Browsing by Author "Nygård, Rebecca"

I was interested in studying what leadership looks like in early childhood education, specifically what it looks like in the daycare. My focus was educational leadership because it was a term I had heard about and wanted to know more about what it looks like in early childhood education. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to find out how directors in daycare see educational leadership in early childhood education and what educational leadership looks like in practice. Questions to study: How does directors in daycare look at educational leadership? What does it mean for the directors to lead educationally? How does the directors define their leadership in early childhood education? Method. The thesis is a qualitative study. The research material was gathered by interviews. Five directors in early childhood education in Helsinki area was interviewed about their view on educational leadership. Result and conclusion. The directors had a clear thought about educational leadership. The meaning of educational leadership is the responsibility to, according to goals and control documents and by supporting and coaching coworkers, aim to develop high quality early childhood education. According to the directors, educational leadership is needed to develop high quality early childhood education.