Responding to Children's Initiatives in Finnish Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Early Learning Experiences

Abstract

In this study, we investigate children’s initiatives and early childhood education practitioners’ responses to them. Drawing on sociocultural theorizing, this investigation was performed within the context of children’s initiatives and negotiations of adult-child interactions within a children’s agency. Video data were collected using participatory methods from a Finnish early childhood education center. The data were analyzed inductively with an interaction analysis method. The initiatives taken by the children consisted of ideating, suggesting, asking a question, questioning, and refusing and the responses to these from the ECE practitioners included accepting, adapting, accepting by rejection, and rejecting or ignoring. The findings demonstrate how the ECE practitioner’s responsiveness to children’s initiatives relates to promotion and hindering of children’s agency in early childhood education.

Authors

• Heidi Sairanen, University of Helsinki

• Kristiina P. Kumpulainen, University of Helsinki

• Anu Kajamaa, University of Helsinki