Views from the Inside: Roles of Deputy Directors in Early Childhood Education in Finland

Leena Halttunen,Manjula Waniganayake

doi:10.3390/educsci11110751

Leena Halttunen, Manjula Waniganayake

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110751

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Abstract

This study explored the perceptions of deputy directors about their leadership in Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres in Finland. Our aim was to look beyond task distribution and understand how deputy directors enacted leadership with their colleagues. Six deputy directors employed in one municipality in Finland participated in this study. Interviewed individually, the participants discussed how they themselves perceived being in a leadership position and what their leadership looked like in practice. The emphasis they placed on the various relationships highlight the importance of paying attention to the relational dynamics amongst staff within a centre, taking into account both formal and informal authority. Given the increasing global interest in understanding leadership enactment within ECE centres, and its connection with quality service provision, knowledge of the positional leadership roles of deputy directors is of importance to the ECE sector. This is one of the first studies dedicated to exploring the work of ECE deputy directors.

Highlights

Deputy leadership in Early Childhood Education (ECE) is a form of distributing leadership by involving several actors in leadership roles
The key roles of the deputy directors were associated with interactions involving children and adults who are the primary stakeholders in an ECE centre
The framing of this analysis was influenced by conceptualisations of ECE leadership typologies in previous research by those such as Ebbeck and Waniganayake [31] and Rodd [32,33]

Summary

Introduction

Deputy leadership in ECE is a form of distributing leadership by involving several actors in leadership roles. There are several formal and informal leadership positions in ECE both in Finland and in other countries, e.g., [1]. Having a formal leadership role, seem to be the “forgotten leaders” in the same way that Cranston, Tromans and Reugebrink [7] The research gap about the middle leadership role is deep in ECE, with no published research focusing exclusively on deputy directors. In Finland, during recent years, several municipalities have reorganized leadership structures within ECE centres [8]. In this country, the position of a deputy director is understood as a broad concept. There are no national regulations and instead there are local variations based on the municipality on matters such as how deputy directors are appointed, if they are paid extra allowances, what positional terms are used, and how their roles and responsibilities are defined to satisfy the needs of their centres

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