Finnish and Greek early childhood teachers’ perspectives and practices in supporting children’s autonomy

ABSTRACT

Kindergarten teachers from different cultural backgrounds attribute various meanings to children’s autonomy. There seems to be cultural differences in early childhood education curricula with regard to how a child’s autonomy is described and how it is supported. This qualitative study asks: how do teachers narrate their perspective and pedagogical support of children’s autonomy, and what kinds of similarities and differences in the pedagogy and practices can be found in Finnish and Greek early childhood education (ECEC) contexts? The data of this qualitative study consist of a semi-structured questionnaire of 14 kindergarten teachers and observations of their pedagogical practices in the day care groups of 4- to 5-year-old children. The results suggest that teachers’ overall conception of autonomy was identical, but the different cultural contexts and curriculums affected the way the teachers emphasized and valued different dimensions of autonomy.

KEYWORDS:

• Autonomy
• autonomy support
• early childhood education
• teachers’ pedagogical practices
• cultural differences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Merja Koivula http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2980-0031

Athanasios Gregoriadis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3026-6614

Erja Rautamies http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8024-6267

Vasilis Grammatikopoulos http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7556-6162

Notes on contributors

Merja Koivula is a Post-doctoral Researcher, in early childhood education. She works in the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. Koivula teaches courses on child development, and play, and supervises student thesis. Furthermore, she trains teachers in the day care centres to support children's social-emotional development. Her research interests include young children's social-emotional development, the development of sense of community and collaborative learning of young children, the use of digital technologies in preschool, digital play and pedagogical practices in context of early childhood education.

Athanasios Gregoriadis is an Assistant Professor in Early Years at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In the past, he was a visiting professor in the University of Bielefeld and a visiting research fellow in the University of Oxford. His main research interests include teacher-child relationships, quality of early education environments, professional development, and the support of home learning environments. He has participated in several international research projects funded by the EU and has published several peer reviewed articles and books.

Erja Rautamies, M.A.(Psych.), is a Ph.D. Candidate, in early childhood education. Rautamies works as a University Teacher in the Faculty of Education and Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä. Her teaching responsibilities are focused on development and well-being of children, and early years pedagogy. Her current research interests include educational partnership with the parents of a child with difficulties in self-regulation.

Vasilis Grammatikopoulos is an Assistant Professor in Educational Evaluation at the University of Crete, School of Education, Department of Preschool Education, Greece. Previously, he was Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the Liverpool Hope University, UK and University of Macedonia, Greece. He was also Academic Scholar at the University of Thessaly, Greece for nine years. He has participated in numerous funded national and international research projects, and his main research interests include educational evaluation, early childhood education evaluation, evaluation of physical activity in early childhood education. He has great experience in pre- and in-service teacher training, as he has taught in many training courses. He has published over 30 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals and is a member of the American Evaluation Association and American Educational Research Association.