Epistemic governance in local policy debates: The case of entitlement to early childhood education and care in Finland

ABSTRACT

In Finland, children below school age have enjoyed the right to attend subsidised full-time early childhood education and care (ECEC). However, the attendance rate in Finland is low in comparison to other Nordic countries. Furthermore, the entitlement was restricted to 20 h per week in 2016 unless the child’s parents work or study full-time or unless it is believed that the child will benefit from full-time ECEC. The debates concerning restrictions in ECEC entitlement in three municipal councils serve as the data for this study. By using the framework of epistemic governance, we identify three differing constructions of the ECEC’s societal functions in the municipal policy debates. The similarities and differences between these constructions aid us to understand recent changes in ECEC policies. This case illustrates how focusing on epistemic governance on local-level policy debates opens interesting insights in policy changes more generally.

KEYWORDS:

• Epistemic governance
• epistemic capital
• early childhood education
• childcare
• policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Maiju Paananen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1072-1923

Maarit Alasuutari http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4881-632X

Kirsti Karila http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6233-2615

Anna Siippainen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2845-2554

Notes

1 In Finland, institutional ECEC encompasses integrated care and education services for children aged between zero and five and pre-primary education for children aged six. Children begin primary school the year they turn seven.

2 For example, 87.4% of children in Finland aged between four and seven (the starting age of compulsory primary education) attend ECEC, while the EU average is 95% (Eurostat, 2016).

3 Finland has a strong multi-party system, with coalition governments usually formed by the largest party. Parties that are not in the national government are referred to as the opposition. Parties work in parliamentary groups in parliament, usually voting with party discipline. Parties are composed of local chapters based in municipalities. Unlike the national government, where there is a government and an opposition, municipal boards are selected proportionally based on local council elections. At the time when the restriction was made, the parties in the national government were the Centre Party, the Finns Party, and the National Coalition Party. In the opposition was the Social Democratic Party, the Green League, the Left Alliance, the Swedish People’s Party, and the Christian Democrats.

4 The number of inhabitants in the three municipalities varies from 130,000 to 230,000. There are also variations in the economic situation of the municipalities, their political strength, and various demographic factors.

5 We will use the pronoun ‘she’ when referring to councillors regardless of their gender.

6 As some readers might be interested in the political backgrounds of the representatives, we have provided information about their party affiliation at the end of the excerpts, even if we do not include the topic of party affiliation in the analysis.

7 The estimations made by municipality officials in relation to ECEC savings, assuming that all of the changes that the national legislation allowed were enacted, varied from €1.6 million to €3 million, while the total budget for each city for early childhood education services varied from €204 million to €412 million.