Opening up communicative spaces for discussion ‘quality practices’ in early childhood education through middle leadership

Abstract

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are often established and organised through collaboration among teachers, with one teacher having the role of facilitator. Such communities are widely recognised as important for facilitating both teacher and student learning. However, less is known about the leadership practices and the nature of the communicative spaces for learning as part of a PLC. The case study presented here focused on a district in Sweden involving 14 early childhood teachers who led their colleagues in implementing the revised curriculum for early childhood education (Lpfö-98). In this case, the leadership practices resembled a shared form of activity, which recognises that leading peers in learning-focused professional activities require what we describe as ‘middle leadership’. Data was collected in the form of field notes and recordings of participants’ dialogue in meetings involving middle leaders as they discussed their work; the dialogue was analysed through the lens of the theory of practice architectures. The results show the nature of communicative spaces as mechanisms for enabling teachers to engage in learning-focused meaning-making activities connected to systematic quality work. The results also reveal the practices and practice architectures that enabled the middle leader to conduct the work of leading the development of his or her colleagues.

• collaborative learning
• communicative space
• middle leadership practices
• practice architectures
• systematic quality work
• practice based research

Notes

1 Early childhood education is the internationally used term; however in this article the term preschool is used to specify a school for young children, in the sense that it is used by the Swedish National Agency for Education. www.skolverket.se/om-skolverket/andra-sprak-och-lattlast/in-english

2 All names in the article are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karin Rönnerman

Karin Rönnerman, PhD, was an early childhood teacher and later a principal for a preschool for 12 years before moving into higher education. She is now a professor in Education at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and a member in the research group Power and Agency in Education (PAGE) at the Department of Education and Special Education at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her main research interests connects to professional learning through action research where collegial learning and middle leading is of special interest in the light of practice theories and critical narratives.

Christine Edwards-Groves

ChristineEdwards-Groves, PhD, was aprimary school teacher before becoming a literacy consultantworking closely with classroomteachers in long term site-based action research projects. She is now a Senior Lecturer (Literacy Studies) and key researcher for the Research Institute Professional Practice Learning and Education (RIPPLE) at Charles Sturt University,Australia. She is recipient of anAustralianOffice for Learning and Teaching citation for program innovation demonstrating commitment to developing quality teaching practices among Bachelor of Education students. Her main research interests include classroom interaction, literacy practices and pedagogies, teacher professional learning and practice theory.

Peter Grootenboer

Peter Grootenboer, PhD, was a school teacher and leader for 12 years before moving into the tertiary sector. He received a national Jim Campbell Award for teaching excellence. He is now an Associate Professor in Education at Griffith University, Australia and a member of the Griffith Institute for Educational Research. His research interests include mathematics education, educational leadership, practice/praxis theory, and issues of social justice.