Browsing by Subject "opettajajohtajuus"

Aims. Early childhood education (ECE) for children under the age of three and its importance is a controversial topic in the media and suffers from a general lack of appreciation. However, the development of a child under the age of three is rapid and the foundation for later life is built during the first years of life. ECE for the children under the age of three sets its own competence requirements for ECE staff and high quality ECE requires pedagogical leadership, which ECE teacher implements at the level of the child group, team and ECE unit. The pedagogical leadership of ECE teachers has been studied a lot in Fin-land and internationally in recent years, but fewer studies have been made especially regarding teachers of children under the age of three. The aim of this thesis is to find out how ECE teachers describe the pedagogical leadership of a team and child group of children under the age of three, and what meanings ECE teachers place on their pedagogical leadership in a team and child group of under three years of age. Methods. This research is qualitative and combines critical and analytical discourse analysis. The philosophical premises of science are based on social constructionism and the focus is on the knowledge produced interactively by the participants. Five ECE teachers, whose child groups mainly included children under the age of three, participated in the study. The data was collected by combining focus group and pair interviews, and four of the participants took part in two interviews. Results and conclusions. This thesis confirms the importance of the early childhood education teacher in the child group of children under the age of three. According to the results of this study, the ECE teacher plays an important role in the implementation of the guiding documents as well as in the participation and agency of children under the age of three. A sense of security, warm and sensitive atmosphere, as well as the realization of the children’s rights and ensuring natural ways of acting for children are an important part of the ECE teacher’s leadership. As the team leader ECE teacher ensures the implementation of guiding documents by creating guidelines for the team’s work, supports the team’s professional development, and encourages and commits the team members to common goals. Communality was seen as an important value in the child group and team. The pedagogical leadership of ECE teacher is challenged by structural challenges, experiences of inadequacy, challenges in giving feedback in the team and unclear job descriptions.