Professional Learning Communities: Enhancing Collaborative Leadership in Singapore Early Childhood Settings

Autor/inn/en	Vijayadevar, Sukuna; Thornton, Kate; Cherrington, Sue
Titel	Professional Learning Communities: Enhancing Collaborative Leadership in Singapore Early Childhood Settings
Quelle	In: Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 20 (2019) 1, S.79-92 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Vijayadevar, Sukuna)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1463-9491
DOI	10.1177/1463949119833578
Schlagwörter	Communities of Practice; Preschool Teachers; Leadership Training; Instructional Leadership; Teacher Collaboration; Commercialization; Case Studies; Principals; Teacher Attitudes; Administrator Attitudes; Collegiality; Social Values; Sociocultural Patterns; Foreign Countries; Cultural Context; Singapore + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Community; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Erzieher; Erzieherin; Kindergärtnerin; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Führungslehre; Instruction; Leadership; Bildung; Erziehung; Führung; Lehrerkooperation; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Principal; Schulleiter; Lehrerverhalten; Kollegialität; Sozialer Wert; Soziokulturelle Theorie; Ausland; Singapur
Abstract	Leadership in early childhood education has been promoted as a collaborative process in which all teachers, rather than just the positional leader, are involved. Collaborative leadership practices are not well understood within the marketised Singapore early childhood education context. Beyond mandatory leadership training, little is known about how leaders are supported to strengthen their leadership practices and involve others in leadership activities. School-based literature suggests that learning through professional learning communities expands the collective capacity of organisations; however, literature on professional learning communities in early childhood education is limited. This article reports on the findings of an interpretive case study examining the current understandings and leadership practices of principals in the Singapore early childhood education context, and investigating how participation in professional learning communities can support the development of collaborative leadership practices. The participants in two professional learning communities established as part of this study were six principals from an anchor-operator childcare provider and five principals from private childcare centres in Singapore. Two teachers working with each of the respective principals were also involved in focus group interviews to ascertain if there were changes in their principals' leadership practices. Data was collected from professional learning community meetings, online reflections, pre- and post-professional learning community interviews with the principals, and follow-up focus group discussions with the teachers. The key findings indicate that praxis as a result of participation in a professional learning community led to some shifts in principals' thinking about collaborative leadership practices and resulted in reported changes to their leadership approaches, distribution of leadership, and improved collegiality and collaborative learning for teachers. The results indicate that considering and implementing collaborative leadership practices through professional learning communities in the Singapore early childhood education context requires sensitivity towards Asian Singapore sociocultural values related to hierarchy and economic pragmatism. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01