Transformational leadership in early childhood education: A study of three Korean early childhood organizations

This study investigated leadership styles among three Korean ECE directors. Data on leadership practices in early childhood settings in the Republic of Korea were primarily collected through use of Bass's Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X), and semi-structured interviews of directors and teachers working at three different ECE centers. The theoretical framework underpinning this study was Burns' transformational leadership theory and Leithwood's transformational school leadership theory, which modifies and extends Burns' theory to fit school settings. Transformational leadership emphasizes leadership practices that motivate followers to aspire to the common good of society rather than their own self-interest.;The researcher chose three Korean ECE organizations as research sites that had been characterized as typical by Korean ECE professionals. In these sites it seemed viable to explore alternative relationships based on the premises of transformational leadership to see if the general assumptions embedded in current leadership theories could be expressed in different ways or should be modified according to idiosyncratic Korean cultural factors.;The questionnaire was administered to ten teachers and three directors to characterize the leadership style of the Korean directors. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with the three directors and six teachers who had been working closely with their directors. For triangulation of data, document analysis, informal conversations, and non-participant observation were also utilized to provide context for interpretation of the results.;Findings of the MLQ indicated that the most frequent transformational leadership behaviors of the three directors could be categorized as creating a productive school culture, while the least frequent leadership behavior was providing individual support. Qualitative analysis of the interviews illustrated that the three directors were unclear about the distinction between leadership and management, and they were goal-oriented in handling the inherent structural constraints (i.e., for-profit orientation, control by the governing body---both the municipal offices of education and academic departments of universities) of their leadership practices. In general, their leadership practices appeared to deviate extensively from transformational leadership models, and the current theoretical models may not adequately attend to the structural constraints and the cultural factors that the three Korean ECE directors were experiencing.