Although leadership in early childhood education and care (ECEC) has increasingly been a focus of scientific interest and is currently high on the agenda of international institutions like OECD or EU and identified as a "key position”, it remains insufficiently explored compared to e.g. structural quality features of the ECEC landscape (Movahedazarhouligh 2023). The leadership role is characterised by multiple and complex tasks and serves as an interface between various stakeholders. With the continuous growth of both, sector and centres, the need for coordination, especially in management tasks, is increasing (Hujala et al. 2023; Turani 2022). Rising expectations from society, families, staff, providers etc. are putting pressure on ECEC and, consequently, on leaders to provide an adequate, high-quality offer of ECEC (Strehmel 2017).

To meet these expectations, leadership requires not only the relevant knowledge but also an efficient system of stakeholders, stability, support and planning (BMFSFJ/JFMK 2016).   

Conversely, centre leaders often feel insufficiently appreciated by politics and society and are exposed daily to a variety of challenges and their consequences (e.g. staff shortage, diversification). This leads to negative effects on working conditions, health and satisfaction resulting in an excessive workload, stress and a lack of gratification (Viernickel et al. 2017).

While the role of leadership as a crucial actor in a "competent system" (Urban u. a. 2011) in ECEC has been recognized, and their tasks and various challenges in this context have been outlined, little is known about institution leaders themselves, their daily routines, task distribution, and needs (e.g. Douglass 2019; Strehmel 2017; Schreyer et al. 2014).
Based on the data from the TALIS Starting Strong Surveys 2018 from nine countries with a focus on Germany (OECD 2019), this contribution aims to examine how the actions of leadership are manifested internationally, what specific tasks they undertake, and their own expectations and needs. Additionally, the study explores conclusions for the professional discourse and insights provided by international comparisons. The research delves into the practical implementation of the work of centre leaders and the areas of tasks and responsibilities to which leaders dedicate their time in ECEC centres. The goal is to adequately represent the everyday actions of leadership. Hereby it examines differences in organisational aspects of institutions (e.g. provider affiliation) and personal characteristics of leaders (e.g., experience, qualification). Different social contexts (e.g. urban vs. rural) are also considered to clarify how various areas of leadership tasks interconnect in the daily work and how individual characteristics and overarching characteristics on the centre level structure and influence daily work of leaders and their time distribution across task areas.

Due to the nature of the study and the self-reporting by institution leaders, not only statements regarding structural conditions and activities can be captured but also subjective assessments by the leaders themselves. This provides the opportunity to particularly capture expectations and potentials on the leadership level. Needs regarding specific training and development contents for leaders as well as aspects of workload and job satisfaction are considered. Here data shows that the lack of staff and too much administrative work are main drivers of stress for centre leaders. Not only are these aspects barriers for personal professional development but also limit the effectiveness in their function as leaders.
The contribution therefore sheds light on the perspective of leaders themselves and let them have their say with the help of data from the TALIS Starting Strong study.

The TALIS Starting Strong Survey is the first international large-scale survey of staff and leaders in ECEC and is aligned to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), targeting teachers in primary and secondary education (Sim et al. 2019). A total of more than 3,000 centre leaders and more than 15,000 staff participated in the study in 2018 including data from nine countries (Chile, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Turkey) in the ISCED 0.2 study and from four countries (Denmark, Germany, Israel and Norway) in the U3 study (OECD 2019a). More than 2,000 centre leaders took part in the study on the ISCED 0.2 level which is the focus of this contribution. The representative data collection is based on a two-stage, stratified sampling design. The data was weighted to compensate for factors such as design-related differences in the probability of selection of individuals and random non-response (OECD 2019b). The target groups produce self-reported data through paper/online questionnaires, which are specifically designed to the role of leaders and staff to reflect the specific tasks and needs of these roles. The study covers a broad spectrum of topics covering the whole range of activities of centre leaders and staff in their daily work. The leader questionnaire hereby focuses on aspects such as demographics and qualifications, professional development, working conditions and job satisfaction, characteristics of the ECEC centres, aspects of pedagogical and administrative leadership and the cooperation with stakeholders. The contribution focuses in particular on the needs and challenges from a German (N~250), but also international perspective. It can describe the needs and barriers in the areas of further training and cooperation, as well as with regard to the leaders’ satisfaction with their own conditions and potentials. Here it can show that the work of centre leaders is negatively influenced by the lack of staff e.g. in Germany and therefore intensifies the workload and burden of their work. Multivariate analysis with regression models can moreover explain that the leader position is rather supported by shaping it on the centre-level according to the characteristics of the centre including staff and children instead of personal characteristics of the leader.

The contribution looks at what needs and challenges do centre leaders express themselves and hereby can describe the main stressors among ECEC centre leaders and how e.g. a lack of staff or too much administrative work are main challenges. This affects not only the daily work of leaders (looking at their time distribution across tasks) but builds also barriers to professional development, limits the effectiveness as leader and as a consequence can slow down or prevent positive outcomes of leadership within settings. As an outlook, data from TALIS Starting Strong 2024 will help to improve knowledge about these aspects and make trends between 2018 and 2024 visible for the first time. The described topics are also part of the second edition of the study; at the time of the conference, first insights might be available as well and can possibly be presented for the first time to the public. The presentation can show with regard to the time contribution of leaders that main differences across settings and countries occur in time spent on interactions with children and administrative leadership, while there is stability in cooperation with families and pedagogical leadership. Individual characteristics (e.g. qualifications or work experience) and community or environmental factors (e.g. size of the city or centre location) play no or little role how the daily work of leaders looks like when one looks at the time distribution among different tasks. How the leader position is shaped on centre-level is crucial, especially with regard to 1) time resources for leadership tasks, 2) size of the centre and 3) composition of children within the centre. Finally, not only needs but also possible solutions and policy pointers can be identified in order to provide the best support for ECEC leaders and thus further improve the quality in ECEC centres (s. OECD 2020; OECD 2019c).

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