Leadership as pedagogy in early childhood education

In the last two decades, teacher leadership has been extensively discussed, mainly in relation to the professional education for in-service teachers. Relatively little is known about leadership as pedagogy for the development of pre-service teachers. The study reported in this paper aims to investigate the discourses of teacher education focusing on the process of teaching practicum supervision and leadership development of pre-service teachers. Early childhood education in Hong Kong was chosen as a research site for the study. Qualitative case study was adopted in the research design. Two pre-service teachers who were studying in the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education progamme and their teaching practicum supervisor from the university were selected as research participants. Semi-structured interviews and documentation were mainly used for data collection. The findings of the study indicated that both of the teaching practicum supervisor and pre-service teachers were aware of the importance of leadership development for professional growth. The teaching practicum provided various opportunities for developing leadership skills, such as reflection, collaboration, and engagement in professional learning community. The findings also revealed that a supportive environment could be possibly built up to support pre-service teachers in the process of leadership development through the joint efforts of teaching practicum supervisors from university, placement school, and student peers. It is argued that leadership as pedagogy in the process of teaching practicum is important for developing pre-service teachers as leaders for their future career.