This dissertation examined the professional learning of early childhood educators as a shared practice in their communities. In this study, professional learning in multiprofessional early childhood education (ECE) practices is considered an intertwined and relational phenomenon constructed through shared knowledge, identity and agency. The theoretical framework of the dissertation is based on the sociocultural theory and research traditions which emphasise how humans shape their environment while simultaneously are shaped by it and that language plays a central role in the construction of reality. This article-based doctoral dissertation is grounded in three publications within a related set of research questions. The data were collected in Finnish ECE contexts between 2014 – 2016 using interviews and stimulated-recall interviews. Qualitative content and thematic analysis methods were used to analyse the data. 

Study I examined the shared professional knowledge of two kindergarten teachers and how they implemented this into their daily ECE practices. The results showed that the teachers’ professional knowledge was related to the awareness of their professional selves and to their professional tasks. The results also revealed that their professional knowledge was predominantly shared through discussions in team meetings, in the form of practical negotiations which were related to planning the future practices. Teacher learning emerged from their practices and was focused on the children’s behaviours and learning. These individual learning situations, what was learned and why, mostly appeared to remain implicit in the team. 

Study II examined the kindergarten teachers’ discoveries of their shared professional teacher identities and how it influenced their professional beliefs and practices. The results showed that the teachers’ shared professional identities were formed by their commitment, tasks, feedback and agency. When their identity formations seemed positive, the teachers expressed feelings of well-being, cohesion, job motivation, heightened collective efficacy and self-efficacy. In addition to positive identity processes, the study revealed that the teachers’ professional identities were challenged as they tried to identify, struggle and cope with the roles and the positions available to them 

Study III examined the phenomenon of shared agency in three early childhood work teams. The study revealed that the team members’ discussions of their actions and dispositions mirrored their interdependent understandings and affected how they responded engaging with one another, while simultaneously directed their shared agency towards past, present or future challenges. Each team’s shared agency appeared to exhibit a specific space which produced a certain level of shared agency. Two of the teams showed high levels of shared agency characterized by positive personal and professional dispositions with strong engagement for future oriented challenges. 

Taken together, the three studies revealed how kindergarten teachers’ professional identity, knowledge, and agency are experienced and negotiated in complex and socially shared acts of teaching and caring. The findings illustrate that the quality of the teacher’s participation plays a crucial role in how teachers understand, identify and positions themselves in ECE. By being fully accepted to participate, it became possible, and even necessary, for the teachers to change, little by little, their community’s collective understanding of ECE practices and find their potential for shared agency. Sometimes these relational interactions were tense and re-shaped interdependencies in the teams, thus affecting the teachers’ professional identities and agency. In hectic real-life contexts, reflecting and sharing professional learning appeared to be challenging and the lack of authentic collegial and critical feedback constrained professional learning. The workplace culture and work habits influenced how the educators, as a team, understood their collective orientation in ECE practices. The collective orientation indicated the level of agency and affected professional outcomes. This dissertation argues that shared professional learning provides an essential tool for sustaining the quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Furthermore, the results indicate the need to change daily practices to include more shared work with appropriate tools. More focused evaluation forms would also support the development of innovative (and quality) practices. Based on the findings of this dissertation, in order to provide quality ECE, it is important to support educators in their challenging work. In particular, it is important to consider the policy decisions that are conducive to ensuring the pedagogical quality of ECE practices and collaborative learning in communities. These decisions should result in more balanced and equal practices for children and families, providing personnel with greater agency and the capacity to build learning communities. This change requires collaborative teacher leadership to share the work of practical knowledge creation in multi-professional communities and should be facilitated by clarifying and transforming the professional tasks and responsibilities of ECE staff. These changes need to be supported by space and time for shared inquiry and reflection. Teacher education should support kindergarten teachers’ professional identities by providing collaborative learning experiences during practicums, thus assuring joint and collegial mentoring relationships. This will ensure better opportunities for pre-service teachers and ECE staff to learn from each other. Moreover, besides supporting the processes of local learning communities, teacher education has the broader task of developing more equal opportunities with on-going professional development within in-service training.