Directing and facilitating distributed pedagogical leadership: best practices in early childhood education

Abstract

This paper uses a hybrid leadership framework to examine how formal teacher leaders at the middle management level direct and facilitate staff resources for distributed pedagogical leadership. By conducting qualitative shadowing, involving video observation, field notes and stimulated recall interviews, and abductive analysis, this study demonstrates and discusses how formal teacher leaders step forward as hybrid leaders who integrate leadership into both interaction and their positional capacity. Building upon established leadership categories, the new category of leading knowledge development is discovered. The main finding is that hybrid leadership is illuminated in various leadership actions, which expand the understanding of leadership work. Conclusions drawn from the data and results suggest that hybrid leadership, in its exercise of both positional and distributed leadership, must be considered a move towards a new leadership identity. For policy and practice, this new hybrid leadership opens up a new conceptual space that is crucial to understanding how leaders recognize and contextualize their actions as a result of highly complex and dynamic work practices.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Telemark University College, Norway.

Notes on contributors

Marit Bøe

Marit Bøe is a doctoral student in the Department of Pedagogy at Telemark University College, Lærerskoleveien 40, PO. Box 155, N-3672 Notodden, Norway. Email: [email protected]. Her research interest are in the areas of early childhood leadership, a practice approach to leadership and methodologies in leadership research. Her recent publication is ‘Knowledge development through hybrid leadership practices’ in Nordic Early Childhood Education Research journal, Vol. 8 nr 6 p. 1–14, 2014.

Karin Hognestad

Karin Hognestad is a doctoral student in the Department of Pedagogy at Telemark University College, Lærerskoleveien 40, PO. Box 155, N-3672 Notodden, Norway. Email: [email protected]. Her research interest are in the areas of early childhood leadership, knowledge development and methodologies in leadership research. Her recent publication is ‘Knowledge development through hybrid leadership practices’ in Nordic Early Childhood Education Research journal, Vol. 8 nr 6 p. 1–14, 2014.