| dc.description.abstract | The topic of this doctoral thesis is to study newly qualified pedagogical leaders` competence building. To frame the concept competence, I have been inspired by sociocultural theory (Bakhtin, 2005; Säljö, 2001, 2006; Vygotskij & Kozulin, 2001; Wertsch, 1991, 1998), and I have used the concepts mastery, appropriation and cultural tools. My research question is: How do newly qualified kindergarten teachers master and appropriate the cultural tools in kindergarten? I have used various methods in my ethnographically inspired research (Creswell, 2007; Lincoln, 2008; Merriam, 2009; Yin, 2009). Five newly qualified kindergarten teachers, their heads, and their three local mentors have been studied for one year. I have observed and interviewed the newly qualified pedagogical leaders, have interviewed their heads and their mentors several times in focus groups, and have analysed documents from their kindergartens. How newly qualified pedagogical leaders master and appropriate the cultural tools in kindergartens has been analysed from four different perspectives; a process perspective, a relational perspective, a contextual perspective and a perspective on leadership. The main results are: * The mastering and the appropriation of cultural tools among newly qualified pedagogical leaders depend on how accessible the concrete and institutional cultural tools of the kindergarten are made in the context. * The newly qualified pedagogical leaders master and appropriate the cultural tools of the kindergarten in diverse ways, depending on which individual tools they possess and to which extent they are given possibilities to put them to use. * The newly qualified pedagogical leaders are challenged on leadership issues in a context with contradictory, indistinct and vague discourses. The results from my research may inspire development and changes in the education of kindergarten teachers and in the daily work in kindergarten and it may also inspire more research in the field. | |
