Teachers’ pedagogical leadership in early childhood education

Abstract

Background: Although the contexts, structures and administrations of early childhood education (ECE) may differ internationally, effective pedagogical leadership remains an essential component in supporting young children's development and learning. This paper reports on a comparative study which considered ECE in two different settings, Finland and Florida, providing insight into teachers' perspectives on the characteristics of pedagogical leadership.Purpose: This study sought to investigate and compare the perspectives of ECE teachers and directors in Finland and Florida via their discourses about teachers' pedagogical leadership. The goal was to provide an overview of the ECE teachers' and directors' discourses in each location, in order to allow comparison and a better understanding of the influence of aspects including locational contexts, curricular guidelines and teacher preparation on the ECE teachers' and directors' perspectives. Method: A comparative case study design was used. The data consisted of semi-structured focus group interviews and individual interviews with ECE teachers and centre directors in Finland and in Florida. Data from the two locations were first analysed separately to identify the main discourses; secondly, discourses were compared collectively to reveal major themes. Findings: The analysis indicated a similar conceptualisation of distributed pedagogical leadership. However, differences were identified in teachers' expectations of independence in instructional decisions, and the extension of pedagogical leadership practices within and beyond the ECE centres. The analysis of discourses led to the identification of three major themes, which generated implications for teacher preparation, curriculum development and implementation, and ECE programme directions. Conclusion:The study enables a more comprehensible conceptualisation of teachers' pedagogical leadership as it emerged from teachers' and directors' discourses across two locations. Pedagogical leadership is recognised as an indicator of highquality pedagogy in early childhood education and the findings highlight the need to continuously support and strengthen teachers' pedagogical leadership.

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

“…The leader-teacher structure creates the foundation of the multi-professional communities distributed leadership that includes the cooperation in the child groups between teachers and nurses. Unfortunately, this basic structure between leaders and teachers was not actualizing well enough to be able to distribute leadership further in the multi-professional community and this led to an essential problem in sharing power and responsibilities between all the actors; leaders, teachers, and nurses (Fonsén et al, 2021). To release the full potential of distributed leadership in the future, leaders emphasized the significance of qualified teachers that carry their role and responsibilities without hesitation.…”

“…When reflecting earlier ECEC leadership studies with the viewpoints emerging from this study, domain competence and ability to participate equally in the development of the practice are important steps in working as a joint enterprise. Moreover, the definition of shared domain is the key factor in defining practices, and articulation of domain is crucial in how discursive power manifests itself in early childhood education institutions (Fonsén et al, 2021). Due to the various professionals working together in centers, and the history of administrative and organizational changes in Finnish ECEC, the power and responsibility inherently linked together in leadership are currently in a process of transformation, and therefore require clarification.…”

“…Further, in the child groups, it is assumed that teachers will share this responsibility with ECEC nurses and assistants. This is a fundamental change in the Finnish ECEC working culture affecting all of its members-leaders, teachers, nurses, and assistants alike (Fonsén et al, 2021). Leaders find it to be important to keep this change positive to be able to lead meaningful roles and responsibilities in ECEC (Fonsén et al, 2021;Heikkinen, 2019).…”

“…This is a fundamental change in the Finnish ECEC working culture affecting all of its members-leaders, teachers, nurses, and assistants alike (Fonsén et al, 2021). Leaders find it to be important to keep this change positive to be able to lead meaningful roles and responsibilities in ECEC (Fonsén et al, 2021;Heikkinen, 2019). To reach cooperation and working motivation, leading open dialogue in the multi-professional community is needed.…”

Leading early childhood education centers as professional bureaucracies – social organizational structures in Finnish early childhood education

“…By 2030, after a transition period, every ECE leader must have a master's degree and ECE teachers a bachelor's degree from an ECE teacher program (Act 540/2018(Act 540/ , 2018. Although the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care (540/2018) does not require leadership training for ECE leaders, there seems to be a need for it (Fons en et al, 2022;Fons en and Vlasov, 2017). The aim of this study is to describe the organizational structure of the ECE center to properly implement it.…”