Becoming And Being an Early Childhood Professional | 1st Edition

This book highlights contemporary questions around Early Childhood Education in Finland. It explores a range of issues relating to policies and practices in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The book features many aspects of the so-called Nordic model that is evident in different practices and policies of the Finnish ECEC system. Among others topics, it discusses playful learning, storycrafting, scientific literacy, pedagogical leadership, family-related variables, and Sami language learning. The findings provide important insights into the Finnish ECEC model and illustrate relevant issues facing Finland. All of the 14 chapters present unique research and give the reader the opportunity to understand how the ECEC services during children’s early years are defined and implemented. Each chapter includes a discussion of the educational outcome and highlights critical perspectives.

This book highlights contemporary questions around Early Childhood Education in Finland. It explores a range of issues relating to policies and practices in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The book features many aspects of the so-called Nordic model that is evident in different practices and policies of the Finnish ECEC system. Among others topics, it discusses playful learning, storycrafting, scientific literacy, pedagogical leadership, family-related variables, and Sami language learning. The findings provide important insights into the Finnish ECEC model and illustrate relevant issues facing Finland. All of the 14 chapters present unique research and give the reader the opportunity to understand how the ECEC services during children’s early years are defined and implemented. Each chapter includes a discussion of the educational outcome and highlights critical perspectives.

This book provides significant information regarding the policies and provisions for early childhood teacher education programs in universities in fourteen different countries. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is expanding rapidly across the globe with unprecedented numbers of children attending EC centres, requiring the investment in educators to provide good quality ECEC. Yet, there is an inconsistent approach to early childhood teacher preparation and the quality of existing programs is not known.