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Opening up communicative spaces for discussion ‘quality practices’ in early childhood education through middle leadership
Rönnerman, Karin Edwards-Groves, Christine Grootenboer, Peter
Rönnerman, Karin
Edwards-Groves, Christine
Grootenboer, Peter
Abstract
Professional learning communities (PLCs) are often established and organised through collaboration among teachers, with one teacher having the role of facilitator. Such communities are widely recognised as important for facilitating both teacher and student learning. However, less is known about the leadership practices and the nature of the communicative spaces for learning as part of a PLC. The case study presented here focused on a district in Sweden involving 14 early childhood teachers who led their colleagues in implementing the revised curriculum for early childhood education (Lpfö-98). In this case, the leadership practices resembled a shared form of activity, which recognises that leading peers in learning-focused professional activities require what we describe as ‘middle leadership’. Data was collected in the form of field notes and recordings of participants’ dialogue in meetings involving middle leaders as they discussed their work; the dialogue was analysed through the lens of the theory of practice architectures. The results show the nature of communicative spaces as mechanisms for enabling teachers to engage in learning-focused meaning-making activities connected to systematic quality work. The results also reveal the practices and practice architectures that enabled the middle leader to conduct the work of leading the development of his or her colleagues.
Keywords
collaborative learning, communicative space, middle leadership practices, practice architectures, systematic quality work, practice based research
Date
2015
Type
Journal article
Journal
Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy
Book
Volume
2015
Issue
3
Page Range
67-76
Article Number
Article 30098
ACU Department
School of Education
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
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Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled