Browsing by Author "Lahdenperä-Laine, Jaana"

PM Sipilä’s government limited the children´s subjective right to ECE to 20 hours per week when one of the child’s parents was not working. The government bill was accepted by the parliament in December 2015, and the changes came into force on the 1st of August 2016. The aim of this research project is to explore the meanings and parlances used in committee reports to contest the government proposal. Further objectives are to recognise which groups of people form adversaries relating to matters in the context of limiting accessibility to ECE. This research also pursues to bring forth and interpret assumptions relating to the aforementioned matters in the committee reports. The research material used in this research project consists of committee reports requested by PM Sipilä’s government, regarding the alteration of the subjective right for ECE. 36 reports were analysed. The theoretical background for this research relies on Carol Bacch’s (2009) approach (What’s the problem represented to be?), which allows a problem-oriented examination of politics. The WPR approach relies on Michel Focault’s (1926-1984) post-structural analysis. The research material in this re-search project was analysed using discourse analysis. The problem with limiting access to ECE was seen as weakening varied societal purposes of the service. Impairments were identified to affect especially social policy, labour market policy and family policy. The research material contained descriptions of the decline of participants in ECE, which goes against the recommendations of the OECD, the UN, and the World Bank. Also, it was perceived that the amount of work would in-crease on the grassroot level. Adversary was detected in the research material between full-time care and part-time care, as well as the home and day care environments. The right to full-time ECE was defended by the need for the service in different minority groups, such as immigrants and single parents. The examination of the committee reports indicated that the parlances used to discuss ECE and the right to participate in the service provide repetition and tension that can be traces back in history to the very beginning of day care services. Based on the research materials it can be stated that Finnish family policy appears strongly in ECE. Child and education policy require broader discussion on the effect of the parents’ choice in the context of their child’s participation in ECE.