Early Childhood Education and Care -future perspectives : Leading involvement in Early Chilhdood Education and Care

Significance of operational culture is a current topic in ECEC where involvement plays a central role. This article examines operational culture through ECEC leadership and working community. Nowadays professional leadership is not a question of a person rather than a shared mission of a community. From leader point of view this requires ability to understand leadership and responsibilities from a larger perspective, capability to lead community involvement and resources that allow quality pedagogic in ECEC center. In this mission everybody's needed; different individuals in the large community and vice versa. Cornerstones of involvement are volition to participate and carry pedagogical responsibility together

Perspectives on leadership in early childhood education and care centers through community of practice

This article investigates early childhood education and care (ECEC) leadership through the concept of community of practice (COP). The focus is on ECEC leaders’ perceptions regarding their leadership during the educational changes taking place in the context of Finnish ECEC. The purpose is to increase understanding of how leaders see themselves in relation to the ECEC multiprofessional working community and practices of distributed leadership. The data are five focus group interviews of ECEC leaders analyzed with directed content analysis within the theoretical frame of domain, practice, and community forming the core of COP in Lave and Wenger. The results show how all three COP components comprise several dimensions in ECEC leaders’ perceptions of their leadership. For example, the component of the leadership domain consists of ECEC values, ECEC legislation, and ECEC curriculum. The results indicate that a formal leadership role is essential in leading the community and its vision. Moreover, building flexible leadership structures and supporting multiprofessional cooperation in the community augment leadership as a community’s joint enterprisePeer reviewe

Kohti kehittyvää johtajuutta : Varhaiskasvatuksen sekä esi- ja perusopetuksen johtajuushankkeen (VEPO 2035) loppuraportti

Varhaiskasvatuksen sekä esi- ja perusopetuksen johtajuuden kehittämishanke (VEPO 2035) toteutettiin Helsingin yliopistossa opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön tilaamana. Tavoitteena oli laatia vuoteen 2035 ulottuva johtajuuden kehittämissuunnitelma sekä rakentaa suunnitelman mukainen koulutuskokonaisuus, jota opettajankoulutusta tuottavat yliopistot voivat hyödyntää kasvatus- ja opetusalan johtajuuskoulutusten kehittämisessä. Lisäksi tarkoituksena oli esittää mahdollisia lainsäädännön muutoksia koskien rehtoreiden ja päiväkodinjohtajien kelpoisuuksia sekä ehdotusten mukainen rahoitusmalli, jonka avulla yliopistojen on mahdollista tarjota kelpoisuusvaatimuksissa mainittua koulutusta. Varhaiskasvatuksen sekä esi- ja perusopetuksen johtajuuden kehittämissuunnitelma pohjautui katsauksiin kotimaisesta ja kansainvälisestä tutkimuskirjallisuudesta, opettajankoulutusta tuottavien yliopistojen olemassa olevista johtajuuskoulutuksista sekä johtajuuskoulutusten kehittämishankkeista. Suunnitelmassa korostui jatkuvuus johtajuustasojen, eri koulutusasteiden ja alueellisen tasa-arvon näkökulmasta. Johtajuuden kehittämisen keskeisimmäksi keinoksi osoittautui johtajuuskoulutusten rakentaminen tutkimusperustaisena yliopistotason koulutuksena valtakunnallisesti yhtenäiseen suuntaan. Koulutuskokonaisuudessa perusopetuksen rehtoreiden ja päiväkodin johtajien kelpoisuus rakentuu yliopistotasoisen kasvatus- ja opetusalan johtajuuden perusopintokokonaisuuden ympärille

Common Inflammation-Related Candidate Gene Variants and Acute Kidney Injury in 2647 Critically Ill Finnish Patients

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a syndrome with high incidence among the critically ill. Because the clinical variables and currently used biomarkers have failed to predict the individual susceptibility to AKI, candidate gene variants for the trait have been studied. Studies about genetic predisposition to AKI have been mainly underpowered and of moderate quality. We report the association study of 27 genetic variants in a cohort of Finnish critically ill patients, focusing on the replication of associations detected with variants in genes related to inflammation, cell survival, or circulation. In this prospective, observational Finnish Acute Kidney Injury (FINNAKI) study, 2647 patients without chronic kidney disease were genotyped. We defined AKI according to Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria. We compared severe AKI (Stages 2 and 3, n = 625) to controls (Stage 0, n = 1582). For genotyping we used iPLEX(TM) Assay (Agena Bioscience). We performed the association analyses with PLINK software, using an additive genetic model in logistic regression. Despite the numerous, although contradictory, studies about association between polymorphisms rs1800629 in TNFA and rs1800896 in IL10 and AKI, we found no association (odds ratios 1.06 (95% CI 0.89-1.28, p = 0.51) and 0.92 (95% CI 0.80-1.05, p = 0.20), respectively). Adjusting for confounders did not change the results. To conclude, we could not confirm the associations reported in previous studies in a cohort of critically ill patients.Peer reviewe

Heme oxygenase-1 repeat polymorphism in septic acute kidney injury

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a syndrome that frequently affects the critically ill. Recently, an increased number of dinucleotide repeats in the HMOX1 gene were reported to associate with development of AKI in cardiac surgery. We aimed to test the replicability of this finding in a Finnish cohort of critically ill septic patients. This multicenter study was part of the national FINNAKI study. We genotyped 300 patients with severe AKI (KDIGO 2 or 3) and 353 controls without AKI (KDIGO 0) for the guanine-thymine (GTn) repeat in the promoter region of the HMOX1 gene. The allele calling was based on the number of repeats, the cut off being 27 repeats in the S-L (short to long) classification, and 27 and 34 repeats for the S-M-L2 (short to medium to very long) classification. The plasma concentrations of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) enzyme were measured on admission. The allele distribution in our patients was similar to that published previously, with peaks at 23 and 30 repeats. The S-allele increases AKI risk. An adjusted OR was 1.30 for each S-allele in an additive genetic model (95% CI 1.01-1.66; p = 0.041). Alleles with a repeat number greater than 34 were significantly associated with lower HO-1 concentration (p<0.001). In septic patients, we report an association between a short repeat in HMOX1 and AKI risk

“I am the pilot, but i need a committed crew” : Researching early childhood education and care leadership by using the actantial model of power

Leadership in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is changing globally. We investigated ECEC leadership and leaders’ interpretations of power and its realization between leaders and followers, a little researched topic in the field. Our theoretical framework consists of ECEC contextual knowledge and prior research attached with Michel Foucault’s and Mary Parker Follet’s perceptions of power as positive, relational and discursive microphenomenon. Our essay data (N = 46) was written by ECEC center leaders before participating in educational leaders in-service training. The method of analysis was Greimas’ actantial analysis (1979), which enabled us to build two actantial models of leaders’ perspectives and relation to power. Findings indicate that power is a leader-centered, unstructured and hiding concept needing conscious reframing and integration of positional and non-positional leader roles in the community.peerReviewe

Stress, coping strategies and resources of early childhood education leaders during the COVID-19-pandemic in Finland, Germany and Israel

The exceptional circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021 caused unexpected challenges for the leaders in Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres. The range of measures implemented for preventing the infection from spreading reduced opportunities for face-to-face communication and changed the form of professional cooperation. All that has affected the working conditions and work well-being of the leaders. In this article we examine the ECE centre leaders' experiences regarding stress, their coping strategies and coping resources according to the Lazarus & Folkman (1984) stress model during the COVID-19-pandemic in Finland, Germany and Israel. The aim is to understand leaders' work performance in a crisis situation in these three different societies and to provide information that support leadership in practice as well as the future training of leaders to make them more prepared to lead rapid changes. Further, the findings aim at supporting ECE centres in becoming more resilient to face the challenges of post covid time and future crises (e.g., climate change). This article examines the topic from the perspective of case studies from three countries and combines these findings with differences and similarities as lessons learned. The data are ECE centre leaders’ interviews from Finland (N=23), Germany (N=35) and Israel (N=19). The data were analyzed by employing the Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) model of stress and coping. The findings indicate that communication and emotional support of colleagues and superiors are essential in supporting the well-being of ECE professionals.Peer reviewe

Introduction

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Conclusion : Lessons Learnt for Crises Leadership and Organizational Resilience

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