Browsing by study line "Early Education"

The purpose of this research is to find out how irreligiosity is presented in pedagogical material made for pre-primary education’s and early childhood education’s worldview education. Both National Core Curriculum for Pre-primary Education (2014) and National Core Curriculum for ECEC (2022) require that the personnel in Pre-primary education and ECEC discourse on irreligiosity as a part of worldview education. The aim of this thesis is to determine how irreligiosity is externalized as a worldview and how it is to be taught in pedagogical materials. The research questions are: 1. How irreligiosity is externalized in pedagogical materials for worldview education? 2. To what kind of teaching about irreligiosity do the pedagogical materials direct to? The research was conducted as qualitative research using theory-based content analysis. Irreligiosity is an extensive phenomenon and quite abstractive. Therefore, the selected methods were used to find a concrete way to define the irreligious nature of the materials. Michael Grimmitt's (2000) theory of learning about and learning from religious education and Ninian Smart's (1996) dimensions of religion were selected as theories guiding the content analysis as it was possible to describe irreligiosity and learning related to it through those theories. Learning materials that are openly available on the internet and that have dealt with the contents of irreligion in a way that meets the research criteria have been taken into consideration. The learning materials included for example posters, calendars, and theses. A total of nine learning materials meeting the criteria were collected. In the data irreligiosity was presented as a rule simplified. All the dimensions of irreligion were represented in the materials, most common of which were the dimensions of ritual or practical and experiential or emotional. The dimensions of doctrinal or philosophical, mythic or narrative as well as ethical or legal were left to less attention. The materials primarily led to learning about irreligiosity but there was also learning from irreligiosity in four materials in the form of tasks that lead to discussion. Three of the materials included both learning about and from irreligiosity. Only one of the materials relied solely on information from irreligious people.

The aim of this thesis is understand the perception´s of special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s regarding co-teaching in integrated special group´s. The purpose of this study was to form overall picture of the benefit´s and challenge´s of co-teaching based on perception´s of these teacher´s in integrated special group´s , through three research question´s. The first research question aimed to determine the co-teaching practice´s or method´s utilized by special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s in inclusive early childhood education within integrated special education group´s. The second research question focused on identifying the factor´s that special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s perceive as facilitating co-teaching in integrated special education group´s. The third question examined the factor´s that special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s perceive as hindering co-teaching in integrated special education group´s. The theoretical section of the thesis consists of defining the concept of inclusion and reviewing previous research literature related to inclusive early childhood education, co-teaching model´s, and multiprofessional collaboration. The study was qualitative and the philosophical approach was phenomenological. Data was collected through remotely organized semi-structured theme interview´s conducted as individual interview´s. Six special early childhood teacher´s and four early childhood teacher´s participated. Data was analyzed using both abductive and inductive content analysis The research result are examined in three section according to the research question´s. The first section discusses the model´s of co-teaching used by the teacher´s in integrated special group´s within inclusive early childhood education. Co-teaching was utilized following the co-teaching model´s implemented in basic education and based on comprehensive interaction. The co-teaching between special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s was perceived as promoting inclusion. In the second section result examines factor´s that support co-teaching and third section addresses factor´s that do not support co-teaching in integrated special group´s. Shared planning and discussion time between special early education teacher and the early childhood teacher was seen as a crucial supporting factor for co-teaching. However, teacher´s found this planning and discussion time to be insufficient and too sporadic. The quality of interaction and collaboration between the teacher´s was also seen as both a supporting and challenging. factors for co-teaching. Based on the finding´s, it can be concluded that co-teaching between special early childhood teacher´s and early childhood teacher´s supports inclusive early childhood education in integrated special group´s. The teacher´s described co-teaching as full-time pedagogy, which emphasized sharing idea´s between teacher´s in multiprofessional collaboration. However, the models of co-teaching are not widely utilized, and the roles of teacher´s are often too fixed. Regular scheduling of planning and discussion time among teacher´s is necessary to maximize the benefits of co-teaching.

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the discourses of early childhood education staff enabling the participation of children with special education needs (SEN). The research questions were which interpretive repertoires can be identified in the reports describing the activities of early childhood education staff about children with SEN, what interpretive repertoires can be identified in the reports describing the own activities of early childhood education about enabling the participation of children with SEN in the reports. Previous research has shown that early childhood education staff play a key role in enabling participation. Methods. The study involved 28 volunteer early childhood professionals from different professional groups. The research request was presented in Facebook's groups for early childhood education professionals and on the researcher's own Facebook page. Participants were asked to write about a situation in which they had enabled the participation of a child in need of support. The writings were called reports. The research was based on social constructionism and the method was discourse analysis. The discourse analysis was used to interpret how the early childhood education staff talked about participation, children with SEN, and their own and other workers` subject positions. Results and conclusions. Various interpretive repertoires of children with special education needs could be identified in the reports of early childhood education staff. These were the repertoire of diagnosis, descriptive support, proportionality of challenges, neutral, supportive- interpretation repertoire. Repertoires of early childhood education staff about participation were partly tense. So, while describing ways to enable participation, they also describe other employees’ ways to enable participation which may be different. Strong repertoires of participation interpreted in early childhood education staff reports included the right to participation vs. exclusion, special pedagogy vs. non-use of special pedagogical methods, child-orientation vs. adult-orientation, multidimensionality vs. one-dimensionality. Children received different subject positions in these interpretive repertoires, which were the subject positions of the assisted vs. independent actor, the participant vs. the outsider, the successful vs. the unsuccessful. In conclusion, the need for continuing education of ECE- staff, which has emerged in previous studies, is still relevant. The multi-professional discussion on the involvement of early childhood education staff should increase in the daily life of early childhood education in order to better enable the equal participation of all children.

The purpose of this article-based master's thesis is to increase information about the well-being of early childhood education (ECE) leaders at work during the pandemic (COVID-19). The study maps leaders' experiences of supporting and challenging practices and work methods. There is barely previous research on the work well-being of ECE leaders. Perspectives related to coping at work have come to the fore eminently with the pandemic. According to previous studies during the pandemic, leaders' work well-being has been especially burdened by the increased workload. The support received from the work community and ECE organizers has promoted their work well-being during the pandemic. The data were collected with an electronic questionnaire in February 2021, and it is part of a larger survey of the University of Helsinki (Korona tuli kylään). 654 respondents from 120 Finnish municipalities participated in the study. Open questions related to work well-being were analysed by using theory-based content analysis. In the classification was used a work well-being model based on resources and innovative learning. The results showed that work-related factors, such as increased workload and challenges of human resource management most often burdened leaders' work well-being. Factors connected to the work community, such as experiences of receiving support from the work community and peer support from colleagues, most often sustained work well-being. In addition to this, the actions of the ECE organizer to provide the resources related to doing the work. Along with that, clear operating instructions often supported the leaders' ability to cope at work. When talking about challenging factors, the uncertain conditions prevailing in society due to the pandemic were emphasized. Those were reflected in the leaders' experiences of their own work well-being. Society as a classifying factor is a new dimension in relation to the model of well-being at work used in the analysis. Based on the results, it is necessary to strengthen the division of management responsibility and collegial cooperation, without forgetting the importance of the working community, to support leaders' ability to cope at work in conditions such as a pandemic. In addition, the production of clear operating instructions and joint policies by the organizer of ECE is particularly important in challenging times. The amount of work and demands should be moderated during turbulent times and more time should be given for human resource management. The study brings significant additional confirmation to previous research data on ECE leaders’ coping at work and clarify perspectives related to their well-being at work, especially during the pandemic. The results can be used in the development of a leadership culture that considers the ability of ECE leaders to cope even in challenging times. The article “Factors that support and challenge early childhood education leaders’ work well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic" is to be published in the "Työelämän tutkimus".

The goal of this research is to explore the perceptions kindergarten teachers, working with children under the age of three, have on the execution of musical education within early childhood education and its significance on a child’s overall growth, development and learning. The research is limited to concerning only the opinions of kindergarten teachers, as for the teachers work as the groups pedagogical leaders and are responsible for the planning execution of high-quality early childhood education. Musical education is included as a part of other fine arts subjects and musical expression is a typical way of functioning and thinking for a child. Music has been proven to have an influence on the development of a childs’ personality and therefor it is necessary that various ways of musical expression are supported through musical education in early childhood education. The study has been carried out as a qualitative research, in which the material has been formed with an electronic questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent with an accompanying letter to 30 early childhood education centers in the city of Helsinki. The final sample consisted of the answers of 10 kindergarten teachers. The material was analyzed by using recurring themes and finding similarities and resemblances in the answers and studying the differences. According to the results, kindergarten teachers saw musical education as a significant support for the development of linguistics within children under the age of three. Musical education was also seen as creating the feeling of secureness for the child while basic needs were attended to like in toilet and clothing situations. Music was seen as a natural form of interaction with small children. Teachers experienced musical education in their training leading up to their job as a kindergarten teacher differently. The teachers saw for example their lack of skills in accompaniment and the scarce knowledge of musical theory as a challenge for accomplishing adequate musical education.

Aims. Positive education has been developed from positive psychology to support the wellbeing of children towards their flourishing. Previous interventions have shown that methods of positive psychology have a positive correlation with human wellbeing and work engagement. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the views of early childhood education (ECE) teachers' on the effects of in-service training in positive education and comprehensive wellbeing education on themselves and their professional development. Methods. This research was conducted using qualitative methods. The research data was collected from nine (N=9) ECE teachers, with a semi-structured interview framework. The framework was constructed utilizing the general systems model of early childhood education and preschool thinking developed by Härkönen (2008). Qualitative content analysis was used to answer the research question. Results and conclusions. Qualitative content analysis revealed four main categories from the ECE teacher ́s views on the effects of in-service training, which are the following: impact on the teachers themselves, their actions, their thinking and their interactions. Three main findings were extracted from the data regarding ECE teacher ́s views on the effects of the in-service training. Firstly, there was an increase in personal growth and self-awareness. Secondly, professional development was evident in all main categories as professional growth and increased professional awareness in interaction, actions and thinking. Thirdly, all the main categories formed from the analysis were found to be systemically interconnected. The results enhance understanding of the potential of positive education to increase wellbeing among teachers in early childhood education.

Objectives. During the last couple of years, the challenges of early childhood education in terms of work engagement and staying in the field have emerged even more acutely. In particular, there’s a great shortage of qualified early childhood education teachers. This study aims to find out which factors affect early childhood education teachers' work engagement. Previous studies show the connection between teacher well-being and work engagement to the realization of high-quality early childhood education. Internal motivation is a part of coping at work and work engagement. The theoretical background of this study is based on Richard. M. Ryan’s and Edward. L. Deci's Self-Determination Theory. According to the theory, people have three basic needs: achieving a sense of competence and the experience of autonomy and relatedness. The research aims to find out whether these are realized in the work of the early childhood education teachers who answered the research questionnaire. In addition, we will look at which factors support teachers at work, whether teachers are allowed to carry out their work as they wish, what kind of work environment supports their work, and what thoughts teachers have about changing fields. Methods. The research is a qualitative survey. The research material was collected using an electronic questionnaire. Some of the questions on the form were numerical, using a Likert scale to find out the fulfillment of the basic needs of the self-determination theory, and some were open-ended. 148 early childhood education teachers answered the form. The material was analyzed using discourse analysis. The answers were divided according to the research questions into three main groups: Factors that support work and challengers to work implementation, The importance of work environment, and Early childhood education teachers' thoughts about changing fields. Results and conclusions. The research revealed that there are many challenges in the work of early childhood education teachers that challenge engagement. Resources, the role of the director, cooperation in the work community, the team and with parents, professionalism and structures are factors that support the work, but the challenges and shortcomings that appear in these, in turn, cause exhaustion and fatigue. In addition, early childhood education teachers are frustrated by the lack of appreciation from society. However, the teachers experienced a strong sense of competence, autonomy and a sense of relatedness in their work. However, most of the early childhood education teachers who participated in the study had thought about changing fields and named numerous reasons for it, which means dissatisfaction with the things that are not in order (such as sufficient resources, salary and a peaceful work environment).

The aim of the study is to support the implementation of the high-quality early childhood education by promoting work engagement and job crafting of early childhood education teachers ́ as factors of well-being at work. Early childhood education teachers ́ well-being, enthusiasm and experience of the possibilities to influence in their work are seen in this study as the key factors in high-quality early childhood education. The research questions were: what views do early childhood education teachers have on factors that promote work engagement and how do the early childhood education teachers craft their jobs? The study was carried out as a qualitative interview study as a part of a research project, which data was collected through focus group interviews. The research data consists of three focus group interviews with a total of nine early childhood education teachers. The research data was analysed using the data-driven content analysis. Based on the analysis, the results of the study formed three main categories, which described early childhood education teachers ́ factors that promote work engagement, ways of job crafting and job crafting ways that promote work engagement. The factors that promote work engagement were divided into the work practices, personal factors and children. The ways of job crafting were based on crafting the foundation of the work, interactive crafting and goal-oriented crafting. Factors that promote work engagement and job crafting ways were both divided into the upper and lower categories, which partly overlapped with each other. The third category: job crafting ways that promote work engagement, examined both research questions simultaneously. These particularly emphasized communal work and strengthening competence. As topics for further research, it is proposed to study more detail ways.

The purpose of my research is to describe the coverage of the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper regarding the shortage of early childhood education workers. I want to find out what kind of discourses are produced in Helsingin Sanomat about the shortage of early childhood education workers and how discourses construct social reality. The aim is to create a comprehensive overview of the news coverage on the shortage of workers and to structure the themes emerging from the material to answer my research questions. The shortage of early childhood education workers is severe in Finland, but also internationally. Researchers' interest in analysing the impact of the media on education and teachers has grown over the past decades. I conduct my research as a qualitative discourse study using discourse analysis as a methodological approach. My research material consists of 30 articles published in the digital online service of Helsingin Sanomat between 1 January and 15 August 2023. The results of the study have been generated by locating discourses of employee shortages that can be found in the data, examining the groups of speakers that produce them, and analysing what kind of social reality they construct. Three dominant discourses emerged from the data: the discourse of concern, the economic discourse and the social discourse, as well as six main groups of speakers: early childhood education and care staff, parents, experts, students of early childhood education and care, municipal decision-makers and politicians. The social reality of the shortage of workers was constructed on the basis of the discourses formed from the data as rather negative and critical.

The purpose of this study is to describe what kind of perspectives higher education teachers who teach early childhood education and care (ECEC) have about higher education, continuing education, and the development of the ECEC sector. Based on this, three research questions arose: What did higher education teachers say about ECEC studies and their teaching them at universities and universities of applied sciences? What kind of continuing education needs did the teachers teaching ECEC have at the university and university of applied sciences? What kind of themes did the teachers teaching ECEC at the university and university of applied sciences see as essential in developing the field of ECEC? Higher education teachers who teach ECEC are in a significant position when they educate ECEC professionals who are already working in the field and who are graduating to work in the field. The aim of the education is to produce the necessary expertise in the field, which can also be defined as one of of the determining factors of the quality of Finnish ECEC based on previous research (e.g., Karila 2016). Little research has been done in Finland on higher education teachers who train ECEC professionals. However, in the spring of 2024, Finnish Education Evaluation Centre published an evaluation of education in the ECEC sector. There were also higher education teachers who teach ECEC taking part of this evaluation. (Karila et al., 2024). The data for this thesis came from a research material based on the results of a questionnaire by the second term of the Forum for Developing Education and Training Provision and Programmes in ECEC, which operated under the Ministry of Education and Culture. The questionnaire was carried out by the forum's division of Professional competence in a changing operating environment. For the first time in Finland in the spring and summer of 2023, a questionnaire was organized for higher education teachers teaching ECEC in vocational education and higher education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Board of Education. A total of 47 university of applied science teachers from 19 universities of applied sciences and 43 university teachers from seven universities answered the questionnaire. The research was conducted qualitatively using data-driven content analysis and drawing on a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach to interpretation. The data for the thesis consisted of the results of a Finnish and Swedish-language questionnaire directed at university and university of applied sciences teachers teaching ECEC. The questionnaire consisted of four sections comprising 16 questions, mostly structured. The four sections covered background information, teaching experience and educational background, continuing education needs, and open-ended questions. This thesis focuses on the fourth, open-ended section of the questionnaire. (Publications of the Ministry of Education and Culture 2024:7.) Based on the results of the thesis, it appeared that factors related to the intensification of work is a challenge for university teachers teaching ECEC. This became evident, for example, as an increased workload due to the growing number of students studying in hybrid learning. In the universities of applied sciences, the work of teachers teaching ECEC was challenged by the unclear description of the profession of the social pedagogue of ECEC. The ambiguity of this profession description was also manifested in the conflicting perceptions of the expertise of social pedagogue of ECEC among university of applied sciences teachers. Cooperation with various collaborators, such as other early childhood education programs, the working life, and various networks, which were frequently mentioned in the data, appeared diverse and variable. Collaboration was perceived to cover a wide range different aspect, which can leave objectives, methods of operation, responsibilities, durations, and other factors unclear. Based on the data, it would be necessary to clarify the concept of collaboration in the field in the future.