Teacher’s Job Description – Psychology Essay
The job description is a detailed duty statement about what activities, chores, duties a person will have while they are at the job. This duty statement is about an early childhood teacher. The job description gives a lot of detail about what is expected from a person who is early childhood trained when they join the job. The statement clearly sets out a few points under administration. The teacher has to take on the role of the authorized supervisor when required and also has to take care of any administration duties for a particular room or even the centre.
They also have top assist and advice with requirements of equipment that is needed for a room or centre and make sure that each child is formally signed in and out of centre. Although this description tells a lot about what administration skills are required, it does not have as much detail as it could. It does say carry out administrative duties but there is no example of it that would make it clearer. Although you do not need any formal training for administration duties, it is better to know what is expected of you before you start a job. The description also has details about the centers policy and what they believe in. Although there is not a set section for management and leadership like there was for administration, there are statements that could be classified as management such as ‘effectively solve day to day problems and deal with unexpected occurrences according to centre philosophy, policies and procedures. Ebbeck and Waniganyake(2003, p.17) point out that ‘currently there is no agreed definition of leadership in the early childhood field….’.An example of leadership could be – ‘the teacher works as a member of a team and provides leadership in designing and implementing a high quality program….’. Leadership is the long term objectives that is based on a idea or a vision of what you want the future to be like. It is argued by Rodd (third edition, p.41) that ‘female approach to leadership is argued to be more appropriate and successful in today’s world generally and early childhood specifically’. So when they say that early childhood is a female dominated field, then generally it will be better led as females are supportive, collaborative, sympathetic, caring. As leadership is difficult to identify, Rodd has come up with a typology which is a ‘framework for classifying selected factors or features’. The typology has personal characteristics, professional skills and roles/responsibilities. Administration is the day to day housekeeping tasks, management is taking care of the present and the future and leadership is based on a vision towards the future. When it comes to these three concepts, it might be confusing as to which is what because they might overlap and people might not think of themselves as managers or leaders. People from different cultures might also get confused as these concepts might not mean the same in their culture. The job description has a lot of sub headings and provides some details under each, but they could be more expanded. For example – ‘make good professional practice….’, but what is a professional? A definition of a professional could have major differences depending on people’s cultures, values and beliefs. This is supported by Hargreaves and Ivor Goodson(1996,p.4) ‘what it means to be a professional, to show professionalism or to pursue professionalisation is not universally agreed or understood’. At the end of the job description, the employee has to sign and date the form. When it comes to administration, staff input should always be asked for as these decisions might effect them directly. The duty statement might be better understood if a director or another person responsible for the centre explains it to the new employee. That way they can explain any question or queries and can make it clearer so that they understand what administration, management and leadership qualities they need for the job. When it comes to these concepts and dealing with them in early childhood settings, it is better to consult staff that are involved in every case and every time. That way they staff will feel involved and can even give hints or ideas that one person might not have been able to think of by themselves. A team is better at coming up with ideas than a single person. So consultation is very important!