Importance and creation of a vision in kindergarten: views of preschool teachers and management

Every institution has its mission and goals, taking into account the curriculum, which is the foundation for the expert basis in kindergartens. In the modern world, a clear vision is one of the key components of a successful organization. In the theoretical part of the master’s thesis, we define professional development, models of professional development, and their advantages as well as limitations. We describe the concept of a learning organization and the factors that influence it, including the climate, the culture, and their comparison. We also define the concept of vision, its meaning, and its creation along with the review of the kindergarten documentation on the topic of vision. In the empirical part, a quantitative survey was conducted on a sample of 140 preschool teachers, and a qualitative survey was conducted with five principals. Through the survey, we determined the importance preschool teachers and principals attribute to the professional development, the learning organization, and the culture of the kindergarten. We were also interested in whether the preschool teacher’s assessment of professional development, learning organization, and organizational culture differ according to the period of employment and the title of the preschool teacher. We present how preschool teachers and principals perceive the kindergarten vision and how much importance they attribute to it. We were interested in the presence of the vision in the kindergarten together with the process of its definition. Lastly, we determined the involvement of employees in setting goals and realizing kindergarten tasks. For the purpose of the survey, we designed data collection tools. We found that preschool teachers attribute great importance to professional development; moreover, even greater importance is attributed to it on average by those with a university degree. Most of the preschool teachers participating in the survey rated the characteristics of the learning organization as medium present to quite present in the kindergartens where they are employed. There were no statistically significant differences in the groups. The greatest dispersion of answers was observed in the common vision, in some places, it is quite or very present (57 %), and in others only partially or not at all (43 %). As many as 95 % of respondents agree or strongly agree, that it is important that parents who enrol their children in kindergarten know the vision and mission of the kindergarten. The survey shows that 24 % of respondents actively participated in the process of defining the kindergarten vision. It is very encouraging that as many as 81 % of respondents would like to take part in it. We observed statistically significant differences between the vision of the kindergarten and the size and type of kindergarten. The proportion of those who claim to have a vision is higher in public and larger kindergartens in comparison to private and smaller kindergartens. It has been recognised that there are no statistically significant differences in the average value of the importance of professional development in relation to the vision of the kindergarten.The survey also showed that only 28 % of preschool teachers estimate that their proposals and engagement have a strong or major influence on kindergarten vision defining. No statistically significant differences were found. All interviewed principals agreed that the active participation of employees in defining the vision is extremely important, especially because of their involvement, participation, and consequently, the quality of its implementation. Based on the obtained results, we can recapitulate that the process of vision defining in kindergartens is an under-researched topic. An environment where employees have the opportunity for professional development and where there is room for strategic planning would encourage more in-depth common visions, which would motivate employees’ development through quality work