School Principals are an internal school entity possessing a strategic influence on the creation and realization the quality of school. Leadership is considered relevant for  improving the quality of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in responding the 4.0 era. Therefore, the aim of this research is to outline knowledge, skills, and personal traits needed by principals to respond the fourth industrial revolution.  The data collection methods employed was in-depth interview to 10 selected ECE principals and documentation. Questionnaire was also used to gained the data about school principal's leadership skill. Finding shows that school that schools’ principal leadership competencies needed in the 4.0 era are understanding principals’ role as leader of learning, leader of student entitlement, leader of capacity building, leader of community, and leader of resource management. Among those competencies, principals at early childhood thought that schools’ principal role as a leader of resource management is the most important aspect that impact to school leadership success in improving the quality of early childhood education. This study also reveals that a good school principal should perform good emotional intelligence that are self-awareness, social awareness, relationship management, and self-management

Farisia, Hernik

Mukhlishah, Mukhlishah

Library UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Principal’s Leadership to Improve the Quality of 
Early Childhood Education in the 4.0 Era 
 
Hernik Farisia, Mukhlisah 
Department of Early Childhood Islamic Education 
UIN Sunan Ampel 
Surabaya, Indonesia 
hernikfarisia@uinsby.ac.id  
 
Abstract—School principals are an internal school entity 
possessing a strategic influence on the creation and realization 
the quality of school. Leadership is considered relevant for 
improving the quality of quality of Early Childhood Education 
(ECE) in responding the 4.0 era. Therefore, this study 
contributes to outline knowledge, skills, and personal traits 
needed by principals at ECE to respond the fourth industrial 
revolution. The data collection methods employed was in-depth 
interview to 10 selected ECE principals and documentation. 
Questionnaire was also used to gain the data about school 
principals’ leadership skill. Finding shows that school principals’ 
leadership competencies needed in the 4.0 era are understanding 
principals’ role as leader of learning, leader of student 
entitlement, leader of capacity building, leader of community, 
and leader of resource management. Among those competencies, 
principals at ECE thought that school principal role as a leader 
of resource management is the most important aspect that impact 
to school leadership success in improving the quality of ECE. 
This study also reveals that a good school principal should 
perform good emotional intelligences that are self-awareness, 
social awareness, relationship management, and self-
management.  
Keywords—principals’ leadership; early childhood education; 
4.0 era 
I.  INTRODUCTION  
Early childhood (usually described as the period from birth 
to eight years of age) is currently receiving a great deal of 
attention, both internationally and in Indonesia. The 
government has invested significant funding in supporting 
early childhood education development. In Indonesia, Early 
childhood Education (ECE) is categorized into two categories, 
formal and non-formal education. As stated at The Law No. 
20 year 2003 article 1 number 14 that ECE as a formal 
education pathway is categorized as Kindergarten which 
develop program for children aged 4 – 6 years. Meanwhile, 
students aged 2 – 4 years derive to child care center as it is 
non-formal education. 
In order to develop students’ competencies at ECE, 
education system takes an important role as mentioned on 
Dictionary of Psychology that education is the institutional 
procedures which are employed in accomplishing the 
development of knowledge, habits, attitudes, etc. ECE is 
important as the preparatory stage of school education. 
Moreover, an early childhood education preferably takes 
significant role in nurturing religious values and lifelong skills 
for children in the next future. Therefore, one of the priorities 
of the Indonesian government in its 2010 – 2014 strategic 
plans in education is increasing the quality of early childhood 
education by establishing a standard that standardize ECE 
services through the law of ministry of education and culture 
number 137 year 2014. The standard covers standard of 
developmental goals, standard of ECE teachers’ 
professionalism, standard of content, standard of process, 
standard of facilities, infrastructure, management, and finance, 
and standard of evaluation.   
Regarding to the arriving of globalization era, ECE also 
need to compete on a global level since new technological 
development and the spread of information has impacted the 
educational system at school. Thus, the role and 
responsibilities of principals are changes in significant ways to 
effectively suppose and lead teachers and all the members to 
improve the quality of school. Most educational activities, 
such as management administration, teaching and learning, 
etc. can utilize information to make ease the organizational 
management. 
To respond the arriving of industrial revolution 4.0 on 
education system, a visionary leadership is needed. Davis [1] 
states that leadership is about direction setting and inspiring 
others to make the journey to a new and improved state of 
school. According to Asia-Pasific Regional Network for Early 
Childhood (ARNEC) report from 2009 leadership was 
highlighted as a key driver in achieving targeted outcomes for 
children. The general opinion is that a visionary leadership has 
immense impact to enhance school management in order to 
achieve qualified ECE at industrial era.  
A prior research that existed before has focused on 
variation in leadership, management and administration, and 
what effective on early childhood leadership. The result shows 
that variation in leadership, management and administration 
patterns across settings indicated multiple leadership roles in 
diverse early childhood settings. Principals’ role is revealed as 
leader as guides [2]. This finding suggests a need to identify 
what educational leadership needed in improving the quality 
of early childhood education in responding 4.0 era.  
3rd International Conference on  Education Innovation (ICEI 2019)
Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. 
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
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Another research that relates to this study is technology 
leadership for the twenty first century principals. This study 
explores some of the ways that the integration of technologies 
for teaching and learning has impacted the traditional roles 
and responsibilities of the school principal. The study revealed 
the roles and responsibilities of principals as technology leader 
and provided a model to guide positive action [3]. Based on 
the results findings, it is known that the issue relates to 
technology integration. Therefore, the ongoing research 
conducted is trying to understand the competencies needed by 
school principals in the 4.0 educational millieu. 
Based on those explanatories, this paper raises a current 
issue related to the arriving of industrial revolution and 
provides a contextual framework in which school principals at 
ECE are able to undertake new leadership needed in the 
changing world at 4.0 era. Some discourses about the criteria 
of an ideal principal at ECE, the parameter of qualified ECE 
based on Indonesian education law, and selected examples of 
successful implementation of technology integration are 
provided in order to draw the profile of principals’ leadership 
at ECE in the fourth industrial revolution. 
Industrial revolution 1.0 is introducing mechanical 
production machine powered by water and steam at the end of 
eighteenth century. Meanwhile revolution 2.0 is introducing 
mass production lines powered by electric energy at the 
beginning of the twentieth century. The next era is industrial 
revolution 3.0 which identic with the use of electronics and IT 
further progression in autonomous progression at the 
beginning of the seventieth century. The industrial revolution 
4.0 which is arriving at year 2011 – 2040 is based on cyber-
physical systems [4]. Industry 4.0 is the integration of Cyber 
Physical System (CPS) and Internet of Things and Services 
(IoT and IoS) into industrial processes including 
manufacturing and logistics and other processes. 
Leadership in organizations has a very big role in building 
relationships between individuals and forming organizational 
values. Principals of schools where outstanding sites that place 
a high priority on good communications and relationship with 
external stakeholders. Therefore, school principals should 
have competence and ability to fulfill their duties and 
responsibilities in the best possible way. Competency is 
defined as the combination of knowledge, skills, and personal 
traits that need to be present in a leader. The competencies 
needed are both technical and managerial skill. School 
principal requires to have knowledge, skills, and personal 
traits that need to be present in a leader [5]. School principals 
also require perform abilities on their duties and fulfill their 
responsibilities in the best possible way in order to model an 
ideal leader. This is because the challenges faced by a school 
principal nowadays are more complex. 
The arriving of technology on daily activities is one of the 
challenges for principals on how to integrate technology in the 
organizational management. Moreover, the success of 
information technology used not only depends on how the 
technology could be operated well but also depends on the 
perceive of the user [6]. Therefore, the knowledge of the user 
related to technology used and how it works to manage 
educational systems is needed.  
Meanwhile, the skills needed to respond the fourth 
industrial revolution are complex problem solving, critical 
thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with 
others, emotional intelligence, service orientation, judgment 
and decision making, negotiation, and cognitive flexibility.  
Regarding to the goal of education at ECE that is 
achieving students’ growth and psychologically  is preparing 
them as a young learner at primary school, educational system 
at ECE should facilitate them in achieving those goal. 
Therefore, early childhood schools’ principal should fulfill 
requirements for early childhood leader and have adequate 
management skills. Furthermore, students at ECE are 
categorized as digital native that also use digital technology 
for learning. The fact suggests teacher to integrate ICT at 
every aspect of school focusing on teaching and learning 
process. As one of the responsibilities of school principals 
leadership is managing and leading people, a school principal 
should able to supervise teacher and all the staff members to 
conduct teaching and learning ICT. Besides that, schools’ 
principal should able to model themself as technology leaders 
because technology can increase the role of principals as 
manager, administrator, and supervisor. 
II.  METHOD 
This research employed a qualitative approach in which 
the result emphasizes more on meaning. Hancock [7] reveals 
that qualitative research was conducted because researchers 
wants to explore phenomena that should be explored 
descriptively such as the process of a work step, the 
characteristics of an item and services, images, the notions of 
a variety concepts, etc. In this research, descriptive qualitative 
is used to explore school principals’ leadership phenomena in 
improving qualified ECE at 4.0 era. 
Questionnaires were used as the data collection method 
and content analyses as the method to explore how school 
principals’ leadership skills at ECE. The informants were 
determined by selecting 10 selected principals at ECE in 
Surabaya. The questionnaire was developed by identifying the 
responsibilities of school principals as stated in the law of 
ministry of education and culture number 28 year 2010 about 
qualification requirements for ECE leader. Whilst data related 
to what kinds of personal needed by an ideal principal’s 
leadership at the fourth industrial revolution was self-
developed based on some sources and concept from scholars.   
 The stages are describes as follows: (1) collecting such 
literatures and data related to education leadership and the 
evolution of education 4.0, (2) defining the parameter of an 
ideal leader for organizational management at ECE and 
identifying the indicator of a qualified ECE based on the law, 
(3) Conducting in-depth interview to principals at ECE, 
employed the questionnaire to gain a data related to what kind 
of leadership skills implemented to respond 4.0 era, and 
conducted documentation study, (4) selecting/ deselecting 
information, (5) analyzing and synthesizing the information 
related to principals’ leadership at 4.0 era, and (6) designing 
conceptual ideas to cover principals’ leadership needed at 
ECE in the 4.0 era.  
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In this study, the data analyses tool was qualitative content 
analyses. A number of significant similarities and trends are 
then identified for further analyses. It is important to recognize 
wider evidence which represent school principal’s 
perspectives about competencies needed in school leadership 
to respond industrial revolution. The data then categorize and 
unified. Principals were asked to estimate the percentage of 
employing the leadership skills in responding educational 
system at 4.0 era, then it categorized into classes based on 
data-driven analyses. Responses were coded based on the 
amount of occurrences.   
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
In determining school principals’ competency, there are 3 
aspect identified in this research; knowledge, skill, and 
personal traits. In relate to the core purpose of early 
childhood teaching and learning is to optimize students’ 
growth, the educational systems at ECE should help students 
to have experience in learning by doing and learning by 
playing. To achieve this, principals and all schools members 
should provide an environment that facilitates students to 
achieve their competencies. In this case, school principal 
responsible for the outstanding educational outcomes and 
their leadership has been crucial in producing the 
environment where the outcome can occur.  
Finding from in-depth interview shows that schools’ 
principals reveal that the personal traits needed in the 
changeable world are performing good emotional intelligence 
that are self-awareness, social awareness, relationship 
management, and self-management, as described in detail 
below: 
 
 
Fig. 1. Principal’s Emotional Intelligence 
 
The chart above shows that future schools principals 
should perform good emotional intelligence to succeed their 
leadership. The finding is in accordance with Caruso (2003) 
who found that leaders must be able to identify, use, 
understand, and manage their own emotions, as well as 
emotions of others. It is because the leader who can identify 
emotions has a high awareness not only on their feelings, but 
also those of staff members. Donaldson (2006) presents a 
school leadership model has impacted to a current of change 
which mobilizes school improvement. 
This study also shows common trends in the schools’ 
principals’ leadership skill. 10 principals were asked to 
estimate the composition of leadership skills needed to 
improve qualified ECE at 4.0 era and it was categorized in the 
questionnaire. Otherwise, principals were asked to describe 
what kinds of school principals’ skills   that are: 1) 
understanding principals’ role as leader of learning, 2) 
understanding principals’ role as leader of student entitlement, 
3) understanding principals’ role as leader of capacity 
building, 4) understanding principals’ role as leader of 
community, and 5) understanding principals’ role as leader of 
resource management. These findings are described as 
follows: 
TABLE I.  WHAT PRINCIPALS CONSIDER AS LEADERSHIP SKILLS 
NEEDED AT 4.0 ERA 
No Component  Percentage 
1 employing principals’ role as leader of learning 10% 
2 employing principals’ role as leader of student 
entitlement 
10% 
3 employing principals’ role as leader of capacity 
building 
30% 
4 employing principals’ role as leader of 
community 
20% 
5 employing principals’ role as leader of resource 
management 
40% 
 
As shown in Table 1, principals at ECE thought that 
employing principals role as leader of resource management is 
the most important aspect that impact to school leadership 
success.  In this capacity, the principal is responsible for 
managing the resources necessary for achieving qualified 
ECE through technology integration. Otherwise, these skills 
are intertwined with each other. 
IV. CONCLUSION 
This research clearly shows that an ideal school principal 
should have leadership’s competencies that are ready to 
respond the challenging education system arriving at the 
fourth industrial revolution. Finding from in-depth interview 
shows that schools’ principals reveal that the personal traits 
needed in the changeable world are performing good 
emotional intelligence that are self-awareness, social 
awareness, relationship management, and self-management. 
Schools’ principal leadership also needs such skills to craft 
the mission of developing quality service for early childhood. 
The skills are: 1) employing principals’ role as leader of 
learning, 2) employing principals’ role as leader of student 
entitlement, 3) employing principals’ role as leader of capacity 
building, 4) employing principals’ role as leader of 
community, and 5) employing principals’ role as leader of 
resource management. All the skills are employed 
interconnected, but the most important skill that should be 
employed to respond educational system at 4.0 era is 
employing principals’ role as leader of resource management.  
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In line with this information, a research about improving 
school principals’ emotional intelligence skills to improve 
their leadership skills need to be explored further.    
 
 
REFERENCES 
 
 
[1] A. Harris, “Distributed Leadership and School Improvement,” 
Educational Management Administration & Leadership, vol. 32, no. 1. 
The George Washington University, pp. 11–24, 2004. 
[2] C. Aubrey, R. Godfrey, and A. Harris, “How Do They Manage? An 
Investigation of Early Childhood Leadership,” Educ. Manag. Adm. 
Leadersh., vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 5–29, 2013. 
[3] L. Flanagan and M. Jacobsen, “Technology leadership for the twenty-
first century principal,” J. Educ. Adm., vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 124–142, 
2003. 
[4] B. Aberšek, “Evolution of Competences for New Era or Education 
4.0,” in Czech Educational Research Association, 2017, no. 
September, pp. 12–14. 
[5] N. Goolamally and J. Ahmad, “Attributes of School Leaders towards 
Achieving Sustainable Leadership: A Factor Analysis,” J. Educ. 
Learn., vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 122–133, 2014. 
[6] E. F. Rusydiyah and H. Farisia, “The Development of ‘Ayo Membaca’ 
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Humanit. Res. Vol., vol. 212, pp. 315–317, 2018. 
[7] C. Jewitt, “An introduction to using video for research,” 2012. 
 
 
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Principals’ Leadership to Improve the Quality of Early Childhood Education at The 4.0 Era

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