Strategisk ledelse av barnehagen som læringsarena

The purpose of this study is to examine how ECEC centre leaders (styrere) understand the concept of strategic management, and their strategic focus in leadership of the ECEC centre as a learning arena. The strategic focus may be that the ECEC centre leader focusses on food in the ECEC centre.

Overall, the author finds a difference between the informants' awareness regarding the concepts of strategy and strategic leadership. When the informants were asked about their strategic leadership, most of them gave general answers and not specific answers. The leaders expressed general uncertainty about how strategic leadership is to be linked to their leadership of the ECEC centre. Several of the leaders' responses show that they work consciously with strategic leadership, but they do not use the strategic leadership concept when talking about their work. The author interprets this as an indication that the leaders do not use the strategic leadership concept in their daily language, and that they rarely discuss strategy in the ECEC centre as a learning arena.

What is considered strategic leadership also varies significantly between the leaders. The leaders often mention that they work on attaining more resources for their ECEC centre, and this is an important part of their management focus. The leaders also focus on developing the qualifications of the ECEC staff to create good learning arenas for the children. With the exception of two large private ECEC centres, there is limited focus on market strategies and on "selling" ECEC centre places.

The study shows that strategic leadership takes place with and through pedagogical leaders. The leaders spend time on developing well-functioning management teams in the larger ECEC centres by, for example, providing pedagogical leaders with good working conditions and the right qualifications. The author interprets this as an indication that the leaders lead downwards, inwards and across the ECEC centre through networks. Networks are often used actively by the leaders, both within the individual ECEC centre and across several centres. Networks are used as a strategy to apply for funding for courses and skills development, and as a tool to organise initiatives to exploit the resources allocated.

The study is part of an anthology. The data material consists of 16 interviews with ECEC centre leaders in three different municipalities. In the interviews, the informants were asked directly about their strategic leadership. Questions with the expression "long-term planning" were used to get the informants to talk about strategies for strategic leadership.

Granrusten, P.T. (2016). Strategisk ledelse av barnehagen som læringsarena. I: Moen, K. H., Gotvassli, K. Å., & Granrusten, P. T. (red.), Barnehagen som læringsarena: Mellom styring og ledelse, 234-251. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.