Description

The purpose of this project was to forge a partnership between the Victorian Department of Education and Training and Monash University in addressing leadership capacity in early childhood education in the City of Greater Dandenong, the City of Casey and Cardinia Shire.

The Early Childhood Improvement Branch of the Southern Melbourne Area  contracted Monash University to develop an innovative course for educational leaders in this area to inform pedagogy and support professional practice improvement, with a particular focus on children’s speech and language, wellbeing and regulation, and access to / inclusion in high quality early childhood education and care programs.

This project is supporting this partnership and collaboration across the sector with the establishment of a large Community of Practice (CoP) across these three local government areas, as well as smaller CoPs that will work towards supporting outcomes for children in their local community areas.  In its establishment, the intent for this project was to form a foundational model for the combined project and research work that can then potentially be applied to wider regions in order to inform future approaches to raising the profile of leadership in early childhood.

The project was delivered in two parts: cohort 2019 and cohort 2020.

Investigators

Project team and partners (from left to right): Sharryn Clarke, John O’Shaughnessy, Robyn Babaeff (front), Elfie Taylor (back) and Leigh Disney.