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Forty years of Finnish pre‐school education: the development of curricula between 1972 and 2000
Author(s) -
Turunen Tuija A.,
Määttä Kaarina,
Uusiautti Satu
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the curriculum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1469-3704
pISSN - 0958-5176
DOI - 10.1080/09585176.2012.731010
Subject(s) - curriculum , context (archaeology) , pedagogy , school education , curriculum development , sociology , mathematics education , medical education , psychology , medicine , geography , archaeology
Since 2001 in Finland, all six year olds have had the right to free pre‐school education, and almost all pre‐school‐aged children take advantage of this opportunity. The purpose of this article is to dissect the development of Finnish pre‐school education curricula within the societal context and within the changes in trends of curriculum planning between 1972 and 2000. The study analysed five curricula texts through qualitative content analysis by paying attention to the functions of pre‐school education and the positioning of children and educators. The development of pre‐school education consisted of four phases: (1) the era of pre‐school education trials; (2) the era of heterogeneous pre‐school education arrangements; (3) the era of changes in curriculum policies; and (4) the era of pre‐school education establishment. The results indicated that the changes in pre‐school education curricula related to the changes in Finnish society and in basic education.