Teach

Throughout this course, you have learned about the importance of professionalism. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the largest professional organization in the field of early care and education, has developed The Code of Ethical Conduct to guide professional behavior. NAEYC has also developed an accreditation process that includes a self-study for early care and education programs to examine how well their program addresses the NAEYC standards for high-quality care and education in programs for young children. The National AfterSchool Association (NAA) provides a set of core knowledge and competencies for individuals who work in after school/school-age care environments. The NAA also promotes a Code of Ethics that those working in after school programs should be familiar with and follow in their work with youth and families.

As program leaders, you want your program to be continuously improving, striving to be the best that it can be for children and families. You want your staff to look forward to coming to work in a positive, caring environment where adults are learning and growing professionally. Your high standards and expectations for professional behavior will positively affect the quality of care you provide for children and youth attending your program.

Professionalism and Indicators of Program Quality

When you reflect upon indicators of professional behavior you can see their connection to program quality. The energy and professionalism staff bring to their work has everything to do with the environments they create, the activities they design, and the relationships they build. As a leader, staff will look to you for encouragement, ideas, feedback, and advice. There will be times when your commitment to program quality may feel in conflict with your relationships with staff. Staff may not always agree with you about policies. At other times, you may have to give difficult information or share disappointing news. This is never easy, but using the ethical code as a guide can help you promote program quality and professionalism.

Programs that are continuously changing, growing, and striving to provide the highest-quality programming have strong leaders guiding the way. T & Cs and program directors are responsible for guiding staff to continuously improve the quality of the program. Consider the Whole Leadership Framework (2017) below and reflect on how growing as a leader can help you promote program quality.

 [insert image of leadership framework from: https://mccormickcenter.nl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/3-22-17_WholeLeadership-AFrameworkForEarlyChildhoodPrograms_05.pdf

Leading early childhood programs as a T&CSs or a Program Manager is about relationships. Leadership encompasses your personal leadership style (humor, resilience, empathy), your content knowledge in child and youth development, and your administrative skill. Effective leaders prioritize the following recommended practices (Division for Early Childhood, 2014):

• Build a sense of belonging for staff, children, and families
• Model and adhere to the code of ethics and professional standards
• Share decision making with staff and families
• Belong to professional organizations and continue to learn as a professional
• Advocate for policies and resources to support your staff, families, and communities
• Establish partnerships across child development programs, schools, service agencies, and other child- and family-serving organizations
• Collaborate to collect and use data for quality improvement

 T&CSs engage in the following professional behaviors that open the door to collaboration:

• Build relationships with staff (without a trusting relationship, staff will not be open to feedback).
• Build awareness of your own background, cultural beliefs, and professional values.
• Listen carefully to staff and program managers—check for understanding.
• Ask nonjudgmental, probing questions and make statements that extend conversations (“Tell me more about what you are thinking”).
• Be comfortable with silence during conversations.
• Use objective, observational data to inform your discussions during staff training (“I noticed you wanted me to observe you during story time. Your goal is to ask children more questions during story reading—I kept a tally and you asked three questions today”).
• Strive to learn alongside staff members.
• Prioritize equity in your interactions. Reflect on unintentional harm your actions might cause staff members, and work to repair relationships.

Always remember that as a leader and evaluator, you set the tone—your attitude and professional behavior impacts how staff, children, and families feel when they walk into your program. Address issues as they arise, but always remain professional in your interactions.

Model

Enhancing Program Quality

As a professional in the field of early care, education, and youth development, you are integral to building partnerships that will enhance the program’s quality. Your team extends to staff, families, and community partners. Program Managers and Training & Curriculum Specialists must be adept at working collaboratively with these stakeholders in order to build a strong program.

Staff: You and the staff members you work with face many obstacles that, if left unaddressed, can bring about conflict and burnout. However, a staff member’s sense of mission and their professional work environment can help facilitate effective communication and counteract burnout. Think about how you can partner with staff to increase well-being and avoid burnout by following these best practices:

Families: You serve as a model for the staff in how you treat families who have children enrolled in the program. You are the best source for new staff to learn how to interact with families. Addressing professional behavior with families should be part of the written mission, values, and policies of the center. Child-care educator Gigi Schweikert describes partnering with parents as “a mutually respectful relationship in which parties take accountability for their responsibilities and work together to define and change the organization based on a common goal.” Welcoming parents and other family members during drop off and pick up time is essential. Professionals seek out parents’ input in order to improve program services. You must be present and ask questions. As a program leader, you can elicit parent input by providing them with meaningful ways to be involved (e.g. volunteer on the program advisory board, plan events for parents, invite them to complete feedback surveys that will help shape program goals). Support staff to become family-centered in their practice. Staff members may have experience teaching or caring for children and youth but may not have much experience forming meaningful partnerships with parents.

Community partners: As a program leader, it is important to build professional relationships with community members, who can be wonderful allies for your program. Joining a professional group (for example, a child care directors group, an NAEYC local affiliate, or an interagency council) can open partnerships and shared resources. Professional behavior includes being collaborative with others in the community who also seek to provide high-quality services for children. Forming partnerships to advocate for children and youth in your own community and in the country is an important professional activity. You need to be able to speak about your program to others and to work to access resources for your staff, children, and families.

Continuous Program Improvements

As a Training & Curriculum Specialist, you are attuned to the strengths and needs of the program. The work of program improvement is continuous. Just as you set goals for children to make continuous progress, so too the overall program goals should focus on continuous improvement. Working collaboratively with staff, families, and community partners provides a broad network of stakeholders who can assist you in evaluating the program and strengthening it. Celebrate the positive feedback you receive and share it with the staff and your supervisor. Along with the positive feedback you will also receive information about aspects of the program that need improvements. Taking negative feedback and using it to set program goals with your staff and families indicates that you have a professional attitude about evaluation and will directly use feedback from staff, families, and other stakeholders to improve program services.

Professionalism is an important aspect of the day-to-day work that you do. Your positive tone, respectful communication, openness to feedback (both positive and negative) and a commitment to continuously work toward offering a high quality program to children and families is the most important work you can do. As a leader, you will build personal connections with those in your immediate workplace and with community partners. It can be difficult to always maintain a professional attitude, but your leadership in this area determines whether the quality of your program is "just good" or an exceptional center for children and youth.

Observe