In the pursuit of social justice : methodologies for growing leadership and mobilising change

![CDATA[As an early childhood practitioner, teacher educator and researcher committed to promoting strong professional identities and advocating for principles of equity and social justice, I have long taken an interest in researching and growing leadership in the field of early childhood. I noticed early in my career that the concept of leadership sat uneasily with many practitioners and reflected on why people working with such passion to advocate for young children struggled to identify with this concept, why it mattered and what might be done about it (Woodrow, 2003; Woodrow & Busch, 2008). The phrase captured by Rory McDowall Clark (2012) in the title of her article ‘I never thought of myself as a leader but' was a recurring theme in early research and has remained an enduring motif of leadership in the field. This is somewhat curious given the evidence McDowall Clark's article provides about the vitality of activist educators and researchers innovating, resisting and creating in the interests of equity and social change. Leadership, advocacy and activism are alive and well in the early childhood field, but perhaps it masquerades under different nomenclature.]]