This book explores the realities of leadership in the early years and examines the challenges and opportunities for the profession. The authors suggest that recent moves to professionalize the workforce offer a unique opportunity to reconceptualize leadership and develop a new paradigm more suited to the specific circumstances of the sector.

As well as discussing current perspectives of leadership, the book proposes a new concept for the early years, leadership within, which recognises that leadership can come from anywhere within an organisation or setting. The book argues that the concept of leadership within is more appropriate for the early years sector as it draws on the professional desire to further the education and well-being of young children and their families rather than on traditional hierarchy and position. Key features of the book include:

• Ideas based on research from a wide range of current early years practice
  
• Real leadership profiles of practitioners from a diversity of different professional backgrounds and working in a variety of contexts
  
• Reflective prompts to assist you in identifying the leadership in your own practice and how this can be developed further

The ideas explored in Reconceptualizing Leadership in the Early Years have important implications for sustainable leadership development in the sector and are essential reading for all practitioners as well as those studying early childhood and enrolled on EYPS courses.