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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

Management for learning: Challenges in ECECs in Norway ("Ledelse for læring: Utfordringer for barnehager i Norge")

Awarded: NOK 8.7 mill.

The background of this project is increased responsibility for children's learning in early childhood centers (ECCs). We have raised question about how this increased responsibility has been followed up and taken care of in various forms of governance and leadership in the field. The question has been illuminated by document analyzes and material collected through interviews and surveys for ECC directors and owners. The average ECC director has to a large extent a broad view on learning with emphasis on play, everyday activities and children's own initiatives. At the same time, to some extent they support systematics when teaching children. This is pretty consistent with their report about promotion of children's learning in the centers. Analyzes of annual plans show loyalty to the broad concept of learning in the framework plan for ECCs, where learning is closely linked to care, play and formation. The wording of learning in the framework plan is reproduced in many annual plans in ECCS, and learning areas are loyally followed up, but with more creativity. What is clear in the framework plan is also clear in the annual plans - and vice versa. The directors have met increased responsibility for children's learning by emphasizing relationship between staff's learning and children's learning, and by pedagogical leadership that varies between internal and external attention. Their involvement in the staff's learning has a positive impact on several aspects of work to promote children's learning, but staff also needs autonomy for their own professional initiatives. There is a clear positive correlation between formal and planned training of employees, and the extent of structured learning activities for children. This is largely two sides of the same coin. Use of pre-made pedagogical programs and tools could be a support to structure teaching and is primarily selected in the centers, although sometimes they are imposed by municipalities and private owners. The pre-made programs and tools are changed and adapted to the centers? needs, and pure copying is rare. The ECC staff, with directors in lead, appears to be relatively autonomous translators. Increasing external expectations necessitate learning activities and learning view to be communicated and translated in relation to various external stakeholders. The ECC directors can contribute to their understanding of the centers pedagogical content and practice. Actually, there is a two-way pedagogical translation process, in which ideas are translated and conveyed inward in ECC and outward to external stakeholders. Although the term strategic leadership is not an obvious part of daily terminology in ECCs, there are strategic thinking and planning among directors. The strategic attention has varying timeframes, and can be both internal and external. The ECC-owners have, to a different extent, developed a view on children's learning and, to the extent that they have, they lean on the Norwegian social pedagogy tradition with emphasis on learning in a broad sense. However, there is a distinction between owners who believe that this tradition can be combined with more formalized, planned learning activities related to learning areas in the framework plan, and owners who are skeptical of this combination. Throughout the interviews, significant variations are expressed in the owners' concrete measures to control the staff work to promote children's learning, although large owners have a few more measures than small ones. In the survey material, the differences between the owners are less visible. A picture of owners, who are actively controlling many aspects of activities to promote children's learning, appears. There are significant differences in the form of owners' involvement. Some are delegating within wide frameworks, others are organizing collective leadership processes by all directors of their ECCs, and yet, others have centrally defined standards that ECCs must follow. These differences make frames for what leadership in ECCs could be, and for the professional autonomy. The private owners seem to have problems in relationships with the municipalities, and the municipal coordination of the sector seems in many cases to be demanding. An important part of our project has been to carry out an action research process in 4 ECCs. Action research has primarily been about how to improve practice in ECCs. The work model had a form of a spiral movement in which learning and new knowledge are created through planning, action, observation and reflection in several rounds. The way to work on development, according to this model, has led to greater involvement, responsibility by all employees and gradually development of greater professionalism in the work. The project's website is: http://dmmh.no/forskning/forskningsprosjekt-og-nettverk/ledelse-for-laring

There has been a lack of research on the topics of leadership and management in Early Childhood Education and Care institutions (ECECs) in Norway (Guldbrandsen, Johansson & Nilsen, 2002). In particular, little attention has been paid to how ECECs organize learning for children. On thisd background we state the following research question: How are the ECECs increased responsibility for childrens learning addressed by different forms of governance and management in the ECEC sector? In this concern we are as king: Will the development to become a learning organization also imply ECECs will provide an inspiring and challenging learning environment for the children? In Norway, Gotvasslis work (1990) established ECEC management as a field of research by identi fying the main managerial functions and challenges related to ECEC institutions. Later, Roness (2001) documented the findings of Gotvassli and recent research found that pedagogical leadership has evolved and that external relations have become more impor tant in the directors task portfolio (Børhaug et al. 2011). Thus, there is a need for large-scale research studies on management for learning. Based upon the functional perspective on ECECs a combined theoretical approach will be used drawing on organi zational (Schein, 2010) and motivational theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). The main research design will combine survey and ex post facto research, generating qualitative and quantitative research. The study will draw on a strategic sample of directors from pri vate and public ECECs and ECEC owners from selected counties in Norway and a selection of policy texts. We will survey and interview key personnel and analyse documents in relation to management for learning in ECECs. Lastly, an action research approach w ill be carried out in cooperation with owners and directors, to develop a new managerial practice for pedagogical leadership to support ECECs as learning organizations.

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FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren