Browsing by Author "Pousi, Niina"

Objectives. In recent years, the legislation and guidance documents on early childhood education (ECE) have undergone substantive changes, which, for the first time in their history, have highlighted the importance of leadership while also imposing new obligations on leadership in ECE. The study examines how leadership in ECE is defined in the speech of ECE centre directors and how pedagogical leadership in ECE is manifested in the speech of the ECE centre directors in the context of focus group discussions. Methods. Part of the material used in the study was from the Discourse of leadership in the diverse field of early childhood education project, an international research project on leadership in ECE led by Elina Fonsén. The qualitative research material consisted of three focus group discussions with ECE centre directors conducted in three Finnish municipalities in winter 2018. A total of 13 ECE centre directors participated in these three focus group discussions. The method used to analyse the material was the phenomenological method, which was also subject to theory-driven content analysis. Results and conclusions. In the study, leadership in ECE was manifested as a kind of distributed leadership, which was expressed through responsibilities linked to the job descriptions of different actors and at different levels, but also by referring to responsibilities independent of job descriptions. Leadership in ECE was described as being in a state of flux due to the reform of guidance documents, legislation and extended supervisory work. In the study, pedagogical leadership in ECE was expressed through five different clusters of meaning: the importance of discussion and interaction, the wellbeing of employees, pedagogical leadership linked to job descriptions, pedagogical development work and recognition of the value of pedagogical leadership through resources. The results show that the municipal context affects both leadership in ECE and pedagogical leadership, as well as their implementation. Leadership in ECE and, in particular, pedagogical leadership, require well-functioning structures and sufficient time for discussion and cooperation between different actors. In addition, various actors are expected to be aware of the objectives of ECE activities and to be willing to work on developing ECE. According to the research findings, however, fulfilling these conditions requires financial and human resources, which were felt to be insufficient.