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

Figures & data

Table I. Examples of practices and practice architectures from the collected data.

Practices in opening a communicative space	Practice architectures of the meetings
Examples of sayings (specialized discourses) in the semantic space The middle leaders used the language and ideas of the curriculum and the guidelines for quality assessment from the National Agency for Education. Through shared language participants came to unforced consensus, mutual understanding and intersubjective agreement (see Narrative 1). They were critical of some concepts about how to understand and use them. They used language appropriate for the task (e.g. goals, documentation, structure, time for reflection).	Examples of cultural-discursive arrangements The particular semantic content (language and specialist discourses) of communicative spaces was used in the Education Act, in the curriculum, in the local guidelines for quality work and specifically in the sheet of criteria for reaching the goals. However it was also present in the language used in the guidelines from the coordinators for middle leaders about how to facilitate groups.
Examples of doings in the activity space Regular meetings with groups of early childhood teachers and with all middle leaders. Reporting back from one's own middle leadership context and sharing experiences in groups. Presenting and discussing ways to do documentation in preschools.	Examples of material-economic arrangements Middle leaders created ‘physical set-ups’ that enabled teachers to participate in a range of activities. These material-economic arrangements created conditions for interacting. All the teachers sat around tables with the middle leaders. The principal took notes. All teachers had their documents in front of them to report back from. The middle leaders kept track of the discussion and asked for opinions if no one talked. Participants worked in pairs, small groups and whole groups.
Examples of relatings in the social space The teachers and middle leaders related to the curriculum, the Education Act and local guidelines and indirectly to the steering group. The teachers related to the middle leaders and vice versa. Those involved related as a community to explore ideas together and learn from each other. Participants felt ‘free’ to agree and disagree. They related to each other in different ways depending on the purpose and agenda.	Examples of social-political arrangements The Curriculum and Education Act as well as local guidelines influenced the activities of the groups and were implemented by the decisions made in the steering group. The coordinators suggested how to set up each meeting for the middle leaders when facilitating the groups. For each meeting, it was set in advance what to do and examples of questions to discuss. Each middle leader reported back to the others and to the coordinators, who reported back to the steering group.