Search results for "RSS"
showing 10 items of 1251 documents
Documents in Interaction: A Case Study on Parent–Teacher Meetings (ECEC)
2020
Whilst the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) is being monitored increasingly closely, various documentation methods and practices that aim at recording and assessing children’s advancement and activities have expanded in ECEC. The research on the impact of such documentation methods on grassroots-level practices is however currently scarce. This chapter illuminates the role of a specific documentation method—that is, a child’s ECEC plan—in parent–teacher meetings in Finnish ECEC. This plan was implemented as a means to increase pedagogical quality of ECEC in Finland. The chapter considers the ECEC plan a participant during parent–teacher meetings and, by applying discursi…
Language Education Policies and Early Childhood Education
2020
This chapter discusses the importance of different types of early language education in the public system according to national policy in two geopolitical contexts: Continental Northern Europe and the UK. We define early language education policy as the language policies in early childhood education (ECE) including planning, practices, and ideologies related to the teaching and learning of languages. We present a variety of theoretical approaches and discuss their applicability to the field of early language education research. These approaches include traditional top-down policy implementation models as well as more dynamic and ecological theoretical approaches. Following that, we look at …
Privilege or tragedy? : Educators’ accounts of flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care
2017
This article explores accounts given by Finnish educators ( n = 31) on the topic of flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care (i.e. childcare provided during non-standard as well as standard hours). Previous research has shown this to be a sensitive topic because of the contradiction between what is deemed in the interests of children and the fact of providing childcare during non-standard hours. The research follows the principles of discursive psychology. Educators’ accounts were labelled as excusing, compensating, normalising and justifying. Accounts categorised as excusing and compensating shared concern over the effects of childcare during non-standard hours on children’s w…
Språkmedvetenhet i småbarnspedagogiskt arbete – Finländska daghemspedagogers reflektioner
2019
Sammandrag: Under det senaste decenniet har Finland blivit alltmer mångspråkigt. Det syns också i styrdokumenten. I denna artikel beskrivs hur pedagoger vid ett tvåspråkigt så kallat samlokaliserat daghem resonerar kring begreppet språkmedvetenhet och hur deras diskurser förhåller sig till det som skrivs om språkmedvetenhet i Grunderna för planen för småbarnspedagogik 2016 (det nationella styrdokumentet för småbarnspedagogik). Enligt resultaten är pedagogerna medvetna om deras roll som språkmedvetna vuxna och hur de kan stödja barns språkliga medvetenhet i svenska/finska medan diskurser om annan flerspråkighet ej förekommer spontant. Studien visar att det är viktigt att diskutera språkmedve…
‘Ordinary’ and ‘diverse’ families : A case study of family discourses by Finnish early childhood education and care administrators
2021
The increased family diversity is a major global trend. Although family configurations are also diverse in contemporary Finland, it has been argued that Finnish family policies and institutional understanding of family life continues to focus on the heteronormative two-parent family with a native Finnish background. To address this issue, we analysed Finnish family discourses through qualitative interviews with early childhood education and care administrators (n = 47), applying a discourse analytic framework. Our results suggest that families are discussed through two divergent but interwoven discourses, i.e. the discourse of ordinary families and that of diverse families. The former focus…
Care poverty : unmet care needs in a Nordic welfare state
2019
This article introduces the concept of care poverty, defined as inadequate coverage of care needs resulting from an interplay between individual and societal factors, and examines its level and predictors among the 75+ population in Finland. The data come from a survey conducted in 2010 and 2015. Despite the universalistic goals of the Finnish care system, 26 percent of respondents with limitations in daily activities faced care poverty with regard to instrumental activities of daily living; the activities of daily living care poverty rate was 17 percent. Concerning instrumental activities of daily living, care poverty was associated with income level, health status and living arrangements,…
Stock market and exchange rate information in the Taylor rule : Evidence from OECD countries
2017
We analyze the effects of stock market and exchange rate information in a forward-looking Taylor rule for monthly data from 14 OECD countries during the years 1999–2016. Especially the stock market information in the form of dividend but also the currency market information in the form of real exchange rate are revealed to be relevant in Taylor rule for many of the countries examined by helping to strengthen the role of inflation and real economic activity deviations in the policy rule. In many cases the rule also seems to be opportunistic, i.e., the inflation target has been time-varying. peerReviewed
Finnish forest-based companies in transition to the circular bioeconomy : drivers, organizational resources and innovations
2020
Abstract Forest-based businesses are the center of the transition to the sustainable and competitive circular bioeconomy in Finland. This study explores the transition of Finnish FBS firms to new business models, with a focus on the organizational resources and capabilities needed for transition. It also identifies the important elements in the business environment and the role of innovations in this process. The study uses thematic interviews with managers from various FBS firms and companies from interfacing sectors, all of which have operations in Finland. Despite the differences between firms, the study finds many common drivers and resources that FBS companies highlight as significant …
Business in society or business and society: the construction of business–society relations in responsibility reports from a critical discursive pers…
2013
In this article, we analyse the discursive construction of business–society relations in Finnish businesses’ social and environmental responsibility reports. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, we examine how these discursive constructions maintain and reproduce various interests and societal conditions as a precondition of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Our study contributes to the recent discussion on discursive struggles in business–society relations and the role various interests play in this struggle. We find that not only are power asymmetries between actors veiled through the universalization of interests, but reporting can also be seen as a communicative action that prov…
The Discursive Dance : The Employee Co-operation Negotiations as an Arena for Management-by-fear
2015
The purpose of this article is to qualitatively describe and critically explain the discursive construction of employee co-operation negotiations in Finland as an arena for management-by-fear. The article consists of a theoretical review, covering the legislative basis of co-operation negotiations and recent research on management-by-fear. The empirical study consists of media texts and company media releases in Finland in 2012–2013. The main conclusions are that there are distinctive features in the co-operation negotiations that enable and enforce the possibility of management-by-fear, and thus destructive leadership. The process, supported by law and very much against the original aim, e…