Leadership for Developing Consensus of Perspectives on Children’s Learning in Early Childhood Centers

The purpose of this study is to investigate how directors of early childhood centres work to promote a common understanding among staff about children’s learning. The author raises three investigative questions: (1) How explicitly do the directors work to promote consensus among staff about their perspectives on children’s learning? (2) How do the directors lead and organise the processes of this work? (3) What do the directors perceive as especially challenging in this work?

Overall, the results show diversity in how explicitly directors work to promote consensus among staff about children’s learning. Directors of early childhood centres lead and organise in different formal and informal ways learning and development processes to promote consensus among staff about children's learning, and they use both direct and indirect pedagogical leadership. Only one director had not worked with this learning concept at all.

The study shows that the directors who use direct pedagogical leadership work with perspectives on children's learning in a clear and explicit way. These directors are very aware of the concept of learning and discuss the learning concept with their staff in different ways. Perspectives on children's learning are also incorporated into the centre's annual plan, vision and website profile, etc. Some directors also draw on external input, such as relevant courses organised by the municipality, or through professional literature, study trips, networks and cooperation with universities and university colleges.

Indirect pedagogical leadership means that the director creates specific frameworks and formal structures intended as an arena for staff learning. Within these frameworks, staff can share experiences, reflections and knowledge, and thereby explore values and perspectives on children's learning. Even though most directors of early childhood centres describe themselves as instigators of such learning and development processes, some directors also describe ideas and subjects deriving from their staff. Thus the results not only reveal "top-down" processes, but also the opposite.

The study shows that the directors find it challenging to promote consensus among staff about their perspectives on children’s learning, particularly because this work is very time-consuming. Among other things, a large percentage of staff with no early childhood teacher education qualifications makes it challenging to discuss theoretical perspectives on children's learning, making this work even more time-consuming.

The data material consists of semi-structured interviews with 16 directors of early childhood centres from both municipal and private centres in three Norwegian municipalities. Four directors of early childhood centres worked in small centres (< 45 children), seven worked in medium-sized centres (45-79 children), and five worked in large centres (> 80 children). Thus the size of the staff group for which the directors were responsible differed significantly. All directors had early childhood teacher education qualifications, and 14 had also participated in continuing education. They all had extensive experience in the ECEC field, but their time as directors varied between four months and 32 years.

Moen, K. H. (2016). Leadership for Developing Consensus of Perspectives on Children’s Learning in Early Childhood Centers. Varhaiskasvatuksen Tiedelehti – Journal of Early Childhood Education Research 5(2), 226-246.