Blog Post
This blog was authored by Simon Marmura Brown, Strategic Director of Research and Knowledge Mobilisation, Pond-Deshpande Centre
ECE as Leaders
Reimagining leadership in early learning, how educators across Atlantic Canada are shaping the future of their sector.
Every day, early childhood educators across Atlantic Canada juggle a hundred large and small responsibilities: they guide children’s development and learning, support families, shovel snow, sooth infants to sleep, manage staff schedules, balance accounting books, and much more. Somehow, through all of this, they also find the time to plan, reflect, and grow in their pedagogies and in their leadership practices. The Atlantic Canada Early Childhood Education Lab was created to better understand this reality — and to reimagine what it means for ECEs to thrive in their careers, and to thrive as leaders.
From 2020 – 2023, The Pond-Deshpande Centre at the University of New Brunswick, in partnership with All In Research & Innovation, brought together educators, directors, governments, and training institutions from all four Atlantic provinces. Using a social innovation lab approach, participants identified barriers in the sector and co-designed small, testable solutions (called prototypes), aimed at improving working and learning conditions for ECEs. Through this process, one truth emerged again and again: ECEs are not just caregivers, employers, or employees; they are leaders.
As one Atlantic Canada ECE leader in Prince Edward Island explained: “We need to help ECEs who see themselves as leaders in the sector, or even those who might not see themselves as leaders in the sector, develop skills to help teach and mentor the other people in their center who are looking for guidance and opportunities to learn.”
Similar points were raised throughout the Lab: how do we create opportunities for ECEs to learn and grow as leaders? Leadership in early learning is often the responsibility of those who “do not see themselves as leaders”. In interviews, we heard from ECE leaders across Atlantic Canada that many “fell into” leadership roles because someone needed to step up. Someone was needed to organize, to advocate, or to hold things together. Yet, as several participants noted, leadership is rarely recognized or supported with training or time.
“I don’t feel there are any professional learning hours for the teachers to take for free to grow as a leader” one Atlantic Canada ECE leader in Moncton explained, “I think that is one of the things that is important.”
The Lab’s prototypes tested practical ways to support and sustain the leadership roles ECEs assume everyday through better access to professional learning, mentorship networks, and recognition of prior experience. These ideas were small steps toward a bigger shift — one where leadership is an intentional part of an ECE’s career path and a robustly-supported professional practice within the sector.
The Lab’s prototypes tested practical ways to support and sustain the leadership roles ECEs assume everyday through better access to professional learning, mentorship networks, and recognition of prior experience. These ideas were small steps toward a bigger shift — one where leadership is an intentional part of an ECE’s career path and a robustly-supported professional practice within the sector.
“I think the lab created the space to think about that,” another Atlantic Canada ECE leader in Moncton explained, “that we need somebody like a leader in the daycare. I think these meetings guided me to understand the problem that educators are overwhelmed, and how leadership is needed to solve the problem.”
Regardless of their professional title, ECEs lead all the time: in classrooms, in centres, and in communities. They build trust with families, innovate in their programs, and nurture the next generation while navigating systemic challenges which can be very challenging. Recognizing them as leaders is not just about titles or pay grades, it’s about valuing the relational, emotional, and intellectual work that makes early learning possible.
As we continue sharing stories from the Lab, one message stands out clearly: when we invest in ECE leadership, we invest in the future of our communities.
As another Atlantic Canada ECE leader shared: “My key takeaway from working with the lab was to encourage people to be leaders, to continue to lobby, especially the funders, to not let the growth that’s been happening within our sector over the last few years stagnate, that we need to continue to grow, in our educational expectations, in the expectations for the work that’s being done with our children, for funding the children who have exceptional needs, and to ensure that every family and every child and every early childhood educator has what it takes to be the best they can be.”
Follow Along
To learn more about the Atlantic Canada ECE Lab and explore the prototypes developed, visit our website and join us for our upcoming showcase.
Join us on November 20, 2025 from 12:00-1:30 AST, via Zoom.
Register Today: ECE Project Showcase
Website: https://ponddeshpande.ca/ecelab/
