McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Melissa Casteel | May 2, 2016

This document may be printed, photocopied, and disseminated freely with attribution. All content is the property of the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership.

“A pedagogical leader keeps the organization focused on the teaching and learning process among the children, staff, and families.”


– Margie Carter


Recent Whole Leadership blog posts by Jill Bella and Mike Abel got my wheels spinning reflecting on the concept of pedagogical leadership. As a proud #ResearchNerd, I began a search –for resources related to pedagogical leadership and early childhood.


In the McCormick Center archives, I landed on an article by Margie Carter, “Improving Your Program with Pedagogical Leadership”. Carter speaks to the complexity of the field and the importance of leaders being competent in many areas, “To achieve sustainable quality, programs need sophisticated business practices but also a leader with people skills, pedagogical understandings, and the wherewithal to develop an organizational culture that reflects their values on how to achieve quality.” My response was, “Oh, is that all!” Actually, my anxiety level was raised just a tad, and I kept searching.


In Pedagogical Leadership, Coughlin and Baird present the following four principles to help pedagogical leaders “build an intentional culture where reflection and inquiry form the foundation for transforming practice”:


  1. Use a Protocol to Support Reflective Thinking and Inquiry: Protocols support a disciplined approach to reflection and inquiry
  2. Set Up Professional Learning Communities: A strategy to shift the focus from teaching to learning
  3. Allow Time: Sustainable change requires time to reflect and collaborate
  4. Paralleling Practice: Leaders creating the same types of learning experiences we want for children


“…Pedagogical leaders challenge others to see themselves as researchers in the teaching and learning process. In turn,
this practice builds a culture of reflective teaching that helps us to sort through the complexities of our work.”


– Anne Marie Coughlin and Lorrie Baird


Building a culture of reflective practice comes to mind first when thinking about how leaders can support the process of teaching and learning. Creating space (physical, psychological…) for teachers and leaders to come together and learn while grappling with the challenges associated with our work can be a catalyst for growth. In the words of Margaret J. Wheatley, “Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”


Although the term “pedagogical leadership” may or may not be used, here are few more resources that address this comprehensive topic.


  1. Birth-3rd and Leadership: Steve Tozer’s message to the birth-3rd community: This Preschool Matters…Today! blog post speaks to the important role good leadership plays in improving teaching and learning.
  2. Early childhood education resources: A collection of recent research/resources compiled by the Center for the Study of Education Policy.
  3. Inspiring Peak Performance: This book presents five strategies that together will help transform your program into a professional learning community.
  4. Lead Learn Excel Library: A comprehensive digital library, created for instructional leaders of early education schools and centers who aspire for instructional excellence and kindergarten readiness for all children.
  5. Leading Pre-K-3 Learning Communities:Competencies for Effective Principal Practice Executive Summary. A guide from the National Association of Elementary School Principals to support the essential role of principals in creating quality learning systems.
  6. Pedagogical Leadership from a Distributed Perspective within the Context of Early Childhood Education.This article takes a deep dive into the meaning and significance of pedagogical leadership.
  7. Reflecting in Communities of Practice: A Workbook For Early Childhood Educators. Includes activities to help understand and practice the key elements of reflective teaching.
  8. The Visionary Director. Provides a concrete framework for achieving a vision of excellence for early childhood programs and includes resources to help teachers become reflective practitioners.


“A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly
to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.”


– Jim Rohn


Very unexpectedly, Twitter has become a source for my own professional development. If you are a fellow #tweep, here is a link to some of my favorite leadership follows.

Melissa Casteel is Quality Supports Manager for the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership. Melissa provides training and technical assistance on the Program Administration Scale (PAS), the Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS), and the Director’s Toolbox Management Series.

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The AI-Enabled Administrator: Reclaim Valuable Time

By Dr. Neal Green • February 8, 2026
Tools: Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, Perplexity Spaces Overview The evidence is clear that early childhood professionals' most significant challenge is a lack of time. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, when used strategically, can give administrators some of the time they desperately need, allowing them to focus more on their staff and the children and families in their care. This approach aligns with the foundational goal of strengthening leadership effectiveness and program impact (Abel, Talan, & Masterson, 2023). When I scan the AI landscape of available products and platforms, it becomes overwhelming. There are so many options that it is impossible to keep up with every new development. Focusing on a limited number of AI tools backed by organizations with strong infrastructure and fiscal stability is a wise place to start your AI journey. McCormick Institute for Early Childhood’s (MIEC’s) upcoming professional development sessions will focus on three AI tools. These include Gemini Gems, NotebookLM, and Perplexity Spaces. Think of Gemini Gems as your customized AI assistant that you "train" to follow your rules and meet your goals. Gemini Gems are the right tool to tackle Internal Operations . NotebookLM is perfect for creating Family Support resources that stick. NotebookLM is a powerful AI tool that uses only the documents or other resources you add to generate specific, focused output. Perplexity Spaces is a fantastic choice to address Marketing demands. Like many AI tools, you can toggle back and forth between open web searches and focused documents that are specific to your work. Gemini Gems: The “Specialist Teammate” Gemini Gems allow you to create templates you can use repeatedly for agendas, HR policies, and more. If you have used AI in the past, you know that writing an effective prompt takes time, and they can easily get "lost" if you use AI often. Gems removes that challenge and lets you save your most effective prompts without having to rewrite them every time you use Gemini. It is up to you to decide if you want to create several smaller Gems to tackle common challenges you face or create larger Gems that encompass large swaths of your work. For our purposes, we will focus our Gem work on Internal Operations, addressing Program Administration Scale (PAS) Item 9: Internal Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). Imagine using a Gem to turn messy staff meeting notes into professional minutes with clear action plans in minutes or less! NotebookLM: The "Walled Garden" NotebookLM is an excellent tool for Family Support for your center, addressing PAS Item 17: Family Support and Involvement (Talan & Bloom, 2011). After uploading documents and resources, such as your parent handbook or community referral lists, to your Notebook, you can create several resources that parents/guardians of your center students will love. Just a few of the impressive features available with NotebookLM include audio (podcast) summaries, video summaries, and reporting functions with templates or the option to create your own report with metrics that matter most to you. Perplexity Spaces: The "Research Librarian" Perplexity Spaces is a perfect AI partner for Marketing your early childhood education (ECE) program, addressing PAS Item 18: External Communications (Talan & Bloom, 2011). You can build your own centralized repository, with control over branding to ensure consistency and present a professional, current image. Adding specific instructions to your space eliminates the need to format documents constantly and saves valuable time. The consistency that a Perplexity Space offers in this regard allows you to upload messages that are the "voice” of your brand. Your marketing efforts are not only more aesthetically pleasing but also enable you to track trends at similar centers in your area, helping you assess the competition. Strategies for Success: Audit your Internal Communications: Identify one repetitive task, such as creating staff meeting agendas (PAS Item 9), and automate it with a Gemini Gem. Curate your Family Resources: Gather three to five existing documents to "feed" a NotebookLM project for more responsive family support (PAS Item 17). Standardize your Brand: Use a Perplexity Space to ensure all public relations tools project a consistent, professional image (PAS Item 18). Reflection Questions: Which administrative task takes the most time away from your interactions with staff and families? How might centralizing marketing materials (branding) impact the professional image to prospective families? Table 1: AI Tools for ECE Professionals
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