ERIC Number: EJ1150680
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0300-4430
EISSN: N/A
From Universalism to Selectivity? The Background, Discourses and Ideas of Recent Early Childhood Education and Care Reforms in Finland
Early Child Development and Care, v187 n10 p1543-1556 2017
Universal public childcare for children under seven has been central in Finland since the mid-1990s, capacitating both gender equality and children's human capital and wellbeing. In 2015, as a further step in the development of this system, early learning and childhood pedagogy was strengthened through the early childhood education and care (ECEC) reform (statute 580/2015). Some months later, however, the right to full-day ECEC was restricted to children with employed parents (statute 108/2016). This paper discusses the objectives, framing and ideational drivers of these reforms on the basis of government bills and parliamentary debates. We argue that the development reflects a shift in emphasis from a universal and child-oriented social mobility ECEC rationale to a more austere rationale focussing on parents' and notably mothers' employment. We believe that the reforms will have negative effects on the quality of ECEC and increase inequalities in children's human capital and learning.
Descriptors: Access to Education, Early Childhood Education, Child Care, Foreign Countries, Human Capital, Well Being, Teaching Methods, Educational Change, Employed Parents, Public Policy, Social Mobility, Sex Fairness, Mothers, Educational Quality, Qualitative Research, Content Analysis, Policy Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Finland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A