Leadership Tasks in Early Childhood Education

Leadership research in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is quite a young arena. It combines leadership concepts from school research as well as from business. There are common aspects in leadership profession in general but the context and the mission define the content of leadership tasks and responsibilities. In Finnish early childhood education pedagogical leadership, human resource management, and daily managerial tasks are the main functions of leaders’ work. An ECEC leader’s work either as a centre director or as a municipal administrative ECE leader is quite the same. Human resource management dominates most of their leadership work. Importance of leadership tasks and time management differ according to the position of leadership. Full time leaders consider human resource management important and this work can dominate the allocation of their time. Pedagogical leadership dominates part-time leaders’ working day but they define daily managerial tasks as being most important. The splintered nature of the daily work profile can frame EC leadership. That is, the leadership tasks are not clear and the concept of pedagogical leadership is silenced in ECEC centres. In order to implement high quality ECEC programs, the mission, core tasks and leadership responsibilities connected to them must be clearly defined.

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