Team leadership profiles in Finnish early childhood education centres – Teachers’ experiences of team leadership

Abstract

Expectations regarding team leadership in early childhood education (ECE) have grown in recent decades, both in Finland and elsewhere in the world. This change can be seen through the increased research knowledge regarding the importance of pedagogical leadership as a key factor in the quality of ECE and the emphasis on pedagogy in basic ECE tasks. In Finland, teachers are responsible for pedagogical work among teams and ensuring that ECE goals are achievable. For this reason, teachers are expected to lead their teams. For this reason, we wanted to ask the following research questions: (1) To what extent do ECE teachers feel that team leadership is realised in their work? (2) What different types of leadership profiles can be identified and what underlying elements define them? (3) To what extent do ECE teachers’ experiences of teamwork leadership differ? In our research, we utilised the Team Leadership Questionnaire to ask how teachers in ECE centres experience team leadership implemented when they work in ECE teams. Our survey was completed by 1221 teachers in ECE centres from 66 Finnish municipalities. We identified four team leader profiles through which team leadership is implemented differently: experienced experts, experienced organisers, discussion-oriented novices and learning novices. According to this study, teachers have different levels of knowledge and competence regarding team leading, which is especially influenced by work experience and divides teachers into different team leadership profiles.