Johtajien arvioinnit varhaiskasvatuksen laadun prosessitekijöistä ja niiden yhteys lasten toimintaan sitoutuneisuuteen

Authors

• Vivianne Ruohola Helsingin yliopisto, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2152-5984
• Elina Fonsén Helsingin yliopisto, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2547-905X
• Leena Lahtinen Reunamo Education Research Oy
• Petra Salomaa Reunamo Education Research Oy
• Jyrki Reunamo Helsingin yliopisto, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4605-8000

Keywords:

Quality indicators for early childhood education and care, varhaiskasvatuksen laatuindikaattorit, early education centre directors, päiväkodin johtajat, observation, observointi, involvement, lasten toimintaan sitoutuneisuus

Abstract

One of the trends in childhood education in the 21st century is the rise of evaluation to support the development of the quality of early childhood education. In order to evaluate and develop the quality of ECEC, The Finnish Education Evaluation Center (FINEEC) has structured the indicators describing the quality factors of early childhood education. The research based on these quality descriptions provides information on the achievement of the set goals, the strengths of current procedures and areas of improvement. In the quality review, day care centre directors come to the fore, as previous research shows that high-quality pedagogical leadership is linked to the promotion of key goals in early childhood education. For well-targeted development, more detailed information is needed on what directors should invest in, in order to promote the quality of operations in accordance with the set goals. This study examines directors’ assessments of process factors in the quality of early childhood education and their connection to children’s involvement in activities. 258 day care centres from 15 municipalities participated in the study. The data collection carried out in 2019-2020 used two independent indicators: director’s self-assessments of the implementation of process indicators for the quality of early childhood education, and this connection to observations of children’s involvement in activities. The material consists of 14 306 observations linked to directors’ self-assessments. The method of analysis was mainly quantitative. According to the results, important perspectives of children’s involvement are, in particular, staff involvement in early childhood education curriculum, quality of teaching, the well-being of the work community, parental involvement and planning the educator teams from the perspective of the permanence of children’s interactions. Leadership has connections to children’s ability to grasp things and delve into them in the long term.