scholarly journals Working with children with special needs in Finnish kindergartens: Professionals and/or specialists?

Author(s):  
Mari Nislin ◽  
Maiju Paananen ◽  
Laura Repo ◽  
Nina Sajaniemi ◽  
Margaret Sims

The aim is to investigate the links between job satisfaction of Finnish early childhood professionals (ECPs) and the appreciation they receive for their work, and how these are associated with their competence to work with children with diverse needs and backgrounds. Data was collected via nationwide online survey for practitioners (<em>n</em> = 885) working in Finnish kindergartens. The main findings show that ECPs experience their work as satisfactory and receive appreciation from colleagues, friends and the children’s parents. It was also evident form the data that ECPs felt themselves to be incompetent to work with children with disabilities or children who had experienced trauma. This may reflect that more in-service training regarding these special education issues is needed. We argue that satisfaction, appreciation and competence, are key factors in the development of a strong professional identity, enhanced well-being at work and in other domains of life and particularly for high quality and inclusive early childhood education.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1476718X2094294
Author(s):  
Iris Lamb

Research highlights the importance of inclusive and culturally responsive teaching. This study sought to understand to what extent Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) in Southern Ontario, upon graduation from their pre-service programmes, feel they are prepared for teaching Indigenous students and supporting Indigenous families in an inclusive, culturally relevant environment. The study took a pragmatist, two-phase approach which consisted of a document review of Ontario Early Childhood Education college programmes, followed by an online survey in which recently graduated Early Childhood Educators were asked about their college experiences regarding education in Indigenous Studies. Of the 23 examined colleges, only 1, or 4.34 per cent, offered a mandatory course in Indigenous Studies, and of the 34 surveyed Early Childhood Educators, only 8.82 per cent indicated they felt that their pre-service training sufficiently prepared them for teaching Indigenous students. Consequently, there appears to be a gap in Early Childhood Education pre-service training regarding Indigenous awareness and education. This study recommends that more research be conducted in this specific area, as the sample size for both phases of this study was small, and the apparent correlation does not equal causation; nevertheless, the resulting data from this study are alarming and provide an impetus for further research.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anette Boye Koch

Abstract: Danish early childhood professionals (pedagogues) are responsible for the well-being of all children in their care, but it is not clear what well-being implies. The article presents an analysis showing how pedagogues observe and categorize the well-being in children. Well-being is a state that pedagogues recognize by using special' seeing-techniques', related to their ideas of how children are supposed to behave in a certain context. The body of a child is culturally created, depending on the indoor or outdoor surroundings. The ideal of a happy child is an attuned child, who is able to adapt to adult expectations, while the physical surroundings are co-determining what the pedagogues 'see'.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 637-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merete Moe ◽  
Anne B. Reinertsen

A threshold situation is a kind of crisis of, for example, deteriorating health. Fall 2014, a project was conducted, focusing on writing for well-being with a former employee and leader at an Early Childhood Education and Care, now on long-term sick leave. Here is her story and poem; her writings/Sis. Our stories and theory/practice/data/interpretive poems; our writings/Merete and Anne: Our companionship, company, and compassion: Sis/Merete/Anne.Com . We aim at Deleuze and Guattarian safespace writing. In modern working life participation, empowerment, governance, and self-leadership is considered vital for creating good psychosociological work environments. Foucault’s concept governmentality aims to elucidate how we are created as subjects, looking at how we are governed by others and by ourselves according to norms and expectations in organizations, society, and from ourselves. We think with poetry to open up, explore, and fabulate. We call it poeticalization and storying and work and worlds and words or rather work/world/word/making/melding/mattering/Sis/Merete/Anne: www.mmm.com .


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
Usnul Umi Miftahurrohmah ◽  
◽  
Hasan Hariri ◽  
Riswanti Rini ◽  
Rohmatillah Rohmatillah ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the ideal quality of inclusive early childhood education, an effective leadership style and five practices of exemplary leadership. Research methodology: This is a review article. The review process began with a search engine (Google Scholar) to search and review early childhood education and leadership articles. Results: The results suggest that it is important to hold quality inclusive early childhood educations since, in this level of education, six developmental areas are well stimulated. The key success of maintaining quality inclusive early childhood education is a collaboration among education parties (government, school, parents and community). A school needs a principal who can perform five exemplary leadership practices to help “Golden Indonesia 2045” become true. Limitations: First, the scope of articles reviewed is still very limited to the literature review in the Indonesian context. This and other limitations will be opportunities for further empirical studies about five practices of exemplary leadership in the Indonesian education area. Contribution: This study can be useful for the early childhood education level.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-37
Author(s):  
Runumi Sharma ◽  
Mamta Aswal

Bertrand Russell’s educational thoughts significantly deal with reforming education for school going children and he also supported pre-primary education. He favored early childhood education for physical, intellectual and character development. His emphasis on character development of a child shows the significance of early years of life for development of an individual. This paper aims at exploring Bertrand Russell’s thoughts on early childhood education. It is an attempt to understand the significance of early childhood education for the holistic development of the children. Though there are early childhood education is prevalent in our country, but it was not mandatory to get early childhood education till the approval of National Education Policy (N.E.P., 2020). It has included early childhood education in compulsory school education for promoting better learning and well being of a child. It is a qualitative research in which historical method has been used where data has been collected from primary and secondary sources. The finding of the study shows that Bertrand Russell’sthought on early childhood education is relevant in present Indian context for developing good values, physical and mental development as well as in future learning. This shows that the encouragement to early childhood education and Bertrand Russell’s thoughts on early childhood education would be helpful for holistic development of children.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (75) ◽  
pp. 958
Author(s):  
Iram Siraj ◽  
Steven J. Howard ◽  
Denise Kingston ◽  
Cathrine Neilsen‑Hewett ◽  
Edward C. Melhuish ◽  
...  

<p>Este estudo analisa as associações entre as pontuações provenientes de processos regulatórios de avaliação da qualidade da educação infantil australiana (Early Childhood Education and Care – ECEC) do National Quality Standard (NQS)2 e das duas escalas de avaliação de qualidade (SSTEW – Sustained Shared Thinking and Well Being; e ECERS-E – Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Extension). A amostra consiste em 257 unidades de ECEC em três estados australianos. Os resultados indicaram: associações positivas modestas entre as pontuações do NQS e das escalas; alguma especificidade entre as áreas de qualidade do NQS (aspectos do projeto e práticas pedagógicas para as crianças; relações com crianças) e de uma escala de avaliação – a SSTEW; variabilidade das pontuações das escalas de qualidade dentro de cada classificação do NQS; e atenuação dessas associações quando  o tempo  entre  as avaliações  ultrapassa  24 meses. As conclusões sugerem que o NQS e as escalas de avaliação indicam um núcleo comum de qualidade, mas capturam aspectos diferentes da qualidade, sugerindo que ambos poderiam ser usados para melhorar os padrões de qualidade nas pré-escolas australianas, onde as escalas de avaliação potencializam a qualidade ainda mais do que o NQS.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave:</strong> National Quality Standard, ECERS-E, SSTEW, Qualidade, Pré-Escola, Regulamentação</p><p> </p><p><strong>Comparando índices regulatorios y no regulatorios de calidad de la educación infantil en Australia</strong></p><p>Este estudio analiza las asociaciones entre los puntajes provenientes de procesos regulatorios   de evaluación de la calidad de la educación infantil australiana (Early Childhood Education and Care – ECEC) del National Quality Standard (NQS) y de las dos escalas de evaluación de calidad (SSTEW – Sustained Shared Thinking and Well Being; y ECERS-E – Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Extended). La muestra consiste en 257 unidades de ECEC en tres estados de Australia. Los resultados indicaron: asociaciones positivas modestas entre los puntajes del NQS y de las escalas; alguna especificidad entre las áreas de calidad del NQS (aspectos del proyecto y prácticas pedagógicas para los niños; relaciones con niños) y una escala de evaluación –  la SSTEW; variabilidad de los puntajes de las escalas de calidad dentro de cada clasificación del NQS; y atenuación de dichas asociaciones siempre que el tiempo entre las evaluaciones supera los 24 meses. Las conclusiones sugieren que el NQS y las escalas de evaluación indican un núcleo común de calidad, pero capturan aspectos distintos de la calidad, lo que sugiere que ambos se podrían utilizar para mejorar los estándares de calidad en el sistema preescolar australiano, en el que las escalas de evaluación potencian todavía más la calidad que el NQS.</p><p><strong>Palabras clave:</strong> National Quality Standard, ECERS-E, SSTEW, Calidad, Sistema Preescolar, Reglamentación</p><p> </p><p><strong>Comparing regulatory and non-regulatory indices of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) quality in the Australian early childhood sector</strong></p><p>This study examines associations between Australia’s regulatory ratings of quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) – the National Quality Standard (NQS) – and two research-based quality rating scales. The analytic sample consisted of 257 ECEC services across three Australian states. Results indicated (1) modest positive associations between NQS ratings and scale scores; (2) some specificity between NQS quality areas (educational programs and practice; relationships with children) and one research scale – the Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) scale; (3) variability in quality scales scores within each NQS designation; and (4) mitigation of these associations when the time-gap between ratings exceeded 24 months. Findings suggest NQS and research scales tap some common core of quality, yet capture different aspects of quality, suggesting both could be used to raise standards of quality in Australian preschools, where the research scales potentiate raising quality to even higher levels than NQS.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: National Quality Standard, ECERS-E, SSTEW, Quality, Preschool, Regulation</p>


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