Early Childhood Education And Care Policy In Finland

This book highlights contemporary questions around Early Childhood Education in Finland. It explores a range of issues relating to policies and practices in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The book features many aspects of the so-called Nordic model that is evident in different practices and policies of the Finnish ECEC system. Among others topics, it discusses playful learning, storycrafting, scientific literacy, pedagogical leadership, family-related variables, and Sami language learning. The findings provide important insights into the Finnish ECEC model and illustrate relevant issues facing Finland. All of the 14 chapters present unique research and give the reader the opportunity to understand how the ECEC services during children’s early years are defined and implemented. Each chapter includes a discussion of the educational outcome and highlights critical perspectives. In Finland ECEC is seen as an investment in the future. The Finnish ECEC system is one of the most equal in the world. The high-quality education is available to both private and public sectors. National curriculum and laws for early education have gone through a significant reform during the last decade, with the quality, practices and teachers’ competences being defined in order to support children’s future learning skills. ECEC in Finland is a unique combination of international influences and local intentions to put each child and family at the centre of the services. The systematic and goal-oriented ECEC system consists of upbringing, education and care with an emphasis on pedagogy in order to produce excellence for the future. Its overall planning, guidance and monitoring system is one of a kind.

Tiivistelmä: Varhaiskasvatus Suomessa.

What is childhood like in Finland? What kind of practical solutions have been created and evaluated that aim at both providing good childhood experiences and supporting children’s positive development? What practices aim to prevent child exclusion from regular education and social experiences and to foster children’s healthy development in emotional, social, and behavioural terms? This book considers the reality of childhood in Finland. It discusses the realisation and evaluation of early childhood education and addresses aspects of research and practice concerning children under the age of 10. It examines the growth and development of young children, how learning and teaching are organised, practices of rearing children and the state of child care in Finland. Contributors represent a variety of universities and sub disciplines in the science of education and focus on perspectives of children’s well-being, special viewpoints of early childhood education, care, and research in Finland. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

This timely book reveals how policies of childcare and early childhood education influence children’s circumstances and the daily lives of families with children. Examining how these policies are approached, it focuses particularly on the issues and pitfalls related to equal access.

Taking a broader and more holistic approach to early childhood than previous studies, this book provides a comparative analysis of major policy developments and issues in 12 OECD countries, highlights innovative approaches, and proposes policy options that can be adapted to varied country contexts.

This report reviews quality in childhood education and care in Finland. It suggest strengths and point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives.

This book argues that modern governance is performed by actors who seek social change epistemically, by drawing on widespread, public views of reality. Agents of change such as parliamentarians or social movement activists will assess and affect what they believe to be people’s conceptions of what is possible, rational, and desirable. This often means that these key authority figures will invest in credible knowledge production, as well as appeal to individual and group identifications, emotions, and values. Alasuutari and Qadir show how this epistemic governance works in three important arenas of social change: parliaments, which debate laws that constitute the bulk of reforms; international organizations that circulate global norms; and social movements and NGOs. Through their analysis, the authors’ detailed, innovative methodology for discourse analysis indicates the utility of epistemic governance as a new paradigm for research into global social change. This book will be of use to students in upper level degree programs who want to design empirical research into social change as well as researchers in sociology, political science and public policy.

This review of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in twenty OECD countries describes the social, economic, conceptual and research factors that influence early childhood policy.