Search results for "ta516"
showing 10 items of 614 documents
Voicing the child? A case study in Finnish early childhood education
2013
Contemporary Nordic early childhood education and care takes as its starting point the individual and ‘competent’ child and emphasizes the aim to take account of children’s views. It is also common in educational settings that the child’s views are documented and thus transformed into contexts in which they are discussed between the adults. In light of a case study of 22 parent–teacher meetings in Finnish early childhood education and care the article discusses the position of the child’s voice in this context. The theoretical framework is based on a relational view of childhood and the child’s voice, on theories of face-to-face and institutional interaction and on discursive psychology. T…
Unravelling conceptualizations of (in)equality in early childhood education and care system
2018
Early childhood education’s role in increasing equality in society has been highlighted by international organizations. However, it is unclear what is meant by the concept of equality in different situations, as the meaning fluctuates and reflects the cultural political contexts in which it is embedded. In this paper, we analyse the equality discourses of local early childhood education and care (ECEC) policymakers in Finland, drawing on different conceptualizations of equality and social justice. In doing so, we show that the way in which equality is conceptualized differs – along with the suggested remedies – depending on whether the subjects of equality are adults, children at the border…
Accelerating early language development with multi-sensory training
2012
This paper reports the outcome of a multi-sensory intervention on infant language skills. A programme titled ‘Rhyming Game and Exercise Club’, which included kinaesthetic–tactile mother–child rhyming games performed in natural joint attention situations, was intended to accelerate Finnish six- to eight-month-old infants’ language development. The participants were 20 infants (10 training group children and 10 control children). Their cognitive skills and both receptive and expressive language skills (Bayley Scales III) were tested three times (pre-, post- and follow-up assessments). The groups differed significantly in receptive language skills at the baseline, in favour of the controls. Th…
Developing preschoolers' social skills through cross-cultural physical education intervention
2013
The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in children's social skills after their participation in a physical education programme named ESPEC (‘Early Steps’ Physical Education Curriculum). The evaluators of the children's social skills were the trained educators who implemented the curriculum as well as parents of the participating children. This study was conducted in three European countries and was part of a European transnational project. The participants were 286 preschoolers from Cyprus, Greece and Italy. Twelve educators and 286 parents completed the ‘Social Behaviour Instrument’ (SBI) before and after the implementation of the ESPEC. This four months’ physical educati…
Teacher–child relationships narrated by parents of children with difficulties in self-regulation
2016
This study addresses the relationships between teachers and children (four to six years old) with difficulties in self-regulation from the parent's point of view. Narratives were constructed in 21 interviews with parents of children who have difficulties in self-regulation. The study focused on two questions: (i) What kinds of teacher–child relationships can be identified in the parents’ narratives? and (ii) How is the child positioned in this relational context? The teacher–child relationships found were labelled neutral, problematic and caring. Within these categories, the child was positioned in nine ways ranging from the child as troublesome to the child as unique. The study offers tool…
Younger children in ECEC: focus on the national steering documents in the Nordic countries
2015
The aim of this study was to review the national steering documents on early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with the focus on children up to the age of three, posing the question: What do these documents tell us about ECEC for younger children in the Nordic early childhood settings? Methodologically, a qualitative document analysis was applied. The documents provide a picture of young children whose age, individual needs and a number of other factors, such as cultural background, should be taken into account in ECEC. These children learn holistically, in close interaction with their environment. Their safety and well-being are seen as pa…
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…
Toddlers' Play in Early Childhood Education Settings
2018
More and more toddlers participate in early childhood education outside home, sharing a significant part of their day with teachers and peers, often in play. Despite the knowledge that has accumulated on toddlers’ playing skills and on the psychology underlying the development of play, research on toddlers’ play from the educational and pedagogical viewpoints is limited. Whereas teachers of toddlers report high respect for play and the importance of play in toddlers’ lives, research shows that the position of play is generally weak. This chapter, drawing on existing research, reviews the development and characteristics of toddlers’ play, describes the ways in which they play, and discusses …
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…
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 …