A Systemic Perspective on Pedagogical Leadership in Higher Education

Anu Pruikkonen (), Satu Uusiautti (), Hanna Vuojärvi () and Aleksi Soukka
Additional contact information
Anu Pruikkonen: Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Satu Uusiautti: University of Lapland
Hanna Vuojärvi: University of Lapland
Aleksi Soukka: University of Lapland

Chapter 14 in Positive Leadership, 2026, pp 289-310 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Higher education is currently challenged by several factors such as digitalization, increasing numbers and heterogeneity of students, expectations concerning flexible study paths and continuous learning, artificial intelligence and internationalization. The following research questions were set for this study: (1) What roles and contents does pedagogical leadership include? (2) How does pedagogical leadership appear as a shared and multilevel phenomenon? and (3) What kinds of internal and external organizational factors influence pedagogical leadership? This qualitative research applied focus group interviews (N = 29) and theory-guided content analysis. The findings indicated that pedagogical leadership requires multifaceted sense-making forums and was challenged by different, partly conflicting, factors. The findings also revealed deficits in pedagogical leadership at various levels of the organizations. We aim to discuss the role of pedagogical leadership within the framework of positive leadership, considering it as a multilevel, collaborative approach that ultimately seeks change and functions as a systemic entity.

Keywords: Higher education; Pedagogical leadership; Leadership; Pedagogy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-032-02369-8_14

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783032023698

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-02369-8_14

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().