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Early Childhood Education
Advocacy and Leadership in Early Childhood Education

Content: Advocates may work on behalf of individuals or through formal advocacy organizations. In the former, friends, allies, guardians, or lawyers speak on behalf of a child or family that does not otherwise have the skills, knowledge, or confidence to speak for themselves. This is especially effective when a child or family is confronted with a complex bureaucracy with multiple regulations that require expertise to negotiate or receive the desired service. Formal advocacy organizations are concerned with practices or policies that affect groups of individuals or multiple communities. The Children’s Defense Fund cited earlier is perhaps the most widely known of these advocacy organizations. Others include the Child Welfare League of America and the National Association of Child Advocates, which represents state-level organizations such as the Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire or the Advocates for the Children of New York. The National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) annual Week-of-the-Young-Child, held each April, is another example of advocacy conducted by an organization consisting of some 100,000 early childhood teachers and administrators. Data-based advocacy. In addition to operating from core values such as a commitment to social justice, advocates rely on em