This qualitative case-study explores the ways in which an innovative M.Ed. program facilitated the development of future ECE reflective leaders. Using case study methodology, it presents the transformational process two recent graduates underwent during their studies. The findings indicate four main sources that initiated the deep student reflection and introspection which influenced the development of their professional identity and leadership abilities: creating safe spaces for research, building a conceptual framework for research, learning and teaching as an integrative process and inquiring into their practice. The discussion presents three insights drawn from the findings: during the program parallel processes of transformation between the researcher and the graduates took place; using a holistic approach and accepting simultaneity are crucial for leading change; and the effect of leadership is based on reflective practice. An implication of the study is that only after practitioners are able to inquire into their own practice, reflect on it and model it, are they ready for the upper stratum of their profession. At this stratum, they are in a position to educate the next generation of ECE teachers and to unsettle the status quo by changing the traditional system of ECE education.