Peer-reviewed article
Distributed pedagogical leadership and teacher leadership in early childhood education contexts
Johanna Heıkka, Harri Pitkäniemi, Titta Kettukangas, T. Hyttinen ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed study examines how distributed pedagogical leadership is enacted in Finnish early childhood education (ECE) settings and its relationship to teacher commitment to leadership roles. Researchers surveyed 130 ECE professionals and conducted interviews with six staff members across multiple ECE centers. The findings show that centers implementing distributed leadership approaches had teachers who were better able to lead reflection and learning activities within their teams.
Key points
- Finnish ECE centers have adopted leadership approaches aligned with distributed pedagogical leadership models
- Implementation of distributed leadership forms was positively related to teachers' ability to lead reflection and learning in teams
- Study used mixed methods: survey of 130 ECE professionals and qualitative interviews with six professionals
- Research focused on relationships between leaders and teachers in ECE settings
Limitations
The study focuses on leadership practices and does not measure direct outcomes for child well-being, development, or learning. It examines organizational processes in ECE settings rather than impacts on children themselves.
Abstract
The topic of distributed pedagogical leadership has attracted researchers’ interest in early childhood education leadership. A growing body of research focuses on investigating leadership enacted between leaders and teachers in ECE settings. In this article, we focus on the enactment of distributed pedagogical leadership in Finnish ECE settings and their relations to teacher commitment to pedagogical leadership on staff teams. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. Data on the perceptions of 130 ECE professionals, ECE center directors, ECE teachers, and child care nurses on the enactment of distributed pedagogical leadership and teacher commitment were collected with a survey. A qualitative inquiry included six ECE professional interviews. The results indicate that the studied ECE centers have adopted leadership approaches congruent with distributed pedagogical leadership and the implementation of distributed forms of leadership related positively with the ECE teacher’s ability to lead reflection and learning in their teams.