Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will recognise leadership as a socio-cultural construct that is a professional capability expected of early childhood professionals and crucial for ensuring quality learning outcomes for children, the development of integrated services within communities, the ongoing growth of the profession and the thoughtful enactment of policy. You will examine the multiple ways in which leadership is theorised with a particular focus on self-leadership, pedagogical leadership, community leadership, distributed leadership and intentional leadership. Additionally, you will examine leadership as encompassing moral and ethical behaviour, advocacy for children's rights and a commitment to principles of equity and social justice and show understandings of how policy contexts, including legislative frameworks, shape the work of early childhood education leaders. Theoretical tools, engaging with professional networks and the broader community, a disposition to embrace the principles of leadership and practical skills in leadership and management are applied as you deliver a community venture that advocates for young children and their families within the local community and contributes to building social capital.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 60% |
| 2. Practical and Written Assessment | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 66.67% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 26.47% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Student feedback
Assessment criteria
The assessment rubric will be review to ensure greater alignment between the task description and the criteria sheet.
The assessment rubric was reviewed and modified.
Source: Student feedback
Assessment task 2
Assignment task 2 will be reviewed
There have been minor adjustments made in how the students implement this task.
Source: Student feedback
Skills and knowledge developed in this unit supported student confidence and capacity to advocate
Continue to refine the unit so that more students recognise the importance of leadership and advocacy in early childhood
Refinements to unit materials have occurred to ensure that students have advocacy capabilities
Source: Student feedback
Unit materials
Continue to review the materials provided to students to ensure relevance within the contemporary landscape.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Access, evaluate and report on professional literature, policy and research findings to identify core values and challenges in the field that underpin the need for leadership and professional growth for early childhood educators
- Identify resources to support the development of leadership capabilities for self and others in the field of early childhood education
- Identify and engage with professional ethics and responsibilities to demonstrate emerging leadership capabilities
- Identify and apply knowledge of the relevant legislative considerations when leading a community venture that involves children
- Apply appropriate and respectful strategies to communicate with parents and families and professional community partners to faciliate the implementation of a community venture
- Provide a rationale for the organisation of the community venture based on research into young children's learning.
Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus area of:
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
6.1 Identify and plan professional learning needs
6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning
7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements
7.3 Engage with the parents/carers
7.4 Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities
Additionally, this unit contributes specifically to three curriculum areas specified by ACECQA. This includes: Family and community contexts: developing community partnerships Early Childhood Professional Practice: leadership, management and administration, professional identity and development, advocacy, research History and philosophy of early childhood: ethics and professional practice.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | ||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | ||
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | |||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | |||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | • | ||
| 5 - Team Work | • | |||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | • | • | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | ||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||