Volume 14, 2025
Investigating the Leadership Roles of Stakeholders in the Up-Scaling of Early Childhood Care Education in Rivers State, Nigeria
Ubadinma K. EBELOGU & Henry C. ANAMOJI
Abstract
The study investigated leadership roles of stakeholders in the up-scaling of early child-hood care education in
Rivers State Nigeria. There were two research questions as well as two hypotheses formulated to guide the study.
The design adopted was the descriptive research design. The population of the study was 210 junior senior
secondary school teachers in Rivers State out of which 135 teachers were sampled for the study. The instrument
used was a 15-item questionnaire titled "Leadership Roles of Stakeholders and Up-scaling of Early Childhood
Care Education" (LRSUECCE). The questionnaire was validated by experts in the study area. The reliability
was analyzed using Cronbach Alpha method deriving a co-efcient of 0.84. The research questions raised were
answered using mean and standard deviation while T-test was used to test the hypotheses were at 0.05 level of
signicance. The ndings of the study showed that a positive relationship exists between the leadership roles of
stakeholders and the up-scaling of early childhood care education in Rivers State. It was recommended that
effective measures should be ensured in the training of early childhood/pre-primary teachers through adequate
scholarships, approving the mounting of such programmes in all Universities, Institutes of Education and
College of Education.
Keywords
Leadership, Roles, Stakeholders, Up-scaling, Early-childhood
Full Text
Download
References
Ang, L. (2017). Leading and managing in the early years: A study of the impact of a NCSL programme on
children's centre leaders' perceptions of leadership and practice. Educational Management
Administration & Leadership, 40(3), 289-304.
Arbour, M. (2016). Improving quality and child outcomes in early childhood education by redening the role
afforded to teacher in professional development. Evanston Publication.
Bagudo, A.B, (2021). The Relevance of early Childhood Care Development and Education in Achievement of
Vision 2020 Farfuru. Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Studies, 3(5), 20-27.
Ball, J. (2017). "Equity for Indigenous Children in Early Childhood Education", in Heyman, J. (ed.), Increasing
Equity in Education: Successful Approaches from around the World. Oxford Univerity Press.
Ball, J. (2018). "Centring Community Services Around Early Childhood Care and Development: Promising
Practices in Indigenous Communities in Canada", Child Health and Education, 2(2), 28-51.
Dennis, S. & O'Connor, E. (2017). "Reexamining quality in early childhood education: Exploring the
relationship between the organizational climate and the classroom", Journal of Research in Childhood
Education, 27(1), 74-92.
359
Ubadinma K. EBELOGU & Henry C. ANAMOJI (352-360)
Douglass, A. (2011). Improving family engagement: The organizational context and its inuence on partnering
with parents in formal child care settings. Prentice Publications.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education (4th Ed). NERDC Press.
Heikka, J. & Hujala, T (2019). "Early childhood leadership through the lens of distributed leadership",
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(4), 568-580
Ho, D.& Tikly, L. (2017). "Conceptualizing teacher leadership in a Chinese, policy-driven context: A research
agenda", School effectiveness and school improvement, 23(4), 401-416
Hua, R. (2018). Early Childhood and Development: Benue State situation. Paper Presented at the Workshop on
Establishment and Strengthening Civil Society Organization (CSOs) Network for Effective Implantation
of ECC/Gender Issues Programmes in Benue State at Gboko, Benue State.
Hujala, E. (2016). "Leadership tasks in early childhood education in Finland, Japan, and Singapore", Journal of
Research in Childhood Education, 30(3), 406-421.
Kagan, S. L. Kauerz, K. & Tarrant, K. (2021). The early care and education teaching workforce at the fulcrum:
An agenda for reform. Teachers College Press.
UNESCO (2012). Early Childhood Care and Education. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000219613