Open AccessSystemic Leadership in Nordic Kindergartens
Author(s) -
Johanna Birkeland,
Øyvind Glosvik,
Wenche Aasen
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
educare
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2004-5190
pISSN - 1653-1868
DOI - 10.24834/educare.2021.4.5
Subject(s) - leadership studies , shared leadership , educational leadership , distributed leadership , transactional leadership , mirroring , context (archaeology) , leadership development , neuroleadership , servant leadership , leadership style , leadership , qualitative research , sociology , pedagogy , public relations , psychology , political science , social science , social psychology , paleontology , biology
This is a scoping review of peer-reviewed journal articles within Nordic Early Childhood Education and Care research from 2014 to 2020. We aim to explore if and how the concept of systemic leadership is employed within Nordic research on kindergartens. Forty-two studies were included. The results show the study types, methods and informants used. Based on a qualitative content analysis, six dominating leadership perspectives were identified in the studies. These can be briefly described as: 1) leadership mirroring the outside world, 2) leadership as a collaborative process among humans, 3) hybrid leadership between solo and distributed, 4) shared formal leadership, 5) leadership as organizational learning and development, and 6) leading in the professional context. These approaches consider the ways in which systemic leadership is employed and they highlight the collective and relational dynamics of leadership beyond the individual leader. Despite a growing body of research, there remains a need for further theoretical and quantitative investigations, and studies that focus on staff without pedagogue education as informants.