Abstract
A day care center is not just any place where children can spend their day while parents are at work. How to ensure that children have good childhood experiences and how to sup-port their positive development from the very beginning of their educational career? In this study, we introduce the concept of love-based leadership and discuss its role and implemen-tation in early education. Love-based leadership in early education is a method that renews teachers’ professional skills. The Finnish early childhood education system offers favorable premises for love-based leadership in early education. The method should also be included in the curriculum of future early childhood education teachers.
Highlights
Childhood education and care can be seen as educational interaction taking place in young children’s various living environments
As every preschool age child in Finland is entitled to day care, its different forms are the most important area of early childhood activities (Act on Children’s Day Care, 1973/36; National Curriculum Guidelines on Early Childhood Education and Care in Finland, 2003)
Positive psychology, which deals with such issues as well-being, happiness, the quality of life and positive feelings, has been concerned with investigating positive characteristics and feelings as well as the institutions that facilitate the discovery of positive feelings and strengths (Seligman et al, 2005; Seligman, Parks, & Steen, 2004)
Summary
Childhood education and care can be seen as educational interaction taking place in young children’s various living environments. Teachers should find a balance between love and authority, and combine them both in a student-specific manner: pedagogical tact is at its strongest in this ability (van Manen, 1991; Määttä, & Uusiautti, 2012d), emerging from the genuine attachment toward the pupil At the core, it is the children’s vulnerability and defenselessness that make the educator protect them. Teachers who use love-based leadership try to find a balance between children’s abilities, chances, and challenges We strongly believe this is likely to lead to better learning, development, performance, contentment, higher motivation, and the sense of self-efficacy that may have a far-reaching positive influence on children’s later life
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