Leadership for learning in the preschool: Preschool managers’ perspectives on strategies and actions in the systematic quality work

Abstract

This article presents the results of a qualitative study with the aim of contributing to an understanding of preschool managers’ leadership in systematic quality work in a Swedish context. In line with the Education Act and the preschool curriculum, systematic quality work is compulsory in all Swedish preschools. This consists of several steps, including data collection, documentation and self-evaluation for the purpose of professional development and quality improvement. With the aid of interviews, preschool managers’ perspectives on leadership actions, with an emphasis on a leadership for learning, have been analysed in relation to local conditions and previous research. The results show that preschool managers balance the demands for loyalty to the municipality’s quality system’s requirements with their own preschool’s independence in the systematic quality work. In different ways they emphasise the organisational, content-related and methodological aspects of their long-term strategies, but also use relational and organisational leadership actions and feedback to show how they expect the staff to carry out their work with the children and collaborate with colleagues. The preschool’s conditions, such as the staff’s education levels, affect how the systematic quality work is organised and led. The importance of preschool managers’ professional knowledge – a content-related dimension – is discussed in relation to previous research on the concept of leadership for learning. One of the study’s conclusions is that the preschool’s leadership emphasis on organisational solutions could impede the preschool’s quality development.