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What is pedagogical leadership?
Some of you might feel like pedagogical leadership is a new term, it’s not. In fact Lilian Katz wrote about pedagogical leadership in Leadership in Early Care and Education (Kagan and Bowman, 1996). Essentially Pedagogical leadership is about Centre Leaders coaching and mentoring teaching and learning. Supporting the teaching team to implement the curriculum and quality improvements for their centres.
It is not just related to a positional leadership role. You don’t have the hold the title of Centre Manager or Head Teacher. Anyone can be considered a centre leader. In reality, each teacher should be striving to lead their learner and it is this mahi that impacts the richness of the centre programme. It’s a teachers professional responsibility to engage in critical inquiry through their Internal Evaluation, personal inquiry and professional conversations.This is what provides a culture where teachers truly optimise learning opportunities for all learners both child and adult. Pedagogical leaders keep the whole learning community focused on the learner and the learning.
The code and standards capture it well in their underpinning values when they state it’s a teachers role to WHAKAMANA: empower all learners to reach their highest potential by providing high-quality teaching and leadership.
If you want to get some inspiration from leaders across New Zealand, Te Whariki online have some great exemplars we encourage you to read https://tewhariki.tki.org.nz/en/professional-learning-and-development/els-centres-professional-learning-stories-of-practice/