The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic inquiry into the lives of six early childhood administrators. The researcher investigated stories these early childhood administrators told about their lived experiences and searched for patterns that emerged from the stories suggesting career paths, personal characteristics, and administrative styles. The sample was obtained from a purposive/criterion sampling of the population. Six early childhood administrators were chosen based on their representation as a strong administrator who had experience with working with young children and families.
Data was collected through three interview sessions. The minimum time for each interview session was one (1) hour. An interview protocol was used in order to assure that each interviewee was asked the same questions by the interviewer. Each interviewee was made aware of the studys purpose, procedures, and informed of their right to deny being involved in the study. Participants were interviewed and interview transcripts, audiocassettes, and other documents were used for concrete, contextual biographical materials. Participants were asked to review the profile of their career, personal characteristics, and administrative styles developed by the researcher.
This study has provided insight into six early childhood administrators career pathways, personal characteristics, administrative styles, and the uniqueness of their early childhood programs. This research expanded the early childhood literature by focusing on the administrator as the gatekeeper to quality, which included a structural component, process component, people component, and cultural component. Each early childhood administrator was interviewed and asked questions about each component in relation to one other and to the external environment. Each administrator arrived at her role through a different route. However, each one had an education in child development and early childhood education. The personal characteristics and administrative styles shared by all the administrators included: concern for children and families, high expectations, value of trust, respect, sense of professionalism, belief in teamwork, nurturing the nurturer, and high demands.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04082004-162323 |
| Date | 14 April 2004 |
| Creators | Sciaraffa, Mary Aileen |
| Contributors | Janet A Norris, Joan Benedict, Earl Cheek, Teresa Buchanan, Diane Burts |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04082004-162323/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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