Search results for "Day"
showing 10 items of 753 documents
Finland: Becoming and the Youngest Children at Home and in ECEC
2019
This chapter will focus on the youngest children and the everyday contexts and practices of their lives in Finland. The chapter explores the concept of ‘becoming’ within childhood, particularly within early childhood education and care (ECEC) in our country. For the youngest children, their homes and nuclear families have been historically and culturally constructed as the first and most important social and emotional growth environments. For families, the discourses concerning the ‘best or right place’ for their young children to be cared for and learn in are fuelled by the extensive system of financial incentives for home care (e.g. maternity, paternity and home allowances). Only about 40…
Dialogues of Joy : Shared Moments of Joy Between Teachers and Children in Early Childhood Education Settings
2019
Abstract The study focuses on teachers’ and children’s shared moments of joy in early childhood education settings and contributes new knowledge in educational research by exploring joy as a relational rather than an individual phenomenon. The theoretical and methodological framework draws on a narrative approach and Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy. Data were gathered through video observations and diary notes in open ECE groups in Finland, with children from 2 to 6 years. The scenes of everyday life in ECE appeared to radiate an overall positive atmosphere. However, the relationship between shared joy and dialogue was multifaceted. On one hand, joyful moments between teachers and chil…
Care, Upbringing and Teaching in ‘Horizontal’ Transitions in Toddler Day-Care Groups
2016
This chapter focuses on the fundamental notion of early childhood education as an integrated whole, composed of care, upbringing and teaching, in the context of Finnish early childhood education. These three concepts - care, upbringing and teaching - are addressed firstly, on the conceptual level, and then empirically by illustrative examples from day-care groups for one-to-three-year-old children. Our main question focuses on how care, upbringing and teaching are implemented in small-scale ‘horizontal’ transitions children experience between events or activities during the day as part of the experience of day-care, and how these events might be evaluated from a pedagogical perspective. Emp…
Constructing relational space in early childhood education
2014
This paper examines early childhood education (ECE) by applying and developing relational-spatial perspectives on everyday life in educational institutions for young children. The aim is to investigate the dynamic process of construction of space and to illustrate with selected empirical episodes how this process occurs in ECE. Drawing on authors such as Soja and Bourdieu, the starting point for the analysis is that space is socially produced in everyday interactions in a process that intertwines the physical environment and concrete objects, personal interpretations of physical and cultural space, and cultural and collective views about space in ECE. We illustrate this process with ethnogr…
Important themes in research on and education of young children in day care centres: Finnish viewpoints
2013
The aim of this article is to outline important themes, according to Finnish early childhood education researchers, that need to be addressed in researching and educating children under three years of age in Finland. To achieve this aim, the article divides into two parts. First, we present and discuss the results of a small-scale survey, conducted in Finland, on the views of key informants in the early childhood education units of Finnish universities. Second, the views presented in the survey are used as a starting point to introduce two ongoing qualitative case studies on the everyday life of toddlers in Finnish day care centres. In line with the survey findings, these case studies empha…
Whose culture? Monolithic cultures and subcultures in early childhood settings
2016
In Finland, day care centre directors have traditionally led only a single unit, but after the recent merging of many units, most directors simultaneously lead several, physically separate units. These organizations are called distributed organizations. This study was carried out in two distributed day care organizations. The findings are based on interviews with and observations of the staff members. When organizational mergers occur, they raise questions about culture. The findings show that part of the culture should have been shared by all members across the organization, but staff also emphasized the importance of subcultures. Two of Meyerson and Martin’s paradigms were found to exist …
Clothes
2019
Niina Rutanen, Raija Raittila, Mari Vuorisalo write about Clothes and clothing practices in Finnish early childhood education and care. The adopted approach combines relational sociology and geography and addresses the different kinds of spaces clothing practices create in ECEC. Clothing and clothing practices play an important role in the everyday life of ECEC, but often have a different meaning to educators, to the children and to parents. Niina, Raija and Mari show how these different spaces collide with each other and create one possible story of Arctic childhood. In their understanding, space is a social construction and changes in action. They state how ‘the ‘ideal’ Nordic child is th…
The teacher's lap – a site of emotional well-being for the younger children in day-care groups
2014
This study focuses on a particular relationship between teachers and one- to three-year-old children: the child in the teacher's lap. When, in what situations, does this happen? Who are the children in the teacher's lap? Why are they there? How do children express emotional well-being when in the teacher's lap? Relational, sociocultural and revised attachment approaches to emotional well-being supplied the theoretical framework of the study. Data were collected by ethnographic methods and analysed qualitatively. Two day-care groups in Finland participated. For most of the day, at least one child was in a teacher's lap. The teacher's lap signified, for example, not only consolation and confi…
Flexibly Scheduled Early Childhood Education and Care: Finnish Mothers’ and Educators’ Perceptions on Young Children’s Experiences and Child-Responsi…
2018
The study explores Finnish mothers' and educators' perceptions on young children's experiences and child-responsive practices related to flexibly-scheduled early childhood education and care (ECEC). Data were gathered by ethnography-based interviews with mothers and educators of oneto three-year-old children attending this form of ECEC and qualitatively analysed using the method of inductive content analysis. According to the interviewees, young children experienced a multitude of feelings related to flexibly-scheduled ECEC, ranging from the undesirable, such as strain, distress and confusion, to the desirable, such as comfort, satisfaction and understanding. The children's feelings were as…
Trust in the educational partnership narrated by parents of a child with challenging behaviour
2019
This study examined trust in educational partnership in the context of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Finland, from the viewpoint of parents of a child with challenging behaviour. Typically, such children have difficulties in regulating their behaviour and emotions. Semi-structured interviews with 23 parents were content-analysed in a narrative framework. The analysis revealed two critical elements of trust in educational partnership: (1) Child well-being in the day care centre, and (2) a supportive parent–educator relationship and collaboration. Critical factors in the first element of trust were educators’ respectful and good-quality relationships with the child and fair and…