Peer-reviewed article
Educational leadership in early childhood education
Rebecca Nygård ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This qualitative study examined how daycare directors in Helsinki understand and practice educational leadership in early childhood education. Five directors were interviewed about their views on educational leadership and its role in their work. The directors identified educational leadership as responsibility for developing high-quality early childhood education through supporting and coaching staff while following goals and control documents. Directors agreed that educational leadership is essential for improving the quality of early childhood education services.
Key points
- Educational leadership in early childhood education involves responsibility for developing high-quality provision
- Directors emphasise supporting and coaching coworkers as a key leadership function
- Educational leadership requires adherence to goals and control documents
- Five daycare directors in the Helsinki area were interviewed about their leadership perspectives
- Directors held clear and consistent views about the meaning and importance of educational leadership
Limitations
This study describes directors' views on educational leadership through interviews but does not assess the actual impact of their leadership practices on child outcomes or quality of education. The small sample of five directors from one geographic area limits generalisation.
Abstract
I was interested in studying what leadership looks like in early childhood education, specifically what it looks like in the daycare. My focus was educational leadership because it was a term I had heard about and wanted to know more about what it looks like in early childhood education. Purpose. The purpose of the study was to find out how directors in daycare see educational leadership in early childhood education and what educational leadership looks like in practice. Questions to study: How does directors in daycare look at educational leadership? What does it mean for the directors to lead educationally? How does the directors define their leadership in early childhood education? Method. The thesis is a qualitative study. The research material was gathered by interviews. Five directors in early childhood education in Helsinki area was interviewed about their view on educational leadership. Result and conclusion. The directors had a clear thought about educational leadership. The meaning of educational leadership is the responsibility to, according to goals and control documents and by supporting and coaching coworkers, aim to develop high quality early childhood education. According to the directors, educational leadership is needed to develop high quality early childhood education.