中文600()字，370()单词，21万英文字符 出处：Sciaraffa M A. Profiles of Early Childhood Education Administrators: Looking for Patterns of LeadershipJ. 2004.Profiles of Early ChildhoodEducationAdministrators:Lookingfor Patterns ofLeadershipMA SciaraffaAdministrators in the field of Early Childhood Education (ECE) assume multipleroleseachdaybecauseofthemanyinterdependentandinteractingcomponentsoftheearly childhoodprogram.Theymaintainanorganizationthatdeliversacomplexsetofservicesto children and their families. Culkin (1997) stated,Early childhood managers work intheareas of personnel, budget, pedagogy, adult education and staff developmentjamilies, outreach to community, communication, planning, and overall attention to the internaland externalvalues,mission,andgoalsoftheprogram.Earlychildhoodadministratorscontendwiththe following issues: administrative educational preparation andrequirements;teacher educational preparation and requirements; auspice of the program; programfunding;and minimal standards with no compulsory accreditation program. Each of these issueswillbe explored in the following section then, followed by a research study thatinvestigatedearly childhood administrators lives andwork.Supervision in the field of ECE is very complex. First, there is no one clear pathwayto becoming an administrator in ECE (Kaga n& Bowman, 1997; Mitchell, 1997).Individualsusually become administrators in ECE settings with little or no highereducationalpreparation. Despite the multiple roles and the various types of ECE programs (e.g.publicschools, Head Start, private child care), there are very few required qualificationsfor administrators (Mitchell, 1997). Currently, there is not a compulsory national credential foradministrators of ECE programs. Administrators qualifications can range from noformaleducation or training to a doctoratedegreeIncontrast,thereisawell-establishedpathtobecominganadministratorinaschoolsystem.This route entails attending a teacher preparation program at a four-year collegeor university in order to become certified to teach within the public school system. Then,theseindividuals may teach within a public school system after graduation from such aprogram. Theymayenrollinagraduateprogram,suchasEducationalLeadership,andcompletethestate requirements to be certified as a school administrator. Mitchell (1997) claimed, Thetheoretical knowledge gained from courses and the practical knowledge fromadministrative internships will prepare the individual to be a goodprinciparAdministrators of Head Start programs follow a similar path. HeadStartadministratorstypicallybeginasteachers,becomecoordinatorswithsomemanagementr esponsibilities, and finally assume an administrative role. Unlike many child caredirectors, HeadStartadministratorsdohaveaccesstotrainingandtechnicalassistanceandhaveasupport system at regional and national levels. Additionally, there is a Head StartDirectors 9 Association, which offers formal and informal peer support andtraining(Mitchell, 1997).However,becomingadirectorofachildcareprogram9forexample5involvesalessdirect route and requires little or no formal education. There are few college-levelprogramsto prepare early childhood administrators and even fewer continuing education opportunities(Mitchell,l 997;Morgan,2000).Manytimes,teachersinchildcarebecomeadministrat ors but do not necessarily prepare for administration with formal education. Inasurveyof990directorsofchildcarecentersinlllinois?itwasfoundthat86%hadbeen classroom teachers prior to becoming an administrator, and 38% had no prioradministrative training (Bloom, 1992). Typically, many directors work as assistantdirectorsfirst, learning how to administer the program from the director. According toMitchell(1997),“ Some directors do prepare for their leadership roles by workingasassistantdirectors under the nurturing guidance of a mentoring director in a large centerMitchellsuggested that it is important to learn from predecessors andmentors.Oneresourcenewdirectorshavetodirectandguidetheminthestatelicensing standards. Unfortunately, these guidelines are typically minimal and promote standardsthatare good enough to do no harm,? (Morgan, 2000). Mitchell (1997) pointed out thatearlychildhood administrators have few opportunities to attend formal college-levelcourses- According to Culkin(2000):Current preservice and inservice director-focused training opportunities are variedand uneven in tenns of scope of knowledge and design of learning activities. Someareembedded in higher education, others are based on practical experiences, and somecombine the theoretical with the practical, either in higher education settings or inprogramsdesigned for on-the-job learning.Additionally, only eight states mention administrative training in theirlicensing requirements (Morgan, 2000). Bloom (1992) stated, “ While there is uniformagreementamong theorists about the importance of the director role and the need for high