Early Childhood Educational and Care Institutions as Learning Organizations

Authors

• Berit Irene Vannebo North-Trondelag University Collegee, Norway
• Kjell-Åge Gotvassli North-Trondelag University Collegee, Norway

Keywords:

Learning organization, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), lead- ership, organizational practice

Abstract

Official documents state that all Early Childhood Educational and Care Institutions in Norway should aspire to become learning organizations. In this paper, we analyze governance models in Early Childhood Educational and Care Institutions and look at how leaders interpret and act on this new mission to become learning organizations. We find that there are significant differences in the way managers interpret the concept of a learning organization, and that managers are relatively unclear as to how to utilize this approach when developing pedagogical work. Although managers have developed prac- tices that largely incorporate the key aspects of those of a learning organization they do not necessarily recognize these as part of building deliberate and conscious organizational strategy.