Increasing leadership capacity and implementing pedagogical leadership in Finland

Abstract

This paper discusses recent developments in school leadership practices in Finland. The focus is on what effects the major changes of education paradigms had in educational leadership. The theoretical discussion is based on several research findings. A meta analysis of 30 PhD studies was done by Alava, Halttunen & Risku (2012) in a research commissioned by the Finnish National Board of Education. Some of the key findings in this study were the need for stronger future orientation, the importance of broad pedagogical leadership, and understanding leadership as a resource with emphasis on shared leadership, change leadership and values leadership. The empirical examples in this paper are from two municipalities, Åland and Mäntsälä, where extensive development efforts were carried out in 2005-2018. The development in Åland was instigated by the rather poor results the students got in mathematics in the PISA 2003 assessment (Uljens, Sundqvist & Smeds-Nylund, 2016). In Mäntsälä the development was initiated by the two new administrators, who became worried about the rather stagnant organizational culture and the level of leadership competence in the schools. Both cases reveal the need for system wide effort, the importance of culture and values, the role of participation and dialogue, and the need to re-define leadership. They also show the way to lead schools into professional learning communities.