Research on leadership in European vocational education and training (VET) is still scarce and predominantly qualitative. Previous studies have focused on themes such as distributed pedagogical leadership (Jäppinen & Maunonen-Eskelinen, 2012), leadership identities, practices and structures (Thomassen et al., 2025), leadership practices regarding knowledge sharing (Glosvik & Sekkingstad, 2025), and enthusiasm-enhancing leadership (Wenström et al., 2019). There is still a need for a broader understanding of VET leadership to support teachers’ well-being and professional development in the changing VET landscape, and to further develop supportive leadership practices.

VET systems across European countries are currently undergoing significant transformations, encompassing diverse student populations, technology-enhanced learning environments, and increasingly complex collaboration with workplaces and other stakeholders (e.g., Hiim, 2023; Herrero et al., 2024). These changes require VET leaders to adopt new leadership roles and practices. Recent literature in educational leadership has emphasized the importance of pedagogical leadership (e.g., Fonsén & Lahtero, 2024, Llanos et al., 2024) and agency-promoting leadership (Brewer et al., 2020; Hökkä et al., 2014, 2019), since these kinds of leadership practices together foster continuous learning among teachers and empower them as active and future-oriented practitioners. In the evolving and complex VET landscape, such leadership practices have not been extensively examined, but they are seen as having the potential to enable teaching and guidance staff to work as thriving and proactive professionals who act competently and collaboratively in their work and communities (e.g. Vähäsantanen, 2015).   

This mixed-method study aims to generate new insights into VET leadership by focusing on agency-promoting leadership and pedagogical leadership. In this study, agency-promoting leadership empowers teachers and teams to take initiatives, exercise influence their work and environment, fostering innovation and development, and providing clear frameworks for autonomous action, contrasting with top-down models (Hökkä et al., 2019). Leaders practicing this kind of leadership support professional identity of staff members, encourage collaboration, and create conditions where staff members feel capable of driving positive change, rather than just following directives (Dağdeviren Ertaş et al, 2025; Hökkä et al., 2014). Second, we focus on pedagogical leadership, which at the organizational level involves defining strategic direction, setting pedagogical goals, and supporting teaching and guidance staff in achieving these goals (Fonsén & Lahtero, 2024). Through their leadership practices, pedagogical leaders foster a culture of learning, ensure the quality of teaching, and create conditions for collaboration and knowledge sharing across the organization. At the same time, they guide and evaluate pedagogical practices holistically, ensuring that organizational structures, resources, and ways of working support continuous learning (Fonsén & Lahtero, 2024, Llanos et al., 2024).

This study was conducted in the contexts of Finnish vocational education. The research questions are as follows: 1. How do VET leaders view their agency-promoting leadership practices and supporting resources?, 2. How do VET leaders describe their pedagogical leadership practices in their work and institutions?

The majority of Finnish vocational education and training (VET) institutions are owned by municipalities or municipal consortia, reflecting the strong public responsibility and local governance model of the Finnish education system. VET providers (134 in 2025) are authorised and guided by national education authorities, but they enjoy a relatively high degree of autonomy in the implementation of VET. Large VET providers have multi-layered management systems and the principal’s role can differ significantly from that of a principal at a small VET institution. Typically, the principal acts as a general manager, overseeing the operations of the entire institution. The mandatory eligibility criteria for a director of education and training consortium/principal include a master’s level degree, teacher qualification and sufficient work experience as a teacher and a qualification in educational administration. In VET institutions, it is common for management responsibilities to be delegated to different levels and leaders with various job titles. The leadership of teachers and VET programmes is most often handled by heads of vocational programmes, for whom supervisory work constitutes a significant part of their role. This multimethod study utilized questionnaire and interview data collected from leaders in Finnish VET. Questionnaire data were gathered in late 2025 and early 2026 from approximately 100 senior and middle managers, including principals and heads of vocational programmes. They were employed in vocational institutions of varying sizes across Finland. The majority were women, highly educated, and held principal qualifications. Respondents first rated 14 items measuring Agency-promoting leadership. These items were theoretically organised into four dimensions: Enhancing employees’ agency, Fostering collective agency, Leaders’ professional identity and Resources for leaders’ agency. The pedagogical leadership measure comprised 11 items organised into two dimensions: Pedagogical leadership practices and Pedagogical leadership culture. All items were rated by using a five-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 5 = Strongly agree). The questionnaire data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Interview data on the same themes were collected from six VET leaders in late 2025 and analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) to generate deeper insights into the phenomena under study.

The preliminary results indicate that leaders perceived agency-promoting leadership practices and pedagogical leadership to be relatively prominently present in VET institutions. Regarding agency-promoting leadership, VET leaders reported that they actively promoted the agency of individual staff members (M = 4.4) and the entire staff (M = 4.4), for example by involving personnel in planning shared matters and preparing decisions. However, the interviewed leaders particularly highlighted the challenge of leading teachers, namely finding a balance between supporting their agency while also providing sufficient guidance to ensure work is carried out in a smooth and professional manner. Regarding pedagogical leadership, VET leaders perceived their own pedagogical leadership practices to be at a higher level (M = 4.1) than the pedagogical leadership culture in their institutions (M = 3.8). In their own practice, leaders were particularly active in encouraging staff to experiment with and develop new pedagogical solutions, whereas regular discussions with staff about pedagogical activities played a less prominent role. Regarding pedagogical leadership culture in VET institutions, leaders reported that their institutions’ pedagogical vision and values were often clearly defined, whereas regular collective evaluation of pedagogical practices was carried out less systematically. The interviewed teachers highlighted the lack of time as the main obstacle to advancing pedagogical leadership, with most of it spent on addressing everyday urgent issues. This study offers novel insights into the under-researched field of VET leadership and proposes new quantitative measures with broader applicability in European and comparative VET leadership research. In the future, it will be important to broaden leaders’ perspectives by examining how VET teachers experience their agency, pedagogical competence, and the support they receive in their work. Moreover, the findings provide implications for school leaders and policy-makers in supporting VET leaders in their complex and evolving roles.

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