A Case Study On Curriculum Leadership Of Kindergarten Leaders

At the turn of the 21^st century, the practice of Curriculum Reform has become a hot-debated topic. The school-based curriculum development has also become the common subject. As a new idea of curriculum practice, the curriculum leadership emphasizes cooperation, communication, democracy and openness, which is in accordance with the idea of the kindergarten-based curriculum development. The pre-school education, an indispensable part of fundamental education, also encounters the challenge of reform which stresses the practicality of curriculum objectives, the democracy of curriculum decision-making, and the choosing and generating curriculum according to the needs of kindergarten, teacher and infant. Facing the tide of the reform in this changing world, the kindergarten leaders should take the responsibility to cope with the factors coordinately both inside and outside the kindergarten and to guide the curriculum reform so as to guarantee the implement of the school-based curriculum. In doing so, they should depend on the specific teaching practice in the kindergarten and rely on the authority of their professional skills and their individual charm. Based on this assumption, this study took school-based curriculum development in three kindergartens in Chongqing as cases, investigating the measures and the similar difficulties of kindergarten leaders' curriculum leadership. Several solutions are proposed intending to help implement the curriculum leadership effectively.Based on a literary review of the theory on school-based curriculum development and curriculum leadership in kindergarten, and a field study in three kindergartens, this study employs interviews, document analysis and many other methods to investigate curriculum leadership of kindergarten leaders under the background of the school-based curriculum development.Firstly, this study found out the similar measures of the kindergarten leaders' curriculum leadership in the school-based curriculum development by observing the interview materials. These measures include establishing vision together, creating cultural atmosphere, making curriculum schedules, directing curriculum implement, promoting teachers' professional development, training transformative curriculum leader and guiding curriculum evaluation. Secondly, this study provides an analysis on the similar difficulties of kindergarten leaders' curriculum leadership in the school-based curriculum development. Finally, based on the above investigation, this paper offers some constructive advices to the effective implement of curriculum leadership in the school-based curriculum development intending to help kindergartens to become the professional curriculum leaders.