1. DEVELOPING PARTICIPATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Jonna Leinonen (jonna.leinonen@helsinki.fi) Department of Teacher Education University of Helsinki http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/jonkanga/ Science day, Faculty of Behavioral Science22. 9. 2011

2. Idea of Children’s Participation  From Convention of the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) PARTICIPATION, PROTECTION AND PROVISION  From New Sociological paradigm (e.g. Corsaro, 1996; Woodhead, 2010) Child as an agent, with voice and knowledge  From Democratic education Learning to be an democratic and empowered citizen Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro

3. Participation in Early Childhood Education  Communication and interaction are parts of Participation (Clark, 2005; Greve, 2009)  Participation needs adult’s support (Berthelsen, 2006, Thomas 2002)  Child is competent actor (eg. Nyland, 2009), who has oppinions and views about her own life (eg. Pramling-Samuelson, 2001)  Getting support of initiatives and ideas, safety of learning and experiences of being important from the adults (Venninen, Leinonen & Ojala, 2010) Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro

4. VKK-Metro and Participation  VKK-Metro is a development center of ECE in Metropolitan Area of Finland  During 2009-2011 the aim was measure and portray and develop further children’s participation  Development is based on reflective practices (Ojala & Venninen, 2010)  Development was measured by survey with 102 questions (9 open ended and 93 scaled questions) answered by working teams (2-5 person in each) Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro

5. Continues… Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro  Survey explored teams attitudes, routines, ways to act (in both care and education) and teams conceptions about the barriers against participation and the facilitating participation in every day practices  Data was collected in May 2010 (based on pre- research in Jan 2010) and again in May 2011  N = 74 teams from 21 pilot day care centers  My focus is on changes in every day practices during the year of development

6. Development of supporting Participation was modeled by: Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro  Variables of Likert-type scale (from 1=Never to 5=Always) were compared between 2010 and 2011  Shier’s (2001) model of Pathways to Participation was used for dimensioning participation 5 –dimension structure about how teacher should act to facilitate children’s participation 1) children are listened 2) children are supported to express their views 3) children’s views are taken account 4) children take part in decision making process 5) children share power and responsibility in decision making

8. Children chances to take initiatives in care routines Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro

9. Reflections of children’s participation from 2011  “As early as coming to the day care centre in the morning our children have a clear idea of what he / she wants to start doing, with whom and where. It appears in children´s cheerful enthusiasm.“  “We have stood for the children of our group, bringing children´s perspectives on many issues. We have brought children´s opinions to the meetings of our work community.”  “Watching the everyday situations from a new point of view; as the situations of fertile interaction and as an opportunity to be close with the child.” Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro

10. What participation brings?  Conceptions about hearing the voice of children through their expresses of joy and communality was growing  Conceptions of children’s competence of making choices were growing  Conceptions about adults presence and interaction with children are essential part of children´s participation were growing  Conceptions about fear of sharing power with children were lowering Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro

11. Thank You for Your Attention! jonna.leinonen@helsinki.fi http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/jonkanga/ Jonna Leinonen & Tuulikki Venninen Department of Teacher Education and VKK-Metro