Relate and educate E-Book

Jóhannes Miðskarð

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 91

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This book concerns pedagogical leadership in early childhood settings and schools. Two studies display qualitatively how staff perceives a leader's pedagogical leadership differently than the leaders themselves. Further, the book suggests how leaders and staff can co-create pedagogical leadership by building solid relationships, using distributed leadership, PLC, and PLN.

Leseprobe

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

The early childhood setting

The school setting

What is pedagogical leadership

The school study

The early childhood study

Co-creating pedagogical leadership

Existential ground

Building relations with staff

Distributed leadership

Professional Learning Community (PLC) and Professional Learning Network (PLN)

Did they live happily ever after?!

REFERENCES

Foreword

Welcome to this constructionground workbook, which falls into two parts.

Firstly, I unfold in detail two studies about how leaders and staff view the leader's pedagogical leadership both in early childhood and in schools. The studies demonstrate that pedagogical leadership needs to be viewed from both sides and co-created to create healthy environments for children.

Secondly, I present how a bold co-created pedagogical leadership has to be built. This part of the book is written from the concept "less is more" to acknowledge that leaders in early childhood and schools often are busy. However, leaders must find time for pedagogical leadership development even if they have only 15 minutes per day. For this purpose, my short sections on how to co-create pedagogical leadership with staff are designed.

I gladly hear from my readers and willingly answer questions. Welcome to drop an email to [email protected]. Likewise, you can join the Facebook group “facebook.com/gooddiscernment” which provides extra resources.

1. Introduction

There are over 300 distinct definitions of the term "leadership"!

This reality gives me a phenomenological assurance that leadership depends on the specific setting!

Hence, I am arguing that a leader needs to be trained in leadership in her/his specific context.

This book concerns leadership which is set in the specific contexts of schools and early childhood. This leadership I term "pedagogical leadership."

In particular pedagogues, teachers and their leaders need to learn specific pedagogical leadership and not only general leadership. Because the goal of the school is not economic as for other leaders, but rather the goal is the "Bildung" of the children and the forming of our future society.

I specialized in investigating and teaching school leadership and early childhood leadership for ten years at the University of the Faroe Islands.

After my ten years of practice, the university of the Faroe Islands took away the specific leadership training for teachers and pedagogues and argued that school leaders and early childhood leaders should be trained chiefly in general leadership theories together with leaders from all other professions.

I was hence not able to teach pedagogical leadership anymore. The University of the Faroe Islands asked me to teach general leadership theories and general leadership practice instead.

I have no problem teaching some general leadership, but it hurt my heart that all specific leadership training for teachers and pedagogues was taken of the agenda.

My heart is on fire for giving children the best development through educating the best teachers and pedagogues and their best leaders. Hence, I decided to stop at the university of the Faroe Islands and instead be a consultant in the field of education and pedagogy and in the field of interprofessional work.

However, before I leave the theory and research field of pedagogical leadership, I want to draw together the main insights I have gained from working for ten years with school leadership and early childhood leadership. This is what I do in this book.

The book is grounded in the pedagogical context of the Faroe Islands, but some insights will be transferable for discussions in other countries, particularly the other Nordic countries. Likewise, the book will interest people who want insights into the pedagogical context of the Nordic countries.

Besides working with pedagogical leadership at the university, I have worked extensively with interprofessional work. For this subject, I published in 2022 the book: "Teachers Meet Social Workers," which is available on amazon.com.

One of my main messages in that book is that interprofessional work is practiced best when you are grounded in your work setting, profession, and yourself.

This homeground-belief ties well together with my approach to leadership, which is that leadership needs to be specific first and foremost. Then, of course, you can work with general leadership and organizational theories and knowledge.

Before I give you my insights from 10 years of work with pedagogical leadership in the Faroe Islands, I will highlight the Faroese context for readers from other countries.

The early childhood setting

In 2017, I was on a successful six-month research residency at McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University in the Chicago area. Amongst other things, I acquired an in-depth knowledge of how early childhood care and education differ between the USA and the Faroe Islands/Denmark.

One crucial difference is that early childhood centers in the Faroe Islands and Denmark are primarily funded directly by municipalities rather than by tuition, fees, and childcare subsidies which are common in the USA. Parents in the Faroe Islands and Denmark still pay for early childhood, but it is only approximately one-sixth of what parents in the USA and UK pay.

Another significant difference is that over 90% of Faroe Islands and Denmark preschoolers have a full-time place in an early childhood setting, which is considerably higher than the figure for the USA and other countries. The main reason that the rest of the children (<10 %) under school age are not in early childhood settings is that there is state-financed maternity leave throughout most of the first year of a child's life; maternity leave is often only a few weeks in other countries.

The most significant difference, however, is that the introduction of formal learning in Faroes/Denmark is much later than in the USA and UK. In Denmark, formal learning starts at six, and in the USA, at age five. Most children in the Faroe Islands are not introduced to formal learning until seven, when they start school. Hence, the work carried out in Faroese and Danish early childhood settings is little marked by academic learning.

The Faroese Early Childhood Setting Act says that the goal is "with care, in a secure and child-friendly environment, to develop and shape the children in the best possible way" (my translation). Following this goal and my in-depth knowledge of the Faroese and Danish early childhood field, I find Baumfield's (2013) description to be a good characterization of the focus areas of pedagogues (similar to "preschool teachers") in early childhood settings in the Faroe Islands and Denmark. Baumfield (2013) says that pedagogues in early childhood settings do not teach in a structured way literacy, numeracy, etc. Rather their focus is on children's overall development, involving a firm belief in the importance of learning through play and nurturing the child's natural curiosity. Further, a common way of understanding the concept of "pedagogy" in the Faroe Islands and Denmark can be illuminated with the words of Petrie et al. (2012, p. 225): "'Pedagogy' implies that you are working with the whole child: body, mind, feelings, spirit, and creativity. Crucially, the child is seen as a social being, connected to others and simultaneously with their own distinctive experiences and knowledge."

After ten years as a lecturer in the field of early childhood in the Faroe Islands, my impression is that in general, unfortunately, there is too sharp a division between pedagogical activities in early childhood settings and formal learning in schools in the Faroe Islands. Formal learning and broader pedagogical activities blend better in early childhood centers in K-3 in the USA.

However, school-like learning activities are more valued than the broader pedagogical activities in early childhood centers in the USA, which was a shame for me to observe. Early childhood education needs to enhance a certain amount of formal learning, but it has tipped too much over to that side in the USA. Hence there is in the USA a danger of losing focus on securing the development of the whole child: body, mind, feelings, spirit, and creativity. It is important to remember that children in early development need a holistic development approach that nurtures their natural curiosity through play.

The school setting

The Faroese and Danish school is roughly the equivalent of a combined American elementary and lower secondary school. Children enter these schools at 6 or 7 and leave at 15 or 16. During the first year, children are in a "forskúla/børnehaveklasse," which in many aspects is comparable to an American "kindergarten."

The first year in school in Denmark and Faroe Islands is sometimes referred to as year 0. After year 0 the children will attend years 1 through year 9. After the year nine diploma, young people can enter a "gymnasiel" education in a new school setting which in the USA is similar to year 10-12.

The professionals working in years 1 through year 9 are primarily trained as teachers, while the professionals working in the early childhood settings are primarily trained as "pedagogues."

Since 2001, Danish pedagogues have qualified by obtaining a 3½-year professional bachelor's degree from a university college, while Faroese pedagogues qualify by obtaining a four-year bachelor's degree from their university. The Danish and Faroese pedagogue trainings are divided between learning in placements and learning in the university/ university college. Major knowledge bases are from psychology and pedagogy. Likewise, there is a fair amount of sports, nature, and arts and crafts. The students usually specialize in either special educational need pedagogy, early childhood pedagogy, or afterschool pedagogy.

Pedagogues can undertake professional employment in public and private state-authorized institutions, e.g., kindergartens, schools, afterschool, sport and play activities. They also qualify for professional employment in special therapeutic institutions and social community work.

Since 2001, teachers have qualified by obtaining a 4-year professional bachelor's degree from a university college in Denmark and a 4-year bachelor's degree in the Faroe Islands. The training is divided between learning in placements and learning in the university/university college. However, the placement periods are much shorter than in pedagogue training.

Danish teachers have traditionally taught all classes from year one till year nine. However, an educational reform in Denmark aims to see the new student teachers specializing in two three-year ranges: years 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9. Teachers specialize in two to four main subjects, have other subjects to a smaller extent, and receive education in psychology, pedagogy, and methodology. It is similar in the Faroe Islands.

The leaders in schools and early childhood settings often have extra training in leadership. If not, they often receive extra teaching in this area after they embark on their leadership roles.

2. What is pedagogical leadership

Robinson (2011) and Tan (2012) say there is much debate about what leadership in schools and early childhood should be called; there are currently terms like "leadership of learning," "instructional leadership," "pedagogical leadership," "student-centered leadership" and "learning leadership."