Leaders in early childhood - whether at the classroom, program, or policy level - have to channel their efforts into innovative and effective strategies to overcome the most difficult challenges facing the field. To help generate creative solutions to these challenges, PDI designed the Leadership Speaker Series. The Leadership Speaker Series, which just concluded its second successful year, brings dynamic individuals from outside of the field to share their experiences and insights with leaders in early childhood. This year's speakers included: Majora Carter, CEO and President of the Majora Carter Group, Maryam Banikarim, a Senior Vice President of NBC Universal, Karen Proctor, a Vice President of Scholastic Inc, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Special Advisor to the Mayor and Director of Strategic Initiatives Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, and Rich Neimand, President/Creative Director of the Neimand Collaborative.
This series provided an opportunity for the speakers to connect with leaders in the early childhood field-providers, teachers, directors, advocates and others. Some speakers used their experiences creating innovative and strategic problem solving in other fields, offering a model for early childhood education leaders to use in their practice. Majora Carter, who received a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship for her work, shared the origins of her passion for environmental social justice in her talk, "Green the Ghetto: And How Much It Won't Cost Us." Though her work has mainly focused on environmental causes, much of her experience is applicable to the issues in early childhood education. Community engagement, for example, was fundamental to her work establishing her environmental justice organization, Sustainable South Bronx. By investing many community partners in the work, Carter ensured the success of her organization. Though many of the specifics in her work are very different from early childhood education, the examples and approaches of pulling together community partners that Carter discussed during her talkare valuable strategies for serving young children.
Maryam Banikarim also inspired the leaders who attended her talk, "Creating a Culture of Innovation," with examples of innovation in her career. One of the things she credits toward her success in the field was her commitment to remaining open to new ideas and taking on any challenge that came her way. For instance, when she was assigned to to work on Univision, NBC's Spanish-language programming, Banikarim seized the chance to explore a new area of her field, even though she had very little knowledge or experience in this area. By entering the project with an open mind, Banikarim was able to find new ideas everywhere, like browsing through a bookshop. Remaining open to innovation and new ideas assures success in any field, including early childhood education. Karen Proctor began her talk, "Essential Leadership Strategies for Supporting Early Literacy and Learning," by defining leadership not as a title, but as a position.
"If you are a leader, you are actually moving your people, your organization, and your mission forward," she explained.
Proctor explained that her own style of leadership was a "coaching style," in which she tries to pull the best out of the people she leads.Her role, she said, is to define the goal, provide the resources, and help them reach that objective. In addition to helping the people who she leads develop stronger capabilities, Proctor stressed the importance of leaders adapting and growing themselves. By continually developing their own abilities, Ms. Proctor explained that leaders will be more prepared to help their organization meet the changing needs of the world.
Andrea Batista Schlesinger focused her talk "From Answers to Questions: Why Inquiry is our Best Tool to Prepare Learners-and Citizens," on how essential the ability to ask questions is to successful leadership.
"The culture we are raising our children in values answers over questions, speed over depth," she explained. Batista Schlesinger challenged the room to question the basic assumptions of education: What is the fundamental purpose of schooling? How does that affect and influence policy?
"Maybe asking these questions will lead us all to be better inquirers," she said. Though she spent most of her talk posing questions for reflection, Batista Schlesinger did suggest a new approach: "Start with the kind of citizen you want to live next door to and work backwards to build the kind of institutions that develop those citizens."
Rich Neimand closed the series with his talk "Messages for Leading Progress: Talking Return on Investment." Neimand offered tools to help communicate in a way that will most effectively serve young children, which is especially difficult during a recession.
"We have to spread a message that's less about social justice and more about economic advantage for everyone," he explained.
Using Nobel Laureate James Heckman's work, Neimand explained how investment in early childhood education provides a significant return on investment. Because high-quality early childhood education can prevent or mitigate educational and social difficulties down the line, these programs save tax payer's money in the long run. He recommended visiting www.heckmanequation.org, for communication tools about the critical need for early childhood education.
This series of talks, like last year's, reinvigorated the discussion of issues in early childhood education. With their fresh perspectives from outside the field, these speakers brought new ideas to the conversation about policy and practice in early childhood education. We thank the United Way of NYC for funding this aspect of our work.
