Skip to main content

Widening Text Worlds in Finnish Early Childhood Education

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care

Abstract

The focus of this chapter is on multiliteracies and widening text worlds in early childhood education (ECE) in Finland. The concept of multiliteracies refers to an understanding of multiple texts (both analogue and digital) in multiple platforms with multiple contexts. In this chapter, the following questions are explored: How can we find a good balance in widening text worlds? How can we decide what texts to use in an early childhood education context, and how can we develop a pedagogy of multiliteracies? In the Finnish ECE perspective, multiliteracies are considered to promote educational equality among children. This chapter clarifies the concept of multiliteracies in ECE and construes how and why it will widen the text worlds and promote equality in early childhood education learning. Based on this understanding, some of the pedagogical principles that can be applied to early childhood education in support of young children’s multiliteracies thinking and practices will be presented at the end of this chapter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Barnett-Page, E., & Thomas, J. (2009). Methods for the synthesis of qualitative research: A critical review. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 9(59). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-9-59

  • Bergen, D. (2002). The role of pretend play in children’s cognitive development. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 4, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, F., & Brock, C. (2015). Social diversity within multiliteracies: Complexity in teaching and learning. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnett, C., & Merchant, G. (2018). Affective encounters: Enchantment and the possibility of reading for pleasure. Literacy, 52(2), 62–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnett, C., & Merchant, G. (2020). Literacy-as-event: Accounting for relationality in literacy research. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 41(1), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1460318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnett, C., Merchant, G., & Neumann, M. M. (2020). Closing the gap? Overcoming limitations in sociomaterial accounts of early literacy. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(1), 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798419896067

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnett, C., Merchant, G., Pahl, K., & Rowsell, J. (2014). The (im)materiality of literacy: The significance of subjectivity to new literacies research. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 35(1), 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2012.739469

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). “Multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/15544800903076044

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenwick, T., Edwards, R., & Sawchuk, P. (2011). Emerging approaches to educational research: Tracing the sociomaterial. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finnish National Agency for Education (FNAE). (2014a). Esiopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2014. [National Core Curriculum for Pre-Primary Education 2014].

    Google Scholar 

  • Finnish National Agency for Education (FNAE). (2014b). Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2014 [National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014].

    Google Scholar 

  • Finnish National Agency for Education (FNAE). (2018). Varhaiskasvatussuunnitelman perusteet. Määräykset ja ohjeet 2018:3a [National Core Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care 2018].

    Google Scholar 

  • Garvey, C. (1993). Play. Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, B. (1988). Subject-specific literacy and school learning: A focus on writing. Australian Journal of Education, 32(2), 156–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hackett, A., MacLure, M., & Pahl, K. (2020). Literacy and language as material practices: Re-thinking social inequality in young children’s literacies. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(1), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420904909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hackett, A., & Rautio, P. (2019). Answering the world: Young children’s running and rolling as more-than-human multimodal meaning making. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(8), 1019–1031. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1635282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hull, G. A., & Nelson, M. E. (2005). Locating the semiotic power of multimodality. Written Communication, 22(2), 224–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088304274170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaarakainen, S.-S., & Kaarakainen, M.-T. (2018). Tulevaisuuden toivot – Digitaalisten medioiden käyttö nuorten osallisuuden ja osaamisen lähteenä. Media & Viestintä, 41(4). https://doi.org/10.23983/mv.77458

  • Kress, G. (1997). Before writing: Rethinking the paths to literacy. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. Routledge Falmer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality. A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. RoutledgeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kress, G. (2011). Multimodal discourse analysis. In The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuby, C., & Rowsell, J. (2017). Early literacy and the posthuman: Pedagogies and methodologies. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 17(3), 285–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798417715720

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumpulainen, K. (2018). A principled, personalised, trusting and child-centric ECEC system in Finland. In S. L. Kagan (Ed.), The early advantage 1: Early childhood systems that Lead by example (pp. 72–98). Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumpulainen, K., Byman, J., Renlund, J., & Wong, C. C. (2020a). Children's augmented storying in, with and for nature. Education Sciences, 10(6), 149. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10060149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumpulainen, K., Sairanen, H., & Nordström, A. (2020b). Young children’s digital literacy practices in the sociocultural contexts of their homes. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468798420925116

  • Kumpulainen, K., Sintonen, S., Vartiainen, J., Sairanen, H., Nordström, A., Byman, J., & Renlund, J. (2018). Playful parts: The joy of learning multiliteracies. Helsinki.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson, J., & Marsh, J. (2013). Preface. In J. Larson & J. Marsh (Eds.), The sage handbook of early childhood literacy (pp. xxix–xxxi). Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Leander, K., & Boldt, G. (2013). Rereading “a pedagogy of multiliteracies”: Bodies, texts, and emergence. Journal of Literacy Research, 45, 22–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leander, K., & Ehret, C. (2019). Affect in literacy learning and teaching: Pedagogies, politics and coming to know. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh, J. (2010). Young children’s play in online virtual worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8(1), 23–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mertala, P. (2018). Lost in translation? Huomioita suomalaisten opetussuunnitelmien monilukutaito-käsitteen tutkimuksellisista ja pedagogisista haasteista. Media & viestintä, 41(1), 107–116. https://journal.fi/mediaviestinta/article/view/69921

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. W., & McKenna, M. C. (2016). World literacy: How countries rank and why it matters. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Foy, P., & Hooper, M. (2017). PIRLS 2016 international results in Reading. TIMSS & PIRLS international study center, Boston College. Retrieved from: http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/international- results/.

  • New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–93. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niemi, H., & Nevgi, A. (2014). Research studies and active learning promoting professional competences in Finnish teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 43, 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.07.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordström, A., Kumpulainen, K., & Potter, J. (2019). Positive affect in young children’s multiliteracies learning endeavours. In K. Kumpulainen & J. Sefton-Green (Eds.), Multiliteracies and early years innovation: Perspectives from Finland and beyond. Routledge research in early childhood education (pp. 166–182). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429432668-10

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Palsa, L., & Mertala, P. (2019). Multiliteracies in local curricula: Conceptual contextualizations of transversal competence in the Finnish curricular framework. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 5(2), 114–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2019.1635845

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palsa, L., & Ruokamo, H. (2015). Behind the concepts of multiliteracies and media literacy in the renewed Finnish core curriculum: A systematic literature review of peer-reviewed research. seminar.net, 11(2) Retrieved from https://journals.hioa.no/index.php/seminar/article/view/2354

  • Plowman, L., McPake, J., & Stephen, C. (2012). Extending opportunities for learning: The role of digital media in early education. In S. Suggate & E. Reese (Eds.), Contemporary debates in child development and education (pp. 95–104). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pramling Samuelsson, I., & Asplund Carlsson, M. (2008). The playing learning child: Towards a pedagogy of early childhood. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 52(6), 623–641. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313830802497265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sairanen, H., Kangas, J., & Sintonen, S. (2019). Finnish teachers making sense of and promoting multiliteracies in early years education. In K. Kumpulainen & J. Sefton-Green (Eds.), Multiliteracies and early years innovation: Perspectives from Finland and beyond (pp. 42–60). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429432668

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sairanen, H., Kumpulainen, K., & Kajamaa, A. (2020). An investigation into children's agency: children's initiatives and practitioners’ responses in Finnish early childhood education. Early Child Development and Care. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2020.1739030

  • Serafini, F., & Gee, E. (2017). Remixing multiliteracies. Theory and practice from New London to new times. Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Street, B. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1976). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. In J. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play: Its role in development and evolution (pp. 76–99). Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Välijärvi, J., & Sulkunen, S. (2016). Finnish school in international comparison. In H. Niemi, A. Toom, & A. Kallioniemi (Eds.), Miracle of education. The principles and practices of teaching and learning in Finnish schools (pp. 3–23). Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Nordström .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Nordström, A., Sairanen, H., Byman, J., Renlund, J., Sintonen, S. (2022). Widening Text Worlds in Finnish Early Childhood Education. In: Harju-Luukkainen, H., Kangas, J., Garvis, S. (eds) Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care . Early Childhood Research and Education: An Inter-theoretical Focus, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95512-0_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95512-0_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-95511-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-95512-0

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics