysis
of the National Quality Framework: mobilising for a vision for children
beyond minimum standards written By Fenech, Giugni, and Brown (2012).
The article states that prior to the election of the Rudd Labor Government
in 2007, there were significant barriers to nationally consistent provision
of rights based high quality early childhood education and care (in
Australia), most notably, insufficient public investment, policy
fragmentation, and inadequate training and working conditions for staff
(p.5). It is rather shocking that seven years ago, there was no legislature
in place for rights within ECEC, especially considering that early childhood
education is such an integral part of an individuals life. I previously just
assumed that education was given priority, and importance over other
sectors. However after reading further on, I understood that the Australian
Government introduced a suite of reforms intended to lift ECEC quality
standards and practices (p.5) in order to improve Australias
international rankings for young children. After the reform was
implemented, Australia saw a great progress within the sector. As a pre-
service teacher it is important to know that legislation and government
policies are essential for the betterment of the education sector/ industry.
I also understand that sometimes legislature is not always beneficial to all
parties involved/ affected, but is usually thought out, planned and
implemented in order to fight for the greater need.
Educators advocate for beneficial change within the industry, and as any
good leader would, leaders within the education sector rely heavily on the
support of others. In this instance I learnt that leaders within education,
need legislature to back them up in terms of the requirements that need
to be met for their respective work places. Moreover, leaders have legal
responsibilities that need to be carried out. And for this, clear
comprehension of legislature and policy is crucial.
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

Week Three: Leaders as advocates

This week was rather enlightening for me in my learning journey. I

truly began to understand what it means to be an advocate, and what it is
to be an activist. Prior to this week, my knowledge on the two were rather
hazy and I did not know how to differentiate the two. However, this was
soon rectified, through our discussions in tutorials and through the
readings.
To my current knowledge, advocates are those who support (through
argument, debate, etc.) others because they are in favour of a certain
belief/idea or opinion that the other possibly has. It could also be defined
as a person who upholds/ defends a cause of some sort. This is quite
separate from the term activist. What I found intriguing is that, I never
really understood that advocates could be somewhat passive in terms of
advocating. This is partially the difference between advocates and
activists. Activists ARE advocates, but not all advocates are activists. This
is because activists are vigorously involved in very public displays of their
opinions. It has been said that someone who's actively involved in a
protest or a political or social cause can be called an activist.
(Vocabulary.com, 2015)
I came across an image that really spoke to me quite clearly, and I
thought it linked in with advocacy quite well. Audre Lorde states that
your silence will not protect you. Which is
to say that being silent about something you
firmly believe in, will not help you, or the
situation. In my opinion, I believe that we are
constantly advocating for rights, opinions and
ideas of others on a daily basis. Any justification
on a matter is and could be considered as
advocacy of Retrieved from: http://wallpaper222.com/explore/black- some sort.
activist-quotes/
But that does not make us activists.
As a pre- service teacher, I have begun to think about how I myself would
become an advocate in the future. It scares me a little to think that I
wouldnt be just advocating for children, but for many other demographics
too. I wonder what sort of things I would advocate, and whether I would
oppose any sort of legislature that I, as a teacher is supposed to
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

advocate for. These situations seem somewhat confronting, but I am

confident that I will learn to tackle them in a tactful manner.

Week Four: Leadership, management and followership

After this week I have understood that leadership and Management

are two very separate terms that do not coincide with each other. As
clich as it sounds, leaders lead, and managers manage. Leaders are not
managers, in the sense that managers are very involved with positional
equity or authority as Williams (2011) suggests, whereas leaders do not
consider themselves as higher than any other. This is rather interesting to
me, as I never differentiated the two terms before. After dissecting the
two, I have come to the understanding that being a manager is merely a
title. The person who manages merely tells others what to do, rather than
becoming involved in the process and leading the way to a common goal.
This weeks content made me think very heavily about who I am as
a leader. I have been in many leadership positions throughout my life, and
never really felt superior to anyone who followed me. I have been to
leadership conferences, and been put into situations where no one else in
the group was willing to take on leadership roles, and I was therefore
pushed to take on the responsibility of leading the way. What I have come
to realise within leadership, is that sometimes it is a very fine line
between a leader and a manager, and it could become rather hard to
draw the line. I know that sometimes, I have actually taken a leadership
position, and merely managed the others and told them what to do, whilst
I merely delegated work to them. However, as I have grown within my
understanding of who I am as a person and a leader, I have come to
realise that it is the leaders responsibility to be a source of
encouragement, inspiration, and a believer in others.
The notion of followers make someone a leader is a very
remarkable thought. If it isnt for the follower, a leader would have no one
to lead. And although it seems pretty obvious, I hadnt thought about the
role that the followers play in terms of a leader. Followers trust a leader to
guide them, and work with them to get to a better place.
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

A picture that really consolidated my learning for this week is

below:

The above picture shows a boss/ manager being high up on a pedestal

telling subordinates where to go, whereas the leader is pictured as the
person that not only guides the others, but also works WITH them in order
to get to where they need to be. I aspire to be a good leader that that
works with my followers, rather than someone who merely delegates. For
instance , In our group task, it feels as though I have automatically
become the person that leads the group to our common goal, whilst
working equally and to each of our strengths. I have taken on the role of a
leader, by actually trusting the others to play by their own strengths, and
have challenged them to work more efficiently in order for all of us to
make progress.
Week Five: Power Influences and Ethics of leadership

This week during the tutorials and online lecture, we were taught
about the way power influences others, and the ethical considerations
that leaders must comply with.
In my mind, ethics embodies fairness, consideration and
confidentiality. Being ethical means respecting someone else and their
ideas, and allowing them to trust you as a leader. My only worry with
regards to ethics, is when I look at myself in the education industry, I feel
as though there are many different ethical considerations that may exist
but I may not be aware of. This seems rather daunting, as ethics is a wide
and vague topic. For instance, human rights, confidentiality, and so on
and so forth. I am not afraid of being an unethical leader, but I am afraid
of what could be considered unethical. It seems as though different
people have different idea of what is and is not ethical, and this could vary
depending on cultures, ideologies and many other factors.
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

This week we watched a few clips on the different ways that power
can influence others. Namely, expert power, referential power and
legitimate power. Out of all three, I am confident that I have been on the
receiving end of these types of power, and have embodied them, whilst
being the agent of power. However, as an educator, I feel as though we
can take on all three types of power at different times, according to the
situation and context in which the power should and can be exercised.

Week Six: Leadership, change and team building

This week our group presented to the rest of the class about team
building, its importance and leadership and its relationship with change.
Something that I have constantly heard is that the only thing that is
constant, is change. And this paradox, as common as it is, is quite
profound. Change is consistent where consistency can never be assured a
full 100%. Our presentation outlined change as any alteration in an
individual, organisation or society. However change could be applicable to
anything, and everything around us. I currently think that adaptation is
what matters the most in terms of change. Since change is inevitable, I
feel as though we must be able to adapt to situations with ease.
Personally, I can look back on my life and laugh at the many times I
refused to accept change, and continued being who I used to be, rather
than perceiving the situation as an opportunity for betterment. Because
of the lack of willingness I had to accept change and adapt accordingly, I
had set myself up for failure from the onset of change.
I now realise that sometimes change may seem hard to grasp
because we are always comfortable in something that is the same. With
regard to leadership, I now know that leaders can help others understand
that change can be beneficial to everyone, as long as they are willing and
ready to adapt with it. As I have lived, I have encountered all types of
change (routine change, induced change, innovative change,
transformational change and crisis change). But I find it interesting that
the adaptation process can vary according to each type of change,
because it entails a variety of other components according to context.
Through our tutorial, I found it interesting that change management is
rather obvious in its description, but how very few people actually
exercise change management efficiently in order to be most effective in a
situation.
Moreover, as a pre-service teacher I have begun to see that in this
industry, change is quite rapid. Whether it is policy and legislation that is
changing, or the ever evolving technological influences, or curriculum
content, teachers must adapt. And fast.
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

Week Seven: Management processes and responsibilities

In this weeks online lecture, it was underlined that management
takes on different forms and processes according to the settings and the
structural organisation within the company, school or other establishment.
What struck me is that management processes are always going to be
unique to the establishment, as the ultimate goal, the structure, the
culture and many other variables are going to be different from one to
another. Therefore I began to comprehend that management and
processes are always going to be exclusive/ distinctive, and no two are
alike. Another topic that we touched on this week was governance within
early childhood education centres. What I understood from this weeks
reading titled Governance of early childhood education and care: recent
developments in OECD countries is that governance is based on the
policies implemented by the national government, the local authorities,
the private sector and other stakeholders, such as teachers and parents,
in making key decisions about how the system operates in different
countries. (Neuman, 2008).
As an educator who will have definite responsibilities within a centre
in the future, it is my duty to abide by the policies implemented by the
centre I work at. Looking back at my previous placements, it was a
regulatory process that all student teachers read and understand the
policies the centre has, and apply them within the practice and my
associate teacher oversaw the ways in which I conducted myself, and I
was held accountable for it. This shows me that, I, even as a student
teacher had responsibilities and the people that had higher authority,
managed and met the needs of the centres policy. Governance is also
then monitoring the activities and level of compliance. However in my
opinion, this isnt something to feel worried about, it could also mean that
the agents of governance can support and assist others to meet
requirements. With this being said, I still have some reservations about
governance within ECEC. I am fully aware of the benefits of
governance( for example: Governance is a critical component of an early
childhood system, because it can determine whether or not services meet
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

quality standards, are affordable, meet local demand, promote cost

effectiveness and achieve equity goals (Kagan & Cohen, as cited by
Neuman, 2008), but I also feel as though the word governance in itself has
some negative connotations, almost as if to say that the educators within
the centre have no say in certain situations, because policy overrules and
overrides their personal opinions and thoughts. This is basically my only
concern with regards to governance, and my own practice as an early
childhood educator.

Week Eight: Leaders as planners, organisers and monitors

In this weeks lecture, Leanne spoke a lot about strategic planning.

To me, strategic planning is all about thinking ahead, and creating a plan
whilst having a clear cut goal in mind. This also entails leaving room for
errors and mistakes in the process, because we all know that all plans
must have fall-backs. However, what I found interesting is that once I
gave it some thought, I realised its not only leaders that plan
strategically. Everyone strategically plans during their day to day life. For
example, mapping out my route to university on a Monday morning on the
public transport website, is me planning out all that I need to get done
before actually leaving home to catch the bus. My strategy is to allow
myself adequate time to get ready, eat etc.
Similarly, I know that educators and leaders within a centre, also
plan strategically, in order to get through a day, a week, a term etc. This is
also about the team that acts as agents of putting the plan into action. As
said in the lecture, choosing team members that work together in order to
succeed is important. Each team member is crucial to the projects, and
must be aware of their responsibilities. During the past few weeks we
noticed how important each of the members in our QIP task group was.
We started off with 4 people in our group and had already decided on
what each of us were meant to do, and what was expected of us in terms
of working efficiently and with consideration. However, one team member
moved to another group without informing any of us, and this let down the
entire team, as that persons involvement was necessary for us to perform
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

a task. However, our strategy afterwards, was to ensure that if there are
any shortcomings, we communicate well, and with clarity, so that we
dont let our team members down. I also look back at our planning
process and realise that having clear goals, and dates really pushed us to
get our work done. It also really helped that our values and beliefs were
similar. The group members worked in sync and did each of their parts.
This is what I understand is meant by good leadership and planning.

Week Nine: Empowering leaders.

This week we discussed the power that leaders possess, and what
makes a leader a leader. As I watched some of the videos for this week,
something that struck me was a quote that was quite popular: Leaders
are born, not made. I have heard this quote a number of times, and I had
always wondered whether this was just a silly generalisation, or whether it
really did have some sort of truth behind it. I have now come to the
conclusion that perhaps some leaders ARE born, but leadership can also
be learnt. For instance, I take myself for example. Throughout my primary
school life, I took a back seat to everything. I was happy with mediocrity,
and was happy to follow the crowd, rather than be the one that has a
crowd following. As I got older though, I started to aspire to be like my
father who was a strong leader in the Sri Lankan Army. I yearned for the
type of respect and care people had for him. He has and always will be
someone that cares about the people around him. His people skills always
exceeded anyone else I knew had. In the army, leadership had distinct
roles, titles and rankings. Of course for us laymen, the real world does not
have specific rankings, but perhaps titles. Nevertheless, growing up with
an army officer father, allowed me to see leadership in an entirely
different context. However leaders in the army HAD to empower others,
instil courage in them when they had nothing but fear within them and
had to make sure that when they were amidst a battle that the leaders
EDFD314: Reflections S00172363: Natashi Jayasinghe

actually led their troops, rather than create a plan and put the others at
the forefront.
I watched another YouTube clip that really encapsulated what
leadership truly is. Marquet (2014) stated that the moment you allow your
team to start thinking proactively, and work according to what they think
may be right, you are passing on authority, and creating a place that
supports initiative. The video illustrates that the moment you pass on the
authority to where the information lies, theres more efficiency in the
decision making process. The team members all begin to feel like they
matter within an organisation and they feel empowered to do better. This
is the type of leader I want to be within the centre I work at. This form of
empowerment really strikes me as the most effective, and I therefore
aspire to be someone who brings out the best in others as well.

Bibliography
Fenech, M., Guigni, M., & Brown,K. (2012). A critical analysis of the National
Quality Framework: Mobilising for a vision for children beyond minimum
standards. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(2), 5-14.
Marquet, D. (2014). What is leadership?. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUPDUDOBVoyou
Neuman, M.J. (2008). Governance of early childhood education and care: Recent
developments in OECD countries, Early Years, 25(2), 129-141.
Vocabulary.com. (2015). activist - Dictionary Definition. Retrieved 26 September
2015, from http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/activist
Williams, S. (2011). Top 10 Differences Between Managers and Leaders.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ubRzzirRKs