Investigating Teacher Leadership in ECE Centres in Finland

Authors

• Johanna Heikka University of Eastern Finland, Finland
• Leena Halttunen University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Manjula Waniganayake Macquarie University, Australia

Keywords:

Teacher leadership, Distributed pedagogical leadership, Early childhood education, Finland

Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating the enactment of teacher leadership in early childhood education (ECE) centres in Finland. Theoretically, the study was informed by the emerging scholarship of early childhood distributed pedagogical leadership and school based research on teacher leadership as well as classical theorizing of ECE leadership. Staff from three ECE centres participated as a purposive sample of informants in this study. The study involved participative observations of ECE staff comprising teachers and child care nurses as a research method. The analysis of findings suggested that the enactment of teacher leadership was strong in all three centres. The study identified three aspects of teacher leadership enactment. This work was highly dependent on the conditions and structures created for teacher leadership as well as the teachers’ attitudes in leading and improving pedagogical practice.