Browsing by Author "Tuominen, Pinja"

The aim of this study was to examine how the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) directors describe the pedagogy of children under the age of three and what significances the ECEC directors can give to the pedagogy of said children. The study focuses on analyzing how the pedagogy of under the age of three is discursively constructed by the ECEC direc-tors. Previous studies have shown that the shortcomings in the pedagogy are emphasized especially on the children under the age of three, although it is known that the early childhood phase is very intensive in the development of children. Thus, the pedagogy and discourse of the ECEC directors is very important, as it guides the whole pedagogic work culture. The methodology of this research was based on social constructionism and discourse analy-sis. The data for this master’s thesis was gathered by interviewing five municipal ECEC di-rectors from two municipalities of the southern Finland area. The interviews were conducted in 2020. A qualitative research method which utilized half-structured thematic interviews was used. The interviews were recorded and transcribed and the data was analyzed by discourse analysis. Four different discourses were formulated from the data of the first research problem, how ECEC directors describe the pedagogy of children under the age of three. The following dis-courses occurred in the research material: the whole day pedagogy, research-based, profes-sionalism and pedagogical leadership. Four different discourses were formulated from the da-ta of the second research problem occurred following four discourses: the basis of life, rights of children, sensitive interaction in the middle of the pedagogy and participation of the child. The ECEC directors described pedagogy of the children under the age of three as a unity of education and care. Furthermore, the importance of pedagogy, research basis, professional skills and pedagogic leadership was emphasized in the discussion. The sensitive interaction and participation of the children was the baseline of a good quality pedagogics. The pedagog-ics of the early childhood education was described as an important foundation of life and a privilege of the child.