Leading inquiry-based learning with groups of children : A part of kindergarten teachers’ pedagogical practices in ECEC

Abstract

Orchestrating inquiry-based learning (IBL) with children and teaching assistants in ECECs requires teacher leadership. This chapter connects leadership with inquiry, addressing the research question: How can kindergarten teachers’ leadership practices with children, during IBL processes, be understood in light of a theoretical IBL framework? Most Norwegian kindergarten teachers work closely with children as teacher leaders, holding the formal position of peda-gogical leaders. Within this context, pedagogical leadership concerns leading groups of children and co-workers towards children’s formative development through play, care and learning. Drawing upon practice-based and collective approaches to leadership, qualitative data from naturally occurring interaction between a group of two-year-old children, their teacher and teacher assistant have been generated through a micro-ethnographic study. Video data formed the basis for textual transcripts, and the development of what the researcher have named cartoon transcripts, which make sociomaterial practices visible. An abductive approach, moving back and forth between the empirical and theoretical dimensions of the study, has been fruitful, resulting in the author’s creation of a circuit model of inquiry-based leadership practices in teaching. The kindergarten teachers embodied leadership practices can be understood as part of a flexible cycle of leading and co-leading up to six inquiry phases.

Leading inquiry-based learning with groups of children : A part of kindergarten teachers’ pedagogical practices in ECEC