The role of distributed leadership in early childhood education: a case study

Effective leadership is vital for high-quality early childhood education and care programs, positively influencing children’s holistic development (Davis et al., 2015; Gibbs, 2022; Kivunja, 2015; Waniganayake et al., 2023). Despite acknowledging the relationship between effective leadership and the quality of early childhood education and care, understanding diverse effective leadership approaches for ensuring quality programs is limited. Given the challenges, complexity, and constant changes in the early childhood sector, there is a pressing need to reassess existing leadership applications and explore innovative approaches to meeting contemporary sector demands. This research centred on the exploration of distributed leadership (DL) within one specific early learning setting in NSW, Australia. The study delved into understanding DL, employing Kemmis et al.’s (2014) Theory of Practice Architectures as a theoretical and analytical lens, scrutinising key components of the theory: sayings, doings, and relatings. The findings illuminated distributed leadership as a dynamic, collaborative approach, valuing essential attributes such as fairness and trust. Moreover, the research unveiled specific language, resource, and social relationship arrangements that influenced the enactment of distributed leadership. Cultural practices, such as collective decision-making, promoting collaboration, and fostering autonomy, acted as facilitators for distributed leadership. Simultaneously, barriers such as tensions in decision-making and perceived influence on disparities impeded its enactment, highlighting the pivotal role of transparent decision-making processes. In terms of material economics, practices such as grouping children and adjusting work arrangements were identified as enabling and constraining distributed leadership enactment, influencing decision-making and communication. Online communication platforms consistently emerged as facilitators, enhancing transparency and inclusivity. Furthermore, social-political arrangements involving equal participation and shared authority played a crucial role, emphasising the necessity for redefined power dynamics to address imbalances. These arrangements, spanning cultural, material, and social-political factors, collectively shaped practices that enabled and constrained the distributed leadership project within the early childhood setting. A comprehensive conceptualisation and empirical investigation of factors influencing the implementation of distributed leadership can aid in advancing this leadership approach to meet the unique requirements of the sector.