From university to working life: an analysis of field-based studies in early childhood teacher education and recently graduated kindergarten teachers’ transition to work

Abstract

The aim of this article was to shed light on problematic issues related to the practical element in early childhood teacher education. We approach these questions mainly through scrutinizing and interpreting this part of kindergarten teachers’ university education in Finland. We then expand our analysis to include the broader issues of job commitment and the role of mentoring programmes among newly qualified kindergarten teachers. With the ‘kindergarten teacher as researcher’ as the chosen teacher model, our findings indicate that this aim can only be realistically achieved if all stages of the teacher education process are effectively linked. Key elements begin with the entry requirements for students and include productively connecting practicum experiences with on-campus courses, establishing a ‘double supervision model’, and cooperating with a stable network of early childhood centres for field studies. A further finding is that, despite a successfully completed professional education, the induction phase in the workplace can be a vulnerable time for novice teachers, suggesting an urgent need for mentoring programmes.

Keywords:

• kindergarten teacher education
• field-based studies
• induction phase
• peer-group mentoring

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a country report written for a cross-national study on ‘Workplace-based learning and mentoring practices in early childhood teacher education in Europe’, coordinated by Pamela Oberhuemer (Munich, Germany) for WiFF (Weiterbildungsinitiative Frühpädagogische Fachkräfte). The Early Years Professional Development Initiative WiFF was launched in 2009 as a joint project of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF), the Robert Bosch Foundation (Robert Bosch Stiftung) and the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut). It is funded by the BMBF and the European Social Fund (ESF) of the European Union. The full-text report in German can be downloaded at: http://www.weiterbildungsinitiative.de/publikationen.

Notes

1. As a Finnish specialty, there is also a second route to becoming a kindergarten teacher: social pedagogues with a polytechnic degree are also considered – with some restrictions – as competent kindergarten teachers. However, since the content of their studies differs considerably from the studies of university-trained kindergarten teachers, social pedagogues are not included in this article.

2. These figures are largely based on material collected through a questionnaire sent (2014) to the six universities providing kindergarten teacher education outside Helsinki.

3. Jyrhämä refers to experiences of primary school teacher education but both the structure and experiences are similar to those of kindergarten teacher education at the University of Helsinki.