Abstract:

In recent decades, the strategic documents on education of the European Union and Lithuania and the works of researchers have emphasized the importance of the development of leadership in education, with a strong focus on promoting the expression of leadership not only in school heads but also in teachers and children. The educational information literature emphasizes that school heads, who have a strong team of teacher leaders, ensure greater creative and ideological potential of the organization, opportunities to expand activities, contacts, and participate in various projects. This is the basis for the idea of teacher leadership and its importance for the quality of education. Teachers working in preschool institutions are actively involved in the processes of building an effective school. However, as shown by research conducted by scientists, preschool teachers feel most responsible for pedagogical leadership and the leadership of the educational process as well as organizational activities, because they work with young children who need not only quality education but also childcare. Lithuania can be classified as a country where the preschool education system is characterized by an orientation towards integrated preschool education. It has a multi-annual model of preschool education, in which childcare and education are integrated into one whole. In today’s education, childcare becomes an extremely important element of quality that ensures the development of the child’s health and healthy lifestyle, the child’s well-being in the preschool institution and perfectly complements the educational process. Therefore, when analysing the scientific problem raised about the expression of teacher leadership, it makes sense to look for answers to the questions: what qualities and skills do you need to become a leader and in which activities is the leadership of a preschool teacher most expressed?

The aim is to analyse the expression of teacher leadership in preschool institutions of Lithuania.

Research sample: the study involved 92 preschool teachers. The geographical distribution of the respondents is quite wide, i.e., the respondents from preschool education institutions in more than 25 municipalities of the country were interviewed. In terms of professional qualifications, 46 teachers, 34 senior teachers and 12 teacher methodologists participated in the research.

Research methods:
Analysis of scientific, methodological, information literature and documents on education. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research was used to collect, process and evaluate the data: questionnaire survey method, absolute and relative frequencies were calculated.

Results:
The analysis of the scientific literature suggests that teacher leadership is the main factor determining the effectiveness of the school and the quality of education. The most important qualities and abilities of teacher leaders were identified – professionalism, responsibility, empathy, self-confidence, ability to adapt to change, ability to work in a team, continuous pursuit of knowledge and its improvement, etc. The leadership of a preschool teacher is manifested in organizing a quality educational process, cooperating with the parents of the students and colleagues inside and outside the educational institution, representing the institution in various educational activities.

Keywords:

Preschool teacher, expression of leadership, preschool institution.