Pedagogical Leadership in Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care through the Lens of Practice Architectures

Abstract

This research examines how practice architectures, i.e., cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements both enable and constrain the pedagogical leadership practice of early childhood education (ECE) center directors (N = 3). The data were collected by a qualitative shadowing method and analyzed deductively using the theory of practice architectures. The findings revealed that social-political arrangements were fundamental for directing pedagogical leadership practice, affecting both material-economic and cultural-discursive arrangements. The social-political arrangements of pedagogical leadership were grounded in the municipality’s organizational structure; in turn, this structure organized daily pedagogical leadership practices. Social-political arrangements were narrated as the directors emphasized the importance of national guidelines, legislation, and implementation of the national and local curricula. These were related to the material-economic arrangements because they required organizing time for discussion and further training of personnel. The national guidelines combined material-economic and social-political aspects as well as cultural-discursive arrangements in leadership practice, as pedagogical development aligned with legislation and national curriculum demands in a wide range of leadership functions in ECE centers. The essence of pedagogical leadership practice was the focal point of joint discussions regarding pedagogy and the implementation of curriculum in the ECE centers. Most significantly, the quality of these discussions could enable or constrain pedagogical leadership and were influenced by cultural-discursive arrangements and leadership philosophy of the center directors alike.