| Summary: | This study explores the leadership experiences of childcarers within the Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system, focusing on how they perceive and practice leadership, and how their educational and professional backgrounds support their leadership roles. The immediate ECEC team consists of teachers and childcarers, with the latter traditionally viewed as assistants responsible primarily for care. However, the Finnish ECEC framework emphasizes the integration of education and care, assigning both responsibilities to all team members.Although there is increasing focus on enhancing teachers’ leadership skills, childcarers are often overlooked, even within the leadership structures of ECEC, where leadership is distributed among formal and informal leaders.
Grounded in a qualitative research design, the study involved interviews with seven childcarers and employed thematic analysis to identify four main themes: educational and professional background, work and context, leadership structure and roles, and pedagogical practices. These themes overlap and complement each other to contribute to a comprehensive unders-tanding of the research questions. Findings reveal that while childcarers often view leadership as hierarchical, they engage in meaningful informal leadership through self-management, classroom guidance, and team collaboration. Their practice is enhanced primarily through hands-on experience and interpersonal learning. The study underscores the importance of recognizing the leadership roles of childcarers in distributed pedagogical leadership, which fosters organizational sustainability by encouraging continuous professional development and aligning shared pedagogical goals. These insights call for a broader acknowledgment of childcarers as active contributors to leadership in ECEC settings.
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