Beyond the title: Exploring teacher leadership in early childhood education in Aotearoa

Abstract

Every child has the right to high-quality early childhood education (ECE). Effective teacher leadership positively influences teaching pedagogy, contributes to building meaningful relationships, leads to collaboration among adults and children/tamariki, consequently resulting in high-quality education and practice. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how teacher leadership is perceived and enacted within ECE settings. This gap in knowledge hinders the growth and development of teacher leadership in ECE settings, and subsequently, the child’s right to high-quality ECE. This study contributes to the field of research on teacher leadership by exploring fully and provisionally certificated teachers’ perceptions and experiences of leadership in relation to their everyday work in Aotearoa/New Zealand early childhood education (ECE). The study was guided by a qualitative, interpretive methodology and underpinned by a sociocultural theoretical lens. Data was gathered through semi-structured individual interviews with four fully certificated teachers and two provisionally certificated teachers, entries made in their participant-directed diaries, and a review of the centre documentation from across two centres within the same organisation. Thematic analysis revealed key themes across the data sources. Findings highlighted leadership experiences embedded within the culture of the centre. Respect, trust, open and honest communication, and commitment to shared values are underpinned in the centres’ philosophy. The study further revealed the importance of positional leaders within the settings encouraging leadership as an everyday practice and not limiting leadership to positions or titles. Though leadership seemed embedded within the everyday practice of both fully certificated and provisionally certificated teachers, five research participants were hesitant to embrace their leader identity. This hesitancy implied that leadership could occur even without leader identification. Most of the teachers were able to perceive their peers to have leadership dispositions, such as calmness, humour, compassion, and communication. This study sheds light on the complexities of leadership in ECE and highlights the importance of positional leaders in fostering teacher leadership within ECE settings.