Perceptions of early childhood education professionals on teacher leadership in Finland

ABSTRACT

This study investigated perceptions of early childhood education (ECE) professionals employed at three ECE centres on teacher leadership enactment in Finland. These professionals comprised childcare nurses, teachers and ECE centre directors. Theoretically, the study was anchored on an analysis of teacher leadership and distributed leadership literature comprising research based in early childhood and school education contexts. Findings based on focus groups and interviews with participants suggest that teacher leadership was perceived as a responsibility of ECE pedagogy in Finland. Centre directors were considered remote from daily practice and leadership for pedagogy within the centres was shared with teachers. Teacher leadership was enacted through assessment, planning and ensuring that pedagogy was connected with each centre’s goals. Participants’ perceptions also indicated that centres differed on how support was being provided to teacher leaders.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• leadership
• teacher leadership
• leadership perceptions
• team

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Johanna Heikka, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education at University of Eastern Finland in Savonlinna, Finland. Her current research projects focus on teacher leadership and distributed leadership in ECE.

Leena Halttunen, Ph.D., is a University Teacher at the Institute of Educational Leadership at University of Jyväskylä in Jyväskylä, Finland. Her current research focuses on distributed leadership and on ECE teachers’ leadership positions.

Manjula Waniganayake, Ph.D., is a Professor of Early Childhood at the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. The research monograph Thinking and Learning about Leadership: Early childhood research from Australia, Finland and Norway, published in 2015 reflects her global interests in early childhood policy and practice.

Notes

1 In Finland, all the municipalities have a curriculum based on the national guidelines. Each centre makes its own curriculum based on these documents.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation under Grant.