Perspectives on Leadership in Early Childhood Education and Care Centers Through Community of Practice

Abstract

This article investigates early childhood education and care (ECEC) leadership through the concept of community of practice (COP). The focus is on ECEC leaders’ perceptions regarding their leadership during the educational changes taking place in the context of Finnish ECEC. The purpose is to increase understanding of how leaders see themselves in relation to the ECEC multi professional working community and practices of distributed leadership. The data are five focus group interviews of ECEC leaders analyzed with directed content analysis within the theoretical frame of domain, practice, and community forming the core of COP in Lave and Wenger. The results show how all three COP components comprise several dimensions in ECEC leaders’ perceptions of their leadership. For example, the component of the leadership domain consists of ECEC values, ECEC legislation, and ECEC curriculum. The results indicate that a formal leadership role is essential in leading the community and its vision. Moreover, building flexible leadership structures and supporting multi professional cooperation in the community augment leadership as a community’s joint enterprise.

The CoP Theory in Reading Enhancement Programme(REP) from Pragmatic Lens of Language Development

“…The concept of CoP as accentuated by Heikkinen et al (2022), Nagao (2018), and E. Wenger-Trayner & B. Wenger-Trayner (2015) has gone a long way in terms of improving the overall literacy of learners considering the lens of the present study. It also acquiesces to the fact that reading enhancement activities is a multi-faceted concern.…”

“…The theory of Communities of Practice (CoP) has captured interest of many linguists and educators for more than two decades thereabouts as a subject of their philosophical inquiry and investigation to verify its efficacy towards language learning which the present piece of work will also delve into (Heikkinen et al, 2022;Nagao, 2018). This approach to language learning has, as a matter of fact, distinguishing features as underpinned by various scientists.…”

“…The recruited participants must manifest openness and empathy which fortunately are evident and manifested by the participants of the presents study. Nonetheless, Ciampa and Wolfe (2023) and Heikkinen et al (2022) conjecture that in a technology-enhanced language teaching with their colleagues, some members must have been agreeable to share their scheme on the CoP Project website displaying how they exploited the digital epoch to improve language learning and teaching for the sake of the children being the key recipients (Wang & Ma, 2017).…”

Pre-service early childhood teachers’ perceptions of their playfulness and inquisitiveness

“…The aim of the ECE teacher education programme is to imbue professionals with a high level of pedagogical expertise, as well as teachers' ethics that include valuing dignity, truthfulness, fairness, responsibility and freedom. These skills are essential, since legislation (Act on Early Childhood Education and Care, 540/2018) and the National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2022) determine that ECE teachers are responsible for pedagogy in a child group, and have pedagogical leadership in their staff teams and are responsible for pedagogical development (Heikka et al, 2022;Heikkinen et al, 2022). From a broader perspective, research on the teamwork and innovation research reveals that well-working teams have practices supporting creativity and different forms of play to full utilize members' potential (Nisula et al, 2014;Kinder et al, 2018).…”

Pre-service early childhood teachers’ perceptions of their playfulness

“…The aim of the ECE teacher education programme is to imbue professionals with a high level of pedagogical expertise, as well as teachers' ethics that include valuing dignity, truthfulness, fairness, responsibility and freedom. These skills are essential, since legislation (Act on Early Childhood Education and Care [540/2018]) and the National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2018) determine that ECE teachers are responsible for pedagogy in a child group, have pedagogical leadership in their staff teams and are responsible for pedagogical development (Heikkinen et al, 2022;Heikka et al, 2022). The findings of research concerning teamwork and innovation indicate that practices supporting creativity and full utilization of members' potential in different forms of play allow the team to democratize ideas (Kinder et al, 2019;Nisula et al, 2015).…”