A Study on Effect of Physical Activity through Listening to Music on The Everyday Stress and Resilience of The Preschoolers Participating in a Full-day Preschool class

Investigating Teacher Leadership in ECE Centres in Finland

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…

Perspectives of early childhood teachers on parent–teacher partnerships in five European countries

ABSTRACT Societal conditions impacting on parenting have radically changed during the past two decades. There is variation between and within societies depending on social, cultural, political and economic factors. Today, Early Childhood and Care (ECEC) services play an increasingly important role in supporting families with young children during birth to the age of compulsory education. Accordingly, the collaboration between families and early childhood professionals has emerged as an essential topic of educational research and professional development. The International Parent–Professional Partnerships (IPP) research study focuses on the contemporary challenges of the parent–teacher partn…

Views from the Inside: Roles of Deputy Directors in Early Childhood Education in Finland

This study explored the perceptions of deputy directors about their leadership in Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres in Finland. Our aim was to look beyond task distribution and understand how deputy directors enacted leadership with their colleagues. Six deputy directors employed in one municipality in Finland participated in this study. Interviewed individually, the participants discussed how they themselves perceived being in a leadership position and what their leadership looked like in practice. The emphasis they placed on the various relationships highlight the importance of paying attention to the relational dynamics amongst staff within a centre, taking into account both formal…

Enacting pedagogical leadership within small teams in early childhood settings in Finland

Teacher leadership repertoires in the context of early childhood education team meetings in Finland

This study investigates teacher leadership in Early Childhood Education (ECE) settings in Finland. We used discursive analysis to investigate repertoires of teacher leaders during weekly team meetings organized by staff teams. In Finland, a staff team usually comprises of an ECE teacher - who is the team leader, and two childcare nurses. In this study ECE teachers are understood as being teacher leaders (Fairman & McKenzie, 2012). The study identifies four repertoires of teacher leadership: 1. collaborative teacher leadership; 2. supportive teacher leadership; 3. professional expertise; and 4. legitimation. Understanding teacher leadership is fundamental to enacting pedagogical leadership i…

Working as early childhood centre directors and deputies : perspectives from Australia, Finland and Norway

Tämä tutkimus, joka tarkasteli päiväkodin johtajien ja apulaisjohtajien johtajuutta, on toteutettu Australiassa, Suomessa ja Norjassa. Teoreettisesti tutkimus sijoittuu uusliberalistiseen ajatteluun, jonka Sims (2017) kuvaa laajenevasti muokkaavan varhaiskasvatuksen toimintatapoja useissa OECD maissa. Tutkimus on luonteeltaan laadullinen tutkimus ja sen aineistona on osallistujien lyhyt taustakysely, työnkuvien sisällönanalyysi ja yksilöhaastattelut. Tulosten mukaan erilaisuutta työn rakenteissa on sekä kunkin maan sisällä että maiden välillä. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että odotukset jokaisen roolista ja siitä, kuinka henkilöt osallistuvat johtajuuteen muovautuvat päiväkotikontekstissa. Aus…

Perceptions of early childhood education professionals on teacher leadership in Finland

This study investigated perceptions of early childhood education (ECE) professionals employed at three ECE centres on teacher leadership enactment in Finland. These professionals comprised childcare nurses, teachers and ECE centre directors. Theoretically, the study was anchored on an analysis of teacher leadership and distributed leadership literature comprising research based in early childhood and school education contexts. Findings based on focus groups and interviews with participants suggest that teacher leadership was perceived as a responsibility of ECE pedagogy in Finland. Centre directors were considered remote from daily practice and leadership for pedagogy within the centres was…