ABSTRACT
This chapter helps the readers to understand the role of a leader within Early Years. It highlights some of the challenges faced by leaders along with strategies for moving forward, before describing what constitutes effective leadership in Early Years. The chapter also helps the readers to learn about many challenges faced by Early Years leaders through the text and case studies. The role of leaders is multi-faceted and ever changing, dependent on learners, curriculum, policy and individual contexts. Leaders are at the forefront of leading change to ensure that learners have the best possible experience to support learning. Learners of the future need education that is fit for the twenty-first century, which suggests that Early Years education has to be liberalising, meaning developing capabilities and the skills of independence, confidence, thinking, risk taking, collaboration and inter-dependency in Early Years classrooms, which set the foundations for young learners to become global citizens.
