Reconceptualizing Leadership and Advocacy in ECE: Placing Teacher Voices at the Center of Workforce Reforms Lauren Hogan Senior Director Public Policy & Advocacy National Association for the Education of Young Children 1
“Placing” • Who is doing the placing? • Who is being placed? • How else could this have been framed? • Ensuring Teachers Lead Workforce Reforms • Elevating Teacher Voice in the Context of Workforce Reforms • Power to the Profession • How would different words change the way you (and others) view the work? National Association for the Education of Young Children 2
What We’re Up To Today • State teams examine whose voices are engaged in and working toward early childhood workforce reforms and in this case particularly around workforce compensation. • Thinking about a “toolkit of ideas” for helping the workforce find and use their voices and become leaders in this effort. National Association for the Education of Young Children 3
Questions 1. Under what circumstances and where have you used workforce voices to communicate compensation issues? 2. What successes and challenges have you experienced in engaging the workforce in using their voices to communicate compensation issues? 3. How has your work helped to encourage and promote leadership and advocacy with the early education workforce? 4. How has the workforce engaged in this compensation project? National Association for the Education of Young Children 4
Under what circumstances and where have you used workforce voices to communicate compensation issues? • Storytelling / Testimonies • To whom? • From whom? • To achieve what? • Using what messages? • With what mechanisms? • Did it work? What does “work” mean? National Association for the Education of Young Children 5
What Makes For a Good Storytelling Campaign? • Timely • Specific National Association for the Education of Young Children 6
Beyond Storytelling • Other successes in using teacher voice to communicate compensation issues? • Have you used teacher voices not to communicate about workforce issues, but to solve them? National Association for the Education of Young Children 7
What challenges have you experienced in engaging the workforce in using their voices to communicate compensation issues? National Association for the Education of Young Children 8
Leadership would be a safe undertaking if your organizations and communities only faced problems for which they already knew the solutions. - Ron Heifetz National Association for the Education of Young Children 9
Technical Problems • May be complex and critically important • But they are easy to identify • Often can be solved by an authority or expert • Require change in just one or a few places • People are generally receptive to technical solutions • Solutions can often be implemented quickly — even by edict National Association for the Education of Young Children 10
Adaptive Problems • Require changes in values, beliefs, roles, relationships, & approaches to work • People with the problem do the work of solving it • Require change in numerous places; usually cross organizational boundaries • “Solutions” require experiments and new discoveries; they can take a long time to implement and cannot be implemented by edict National Association for the Education of Young Children 11
We're going on a bear hunt We're going to catch a big one, What a beautiful day. We’re not scared. Uh-oh! A forest! A big dark forest. We can't go over it. We can't go under it. Oh no! We've got to go through it! - Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury National Association for the Education of Young Children 12
Challenges of Elevating Teacher Voice Technical Adaptive • • Leaders don’t want to share Coalition meetings happen while teachers their power are in the classroom • Educators don’t feel • Educators don’t know how confident in themselves as to provide testimony advocates National Association for the Education of Young Children 13
Solving Technical Problems Who is primarily responsible for fixing it? What barriers need to be removed? Is there a workaround? National Association for the Education of Young Children 14
Addressing Adaptive Challenges • Don’t try to use a technical solution to solve an adaptive challenge. • Getting people to do adaptive work is the mark of leadership. • Can you tease out the technical problems within the adaptive challenges? National Association for the Education of Young Children 15
When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. - Shirley Chisolm National Association for the Education of Young Children 16
When Addressing Adaptive Challenges Give work back to the people. Everyone has special access to information that comes from his or her particular vantage point. Everyone may see different needs and opportunities. People who sense early changes in the marketplace are often at the periphery, but the organization will thrive if it can bring that information to bear on tactical and strategic decisions. National Association for the Education of Young Children 17
When Addressing Adaptive Challenges Protect voices of leadership. • Giving a voice to all people is the foundation of an organization that is willing to experiment and learn. • But whistle-blowers, creative deviants, and other such original voices routinely get smashed and silenced. • People speaking beyond their authority usually feel self-conscious and sometimes have to generate "too much" passion to get themselves geared up for speaking out. • That often makes it harder for them to communicate effectively. But buried inside a poorly packaged interjection may lie an important lesson. To toss it out is to lose valuable information and discourage a potential leader. National Association for the Education of Young Children 18
How has your work helped to encourage and promote leadership and advocacy with the early education workforce? National Association for the Education of Young Children 19
It is difficult to balance activism and investing in the greater good with the demands of an ordinary life. There is a lot going on in the world. There is a lot going on in your world. This is the nature of life. We try to find ways to balance taking care of ourselves and our families, with caring about the world we live in and the greater good. Sometimes, we will fall short in one of these areas. Sometimes we will fall short in all of these areas. Most of the time, we do the best we can. - Roxane Gay National Association for the Education of Young Children 20
WHY… Do I have to be an advocate? National Association for the Education of Young Children 21
You’ve Got This. › No one is born knowing how to do this! • We all have to learn and practice. › It pays to prepare – don’t wing it! › You are smart, powerful leaders for children. (And we have help to offer you!) National Association for the Education of Young Children 22
www.americaforearlyed.org @supportearlyed
Resources National Association for the Education of Young Children 24
Kitchen Table Talk Weekly Emails At America for Early Ed, we want you to have the information, tools, and resources you need to spark a conversation about high-quality early childhood education no matter who or where you are. Keep reading, talking, and engaging – together we can make sure #ECEwins. National Association for the Education of Young Children 25
What’s your part? National Association for the Education of Young Children 26
Opportunities for advocacy and engagement Go to a meeting. • Stand up and raise your voice on behalf of children, families and educators. • City council meeting, a school board meeting, a briefing, a hearing, a rally, or a town hall - in person or on Facebook! • Get to know your leaders and partners - and let them get to know you. Tweet. It’s only 140 characters. You can do it. Follow your elected officials & let them know how you feel about their votes & positions. #ecewins Join your Affiliate. • Community sustains us. • Come together with fellow educators and advocates in your state today. • Visit www.naeyc.org/membership for more. National Association for the Education of Young Children 27
Be Ready There is always a time when intention needs to become action. Stay informed and connected so you can engage, advocate and mobilize at the moment your voice is needed. National Association for the Education of Young Children 28
How has the workforce engaged in this compensation project? • Who is “the workforce” in this conversation? • How would you like them to engage? • Is there a role for parents? • What about previous educators? • Or K-12 educators? National Association for the Education of Young Children 29
Helping People Act. 30
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