Student Teachers’ Leadership Development in a Finnish Class Teacher Education Program

Abstract

This case study examined student teachers’ (n = 5) leadership development in a Finnish class teacher education program. The study focused on identifying the student teachers’ individual approaches to leadership development and examining how they developed their leadership during teacher education, including their reflections on the achieved leadership development. The data were collected with motivation letters written by the student teachers and semi-structured individual interviews. The analysis methods comprised qualitative content analysis with inductive reasoning and typologization. The results revealed student teacher types representing three different approaches to leadership development: competence-, personality-, and context-driven. The student teachers developed their leadership during teacher education in alignment with their individual approaches and utilized the study program diversely in this process. Student teachers who presented a competence-driven approach estimated their achieved leadership development to be relatively weaker. Furthermore, pre-service teachers possess individual leadership development motivations and goals and the capability to facilitate their own professional development in alignment with these goals. This study contributes to the literature by focusing on the individual nature of leadership development in initial teacher education and by addressing this as a matter to be considered in designing how to support pre-service teachers’ professional (leadership) development in the future.