The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care

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 c...

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Bibliografiset tiedot
Päätekijä: Reganit, Graciele
Muut tekijät: Kasvatustieteiden ja psykologian tiedekunta, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Kasvatustieteiden laitos, Department of Education, Jyväskylän yliopisto, University of Jyväskylä
Aineistotyyppi: Pro gradu
Kieli:eng
Julkaistu: 2025
Aiheet:
Linkit: https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/102720
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author Reganit, Graciele
author2 Kasvatustieteiden ja psykologian tiedekunta Faculty of Education and Psychology Kasvatustieteiden laitos Department of Education Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä
author_facet Reganit, Graciele Kasvatustieteiden ja psykologian tiedekunta Faculty of Education and Psychology Kasvatustieteiden laitos Department of Education Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä Reganit, Graciele Kasvatustieteiden ja psykologian tiedekunta Faculty of Education and Psychology Kasvatustieteiden laitos Department of Education Jyväskylän yliopisto University of Jyväskylä
author_sort Reganit, Graciele
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description 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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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\u2019 leadership skills, childcarers are often overlooked, even within the leadership structures of ECEC, where leadership is distributed among formal and informal leaders. \n\tGrounded 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. 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spellingShingle Reganit, Graciele The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care educational leadership distributed pedagogical leadership childcarer Master's Degree Programme in Education pedagoginen johtaminen varhaiskasvatus johtaminen ammatillinen kehitys
title The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care
title_full The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care
title_fullStr The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care
title_full_unstemmed The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care
title_short The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care
title_sort childcarers experiences of leadership in the finnish early childhood education and care
title_txtP The childcarers’ experiences of leadership in the Finnish early childhood education and care
topic educational leadership distributed pedagogical leadership childcarer Master's Degree Programme in Education pedagoginen johtaminen varhaiskasvatus johtaminen ammatillinen kehitys
topic_facet Master's Degree Programme in Education ammatillinen kehitys childcarer distributed pedagogical leadership educational leadership johtaminen pedagoginen johtaminen varhaiskasvatus
url https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/102720 http://www.urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202505234555
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