"Directing and facilitating distributed pedagogical leadership: best practices in early childhood education." & "Det krever mye tankevirksomhet for du skal finne det rette øyeblikket» – Refleksjon i praksis i personalledelse.

The purpose of this study is to examine how formal teacher leaders at middle management level lead their staff members and assistants, and what characterises the actions of formal teacher leaders.

The study shows how formal teacher leaders in ECEC centres act as hybrid leaders, who lead their staff members and assistants by means of seven different categories/types of leadership strategy:

1. Total informational. In this category, the formal teacher leader becomes the very nerve of the unit and disseminates much of the available information through his/her staff. The study shows that this leadership practice is both inclusive and hierarchical, and that it therefore combines elements of leadership positions and democratic exchange. Furthermore, the results show that a considerable part of the formal teacher leaders’ verbal communication with staff members and assistants concerns passing on information. One of the reasons is that the leaders want to ensure smooth working procedures and avoid misunderstandings about the practical and pedagogical work with the children.
2. Request and solicitation. In this category, the formal teacher leader has to deal with various requests from staff members and assistants, and distribute solicitations many times in the course of a working day.  Requests to take action, requests from the ECEC centre leader, and interaction about a given request play a central role in the formal teacher leader’s communicative activities, according to the author. Furthermore, the authors find both hierarchical and non-hierarchical elements in this type of leadership practice, as the formal teacher leaders respect staff members and assistants as equals carrying out pedagogical tasks, but at the same time mark their position as leaders in their collaboration with their staff.
3. Resource allocation. This category characterises a management practice in which the formal teacher leader has to make continuous decisions on how to allocate staff resources in relation to the conditions and activities at the unit/department. The study shows that even though all staff members carry out the same type of pedagogical tasks, the formal teacher leader perceives his/her role as different from that of his/her colleagues.
4. Total secondary work. In this category, the formal teacher leader has brief, informal contact with the staff and holds non-planned meetings arranged as a result of various unforeseen situations. The authors find that this kind of non-hierarchical framework may express ideal equality between the formal teacher leader and staff members.
5. Total decision-making. In this category, the formal teacher leader’s actions are generally related to situations in which he/she has to take independent decisions without discussing them with staff members first. The decisions may concern pedagogical work as well as urgent organisational matters.
6. Leading knowledge development. This category describes how, as part of the daily leadership practice, the formal teacher leaders use their professional knowledge to further and support the professional development of staff members, and thereby also their professional understanding of pedagogical work. The authors find four actions or strategies in this category: providing professional supervision, giving feedback on requested pedagogical practices, expressing practice in words, and being a role model in work. According to the authors, this type of leadership strategy reflects the formal teacher leader’s intentions and motivations to commit to an inclusive leadership practice arising from unforeseen events. The authors find that this category is characterised by the constant challenge of handling differences between staff members while at the same time dealing with unexpected events occurring during a busy working day.
7. Care and consideration. This category describes the types of relationships between staff members which create the conditions for their collaboration, and which are seen as essential for establishing a strong team of staff. According to the authors, care and consideration are expressed through small-talk, humour, greetings and showing concern for each other. The study shows that the formal teacher leader expresses care and consideration precisely in order to build a strong collegiate spirit in the staff group and at the same time to be part of the group.

Overall, the authors conclude that pedagogical leadership in ECEC is complex and is not simply characterised by its non-hierarchical nature. According to the authors, the study shows a move towards a new leadership identity, and this is crucial to our understanding of the actions of formal teacher leaders in ECEC centres in response to a very complex and dynamic leadership practice.

The study is based on qualitative data collected primarily by means of qualitative shadowing; a method by which the researcher follows the informant in his/her daily work. The study included six formal teacher leaders, who were strategically selected on the basis of the criterion that they had worked as formal teacher leaders for at least five years. All the informants were women aged 35-60 with a bachelor's degree. Two researchers followed each informant for a week in the time period between 9 am and 2 pm, when all staff members at the ECEC centre were at work. One of the researchers acted as a 'close shadow' and made contextual interviews and field notes, whereas the other researcher acted as a 'distant shadow' and made video footage. Furthermore, the researchers conducted six separate stimulated recall interviews with the informants, in which selected video recordings of the informants’ daily work routines were shown to the informants, who were asked to comment and reflect on their own leadership practice.

Bøe, M. & Hognestad, K. (2015). Directing and facilitating distributed pedagogical leadership: best practices in early childhood education. International Journal of Leadership in Education. DOI: 10.1080/13603124.2015.1059488 Bøe, M. & Hognestad, K. (2015). «Det krever mye tankevirksomhet for du skal finne det rette øyeblikket» – Refleksjon i praksis i personalledelse. Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift (5), 351-361.